Job interviews

[Ted Striker]

Big Crunch what type of jobs are you interviewing for?

BS skills are only necessary if you want to be a manager. Seriously.

[LTEC!]

Tell them you were self-employed in a related field. No need to prove what you were doing with your time.

[Alexander's Horse]

Tell them you were trainspotting.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by LTEC!
Tell them you were self-employed in a related field. No need to prove what you were doing with your time.

Around here, if you assert to be a freelancer, you'd better have some sort of documents backing that.

[Alexander's Horse]

In mexico you just manufacture some.

[Q Classic]

tell them that you were bringing education and order to the lawless frontiers in the world.

if they ask where, just say appoliton, greece.

[Saras]

A collection of investment banking interview questions compiled by Georgetown MBA graduates:


1. Investment Banking
1.1. Tell me what role you would play as an Associate staffed on a deal.
1.2. Does the lifestyle of an investment banker concern you?
1.3. Why do you want to take on the hours required of an IB?
1.4. Tell me how you handle pressure.
1.5. If you had your choice of any deal at the bank this summer what kind of deal would you pick and why?
1.6. What other firms are you looking at?
1.7. What is a bulge bracket firm?
1.8. Tell me what Glass-Steagall means to me as a capital market participant?
1.9. How would you say _______ firm compares to these firms?
1.10. Tell me three industry trends and describe them briefly?
1.11. Why have you chosen investment banking?
1.12. Why would you be a good banker?
1.13. What is the role of an investment bank?
1.14. Describe the next decade’s financial-services firm.
1.15. What might go wrong and why?
1.16. What are the biggest challenges for I-Bankers in Europe or Asia right now?
1.17. The stock you’ve been recommending and your clients have been buying is tanking. How do you handle it?
1.18. What do you know about M&A? IPOs? Treasury Bonds? Tech stocks? Junk Bonds? Corporate Bonds? Currency?
1.19. What industry or product, if anything in particular, interests you?
1.20. What do you view as the key success factors in handling the difficult lifestyle of an investment banker?
1.21. How long do you anticipate working in investment banking following graduation?
1.22. What professional experience do you have that would make you a good investment banker?
1.23. What would be the biggest challenge to you about investment banking?
1.24. The biggest reward?
2. Industry
2.1. What industry interests you?
2.2. How would you help a client in that industry address those challenges if you were an I-Banker at ___?
2.3. How did you become interested in this industry?
2.4. What are the biggest challenges facing the financial services industry?
2.5. How should these challenges be addressed?
2.6. What is a tombstone?
2.7. What is a roadshow?
2.8. What is bulge bracket?
3. Firm Specific
3.1. Why our firm?
3.2. What about you might be a disadvantage to the firm?
3.3. If this firm didn’t exist, who would be at the top of your list and why?
3.4. What are this firm’s biggest challenges in the next 18 months?
3.5. Describe the work you’d like to do at this firm.
3.6. What would you like to be doing over the long term?
3.7. What type of individual would best balance you on a team?
3.8. Do you think you are a good fit with this firm? Why?
3.9. What type of individual would be a good mentor for you at this firm?
3.10. Why are you the perfect candidate for this firm?
3.11. How does a job with this firm fit into your long-term career plans?
3.12. What are three things about this firm that differentiate it from its competitors?
3.13. How long would it take you to make a contribution to our firm?
3.14. Why would this firm want you? What will you contribute?
3.15. Discuss any special interests and how working at this firm will help you pursue it/them.
3.16. If we were reviewing your performance after six months, what would our evaluation say?
4. Finance
4.1. How do you value a public company?
4.2. How do you value a private company?
4.3. What are comparables? How are they used?
4.4. What is cost of capital?
4.5. What is beta?
4.6. What is cost of equity? How do you estimate it?
4.7. What is cost of debt? How do you estimate it?
4.8. Explain how a currency swap works, and why a firm might want to buy one?
4.9. Explain how an interest rate swap works, and why a firm might want to buy one?
4.10. Walk me through a discounted cash flow analysis.
4.11. What is the difference between Net income and EBITDA and Free Cash Flow? Why do these differences matter, i.e., when would one measure be more useful than another?
4.12. What is a risk-free rate? Which would you use in valuing a stock?
4.13. What are on-the-run issues?
4.14. What is an option?
4.15. What makes an option more valuable?
4.16. What is the biggest debt market by product in the US?
4.17. What is the most liquid debt market in the world?
4.18. What country has the most outstanding government debt?
4.19. What is convexity?
4.20. What is liquidity and why is it important?
4.21. What is a derivative and how does it work?
4.22. What is notional principal?
4.23. What is a “flight to quality”? Where do these investors go?
4.24. What are the key risks in investing in bonds?
4.25. What is a stock?
4.26. Why might a stock be extremely volatile in the short term? Name a few examples.
4.27. Tell me about a few stocks you follow.
4.28. Who oversees the stock market?
4.29. What is the DJIA?
4.30. Tell me about a few M&A deals going on? IPOs? Bond issues?
4.31. What is an institutional investor?
4.32. Who would you say is the most influential government official vis a vis the economy?
4.33. What does the Fed do?
4.34. What is disintermediation?
4.35. How does compounding work?
4.36. What is a hedge fund? Why are they interesting?
4.37. Where is the US trade deficit?
4.38. Budget deficit?
4.39. What is PPI and where does it stand?
4.40. What is CPI and where does it stand?
4.41. What is ECI and where does it stand?
4.42. What are the most recent unemployment figures?
4.43. What are the most recent productivity figures?
4.44. What is the difference between McCauley and modified duration?
4.45. Where is gold? Why do we care?
4.46. What is a credit crunch?
4.47. What types of information would you look for to value a foreign company?
4.48. Why might a technology company stock be more highly valued in the market (P/E) than a steel company stock?
4.49. What is the difference between a senior and junior bondholder?
4.50. What is a bond? Explain a few of its features.
4.51. What is the difference between preferred and common stock?
4.52. How does the yield curve work? What does it mean when it’s upward sloping?
4.53. What is securitization?
4.54. What do think is going to happen with interest rates over the next 6 months?
4.55. What do you find most difficult in Finance?
4.56. Forecast the Dow
4.57. Forecast the NASDAQ
4.58. Forecast the Long Bond
5. SCHOOL
5.1. How are you doing in your quantitative classes?
5.2. Why should I hire you and not a classmate?
5.3. How would your Georgetown colleagues describe you?
5.4. How has B-School changed you?
5.5. What courses are you doing the best/worst in?
5.6. How has B-School met or failed to meet your expectations?
5.7. What have you learned at business school that will help you on this job?
5.8. What makes you stand out among your peers?
5.9. What is the most important thing that you have learned in the past 2 years?
5.10. Why did Georgetown choose you?
5.11. Why did you choose Georgetown?
5.12. What is your focus at Georgetown?
5.13. Why did you choose an MBA?
5.14. What courses did you like best at school?
5.15. What courses did you like worst at school?
5.16. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?
5.17. What do you like most/least about Georgetown?
6. Personal
6.1. What do you do for fun?
6.2. What is most important to you?
6.3. Is there anything that we did not cover that you would like to tell me?
6.4. Tell me why you are the best candidate for this job?
6.5. What are the major criteria that you will use to select an employer?
6.6. Give an example of working with someone from another background or nationality. What problems did you have and how did you try to resolve them?
6.7. How many “stars” have you worked with in the past? How do you deal with this type of personality?
6.8. How do you cope with change? Give some examples.
6.9. Are you willing to accept an international assignment? Is there anything that would prevent you from accepting an international assignment (for example, spouse's job, etc.)
6.10. Where do you expect to be in 5 years? 10 years?
6.11. Why aren’t you pursuing consulting?
6.12. If you couldn’t be a banker what would you do? In your opinion, what are the essential qualities of leadership?
6.13. Why do you want to be in [NAME YOUR CITY]?
6.14. How comfortable are you with ambiguity?
6.15. Describe a past experience that required a significant level of commitment or personal sacrifice? Would you be willing to do it all over again?
6.16. Are you prepared to work 80 hrs a week?
6.17. How have you ever exhibited such dedication in the past?
6.18. What is your greatest weakness?
6.19. What might a study or peer group say are your biggest weaknesses? Strengths?
6.20. Describe a difficult period in your life where you had to thoroughly rethink a situation.
6.21. What did you learn from it?
6.22. What would you do differently?
6.23. Talk a bit about prestige and what its perceived and real values are. How do you feel about it personally?
6.24. Describe an ethical problem you faced recently and how you dealt with it. How did others also affected by the situation feel about your decision?
6.25. How well do you work with a team? How do you balance ego, competitiveness, cooperation, and compromise?
6.26. How would you research the answer to:
6.27. How many people in the US eat pineapples?
6.28. How many homes in CA have swimming pools?
6.29. Have you ever worked for a very large bureaucratic organization?
6.30. If yes, how did you like it?
6.31. If no, how would you deal with it if you did?
6.32. How do you organize your time when you have three or four simultaneous and important deadlines?
6.33. How do you react under pressure?
6.34. Who do you admire?
6.35. What is the one thing that really defines you?
6.36. Tell me about one of your failures.
6.37. Why are you here today?
6.38. What quality do you wish you possessed?
6.39. If our firm were to give you a job offer, what would your top three selection criteria be?
6.40. Are you interested in being a generalist or a specialist?
6.41. What do you look for in a job?
6.42. Why are you the best person for this job?
6.43. Why is this the best job for you?
6.44. What has been your biggest setback?
6.45. What is your passion?
6.46. What is the most important decision you have made?
6.47. What is the most difficult decision you have made?
6.48. How would your friends describe you?
6.49. What leadership roles have you had?
6.50. How would you rank your personal skills along the following dimensions and why:
6.51. Writing?
6.52. Logic?
6.53. Verbal/speaking?
6.54. Technical/quantitative?
6.55. How do you measure success?
6.56. If you were a speaker at a $1,000 a plate dinner, what would you tell the audience about yourself?
6.57. How do you rank amongst your peers?
6.58. What is the last book you read? What is your favorite book?
6.59. Name a significant success
6.60. Work (what financial or other impacts have these had?)
6.61. Personal
6.62. How did you achieve these successes and with whom?
6.63. What have you done to show your willingness to work hard?
6.64. What have you done to show your willingness to take initiative?
6.65. What have you done to show your willingness to innovate?
6.66. What have you done to show your willingness to exceed expectations?
6.67. Describe your relationship with your superiors?
6.68. What attributes would your ideal job include?
6.69. What were the two most important decisions you made in your life?
6.70. What were your most important successes/failures? How were you rated. What did they like most/least about your performance?
6.71. Describe a failure on the job. What did you do to address this failing?
6.72. Have you ever worked in a team environment?
6.73. What were your contributions?
6.74. Are you a team player?
6.75. How do you team?
6.76. Tell me about yourself.
6.77. What has been your biggest setback?
6.78. How do you compensate for your weaknesses?
6.79. What decisions have you most regretted? Why?
6.80. What do you expect to get out of a career?
6.81. What do you do in your spare time?
6.82. Describe an ethical dilemma at work.
6.83. Describe how you’ve demonstrated leadership inside and outside of work.
6.84. What is most frustrating at work?
6.85. What would you do if a team member wasn’t pulling his weight?
6.86. How do you handle conflict?
6.87. How would your friends describe you?
6.88. Tell me who you are, where you've been, and where you are going.
6.89. What do you do you best/worst at your job?
6.90. How could you improve your performance?
6.91. What are your long term and short term goals?
6.92. What are your career aspirations?
6.93. What is your management philosophy?
6.94. What is your management style? What aspects of it do you wish to change?
6.95. What do you do best/worst in a team setting?
6.96. Are you a better leader or follower?
6.97. What would team members say about you as a team member and why?
6.98. Name 3 words to describe yourself to others.
6.99. What is an activity you are involved in? Why is it important to you?
6.100. What do you do to relieve stress? For fun?
6.101. How do you define success?
6.102. What is the most interesting thing about you?
6.103. What is your greatest strength and weakness?
6.104. Describe traits you need developing?
6.105. What is the single best quality you have seen in people that you do not possess?
6.106. What is your greatest accomplishment?
6.107. How do you handle failing?
6.108. What makes you uniques? Outstanding?
6.109. What does leadership mean to you?
6.110. What are your key strengths?
6.111. What are some of your weaknesses?
6.112. What would like to be known for?
6.113. What publications do you read regularly and why?
6.114. What books have you read recently?
6.115. What have you done to keep yourself current or develop skills in your field?
6.116. Who influenced you the most growing up?
6.117. Who are your heroes and why?
6.118. What interests you most in business today?
6.119. Describe an example of how you have taken a leadership role in the past and what you learned from the experience.
6.120. Which would you choose: having no enemies or having only a few close friends?
6.121. Give me a time when you demonstrated leadership.
6.122. What role do you usually play on teams?
6.123. Give me an example of an experience in which you had to change the way things were done. How did you get people to follow your suggestion?
6.124. Have you had any group facilitation experience. Tell me about it.
6.125. What evidence can you give me that you work well on teams?
6.126. Show me that you understand what a 60-70 hour work week involves and that you'll be able to work for 60 hours a week for months on end.
6.127. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
6.128. How have you demonstrated initiative?
6.129. How would you define your leadership style?
6.130. What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people?
6.131. How do you rank amongst your peers?
6.132. Resume
6.133. Describe a project that you managed from start to finish.
6.134. Tell me about a time in which you were a leader and had to motivate a team.
6.135. What is the most difficult position you have been in, and how did you get out of it?
6.136. What in your background do you find most useful today?
6.137. Take me through your last job: identify the issues from an organizational or competitive standpoint.
6.138. You have five minutes to describe the most relevant and specific item in your background which show that you are uniquely qualified for this job.
6.139. Tell me about your prior work experience. What were your responsibilities?
6.140. How did you pick your undergraduate major?
6.141. Describe the continuity, or lack thereof, in your career. Explain.
6.142. How has each of your prior experiences prepared you for this job?
6.143. Walk me through your resume, highlighting decisions and choices you made.
6.144. Why did you choose your undergraduate institution? What did you enjoy most about it?
6.145. What was the biggest challenge of your previous job?
6.146. What is NOT on your resume that I would want to know about?
6.147. How do you think your skills match up against the necessary skills for this job?
6.148. Why did you choose your undergraduate major? School?
6.149. What did you enjoy/dislike about college?
6.150. Discuss your career progression
6.151. Describe a situation where your brought an idea forward + it failed?
6.152. What was your biggest accomplishment?
6.153. What do you want to accomplish in your life?
6.154. How have your goals changed over the years?
6.155. Describe a time when you had to take orders from someone younger but more experienced than you? How did you feel about it?
6.156. Describe a time when you had to work with someone a good deal older than you and often resistant to change. How would you deal with it?
6.157. Discuss a deal you have worked on in the past and describe your role in it?
6.158. Tell me about yourself/Walk me through your resume.
6.159. Why did you go to ______ as an undergrad?
6.160. What are your GMAT scores? SAT’s?
6.161. Why did you choose your previous career?
6.162. What leadership positions have you held?
6.163. What previous experiences have you had that relate to IB?
6.164. What skills do you have that would make you a good investment banker?
6.165. How did you resolve a crisis at work?

[Zkribbler]

You took time off to write the great American novel. No, it didn't sell.

[MikeH]

I said that when I wasn't looking for a job I'd been spending some time learning HTML and JavaScript or some crap. Had to actually know something for when they asked me specifics about that but it's really easy so that wasn't hard.

Best thing is to say you've been teaching yourself something.

If I told them I'd spent the last 6 months milking my graduate overdraft and unemployment benefit for all I could and spending it on 59p a pint Scotch Bitter at the Monk's Retreat it probably wouldn't have gone down too well.

[Dauphin]

OK, how do you answer this interview question:

We want to give you the job, when can you start?

[MikeH]

"Not before 11 o'clock, I have a lot of trouble getting up in the mornings..."

If I wanted the job I would probably say that I really like what I'd seen, I was waiting for/have offers for a couple more jobs. I'd weigh them up and get back to them by the end of the week, or something.

Either that or I'd turn it back on them. When would you want me to start?

[rah]

Last time I was faced with this situation, I said, that I was still getting severance pay so I took advantage of it and worked on my golf game. After a few seconds pause the guy got a smile on his face and said, "you play golf". An hour later, after giving him tips how to get rid of his slice, the Job was mine.

It's usually best to tell the truth, but if you're going to lie, make sure that you can substantiate it.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Big Crunch
OK, how do you answer this interview question:

We want to give you the job, when can you start?

It depends. Have you finalised on the compensation package? If not, don't appear to be over eager.

[rah]

I always answer that one with....
When I have an official written offer sheet that is acceptable.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


It depends. Have you finalised on the compensation package?

Compensation for what?

I'm waiting on the results of another interview which gives better career prospects and a more responsible hands-on position.

[Japher]

That's a good response rah. I usually ask when they need me to start... Gives them a sense that I am willing to work to their needs, plus I get a feel for how needy they are for me to take the job. Then, no matter what they say I follow up with 'oh, well, we will see."

Interview? They still do those? I got people wanting me in Taiwan for $3100 a month on the basis of my picture and a lousy e-mail.

You wage-slaves back in North America should really explore international employment.

You have to work NOT to get hired here.

I ain't moving to Taiwan for a lousy $3100/mo! Even the the cost of living might be cheaper.

[Blackwidow24]

Tell them you built a new wing on your house and just plain took it easy, but at the same time restored some antique furniture you picked up in a small antique shop, you invented a new cullinary dish to satisfy even the most picky eater and you perfected the art of tantra. Now that you have accomplished all your spiritual journeys you would like to buckle down and make their company a ****ing success!!!

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Blackwidow24
you invented a new cullinary dish to satisfy even the most picky eater

I might get away with the other suggestions, but you know I'm English, right?

[TCO]

Originally posted by LTEC!
Tell them you were self-employed in a related field. No need to prove what you were doing with your time.

That is a bad idea. I had a pretty standard background check run by the employer. (they outsource it, there are firms that specialize in this.) They asked me for a customer to talk to. However, if you do sporadic consulting assignemnts during a longer out of work period, I think you can get away with calling the overal time consulting. Espcieally verbally. If someone asks for a month to month accounting, you should of course be honest. But I bet you are obsessing more about that, than they are and are putting yourself into that box.

[TCO]

BC, you got some good responses on the time question. I would try turning the question a bit around and ask them when they will have a written offer to you. Also ask them when they need you to report and how much decision time they usually give with the offer. (And use this to draw them into a discussion of the biz needs, did they just get a new contract, lose an employee unexpectedly, etc.? This will sorta make them realize if they are just being pushy or will let you know more about the biz needs.) At that point, use your judgement. If they say speed is critical for bizx reasons and that they will have an offer to you in a day or two and need a reply in a week, go ahead and say that you can make a decision based on that. If they seem less really concerned, just tell them what time you think you'll need. The important thing is not to blow getting the offer by being indecisive. I was in your shoes exactly and they were justifiably concerned that I might want to take a few more months gofing off. And the psyhchology is that they hate make offers that get rejected. I played it like that. Got back to them after a week. (and they didn't turn the letter around in a day like they said they would, took them longer...so that gave me extra time). Interviewd actively and was able to use the one offer to get more attention and speed up the one that I wanted more. Than I was able to go back to Firm A and tell them honestly that I had just gotten a competing offer, that I needed a week for that to ask all the questions that I had asked Firm A (for valid comparision). They gave it to me. I still turned down Firm A after the second week, but having two at one time was very useful in negotiating up the Firm B offer.

[TCO]

dp

[Ted Striker]

your momma

[Solly]

Job interviews are not too difficult. You just gotta be a player like me and Striker.

You have no problem do you Derek?

[Sirotnikov]

edited out

[Provost Harrison]

Those questions are quite rough Siro...

[Sirotnikov]

are you serious or is this cynisism i can't spot?

yeah, a weaker soul might have burst into tears

I was as tense as a cat stuck in a microwave

But I did have alot of good answers (like the last one ) and I do know alot about the issue, and I do read alot of books, newspapers, articles etc.

[Solly]

They might seem rough to you PH, but if he is wanting to be in IDF< he needs to know a lot of the background. Remember he has lived there.

[Provost Harrison]

It is serious cynicism there Siro Interviews are hostile and unpleasant...I don't see how anyone can find them productive - I've just found them a lesson in futility...

I am not so much referring to the questions that require a bit of knowledge but the other ones...

[Oerdin]

So did the Crunchy Dolphin lie shamelessly and get the job?

[Solly]

Yeah, they seem to more require a quickness of thought and good preparation, rather than an ability to do the job at hand.