Tell me about your interview experiences

[apu]

okay, so I had an interview for internship with Barclays Capital today, and all I have to say, it wanst hard but it was definetely stressful.

It was the first round and the Director and Associate Director interviewed me at the same time in 1/2 hr.

In comparison with my previous interviews, e.g. GE, GSK, Novartis, Google, Accenture, this one is def. more hardcore, but why, i am not sure

so now, share with me some of ur gd/bad moments during interviews

[hamham3001]

lol.. i have one..

Interviewed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a coop job after my 1st year in university....

Interviewer: So.. do you know of Pricewaterhouse Coopers?

Me: Yeah, you guys are a account firm.

Interviewer: Yeah, we're one of the biggest account firm in the world..

Me: Ohh.. really...

... blah blah blah..

Interviewer: So can you tell me the difference between microsoft access and microsoft excell...

Me: hmm.... lets see..

.. few mins of hmm and thinking..

Interviewer: Its ok.. not much people knows this..

Summary, FAIL..

[furien]

APU how was it more stressful, details?

[hawkeye]

Interviewer: So.. do you know of Pricewaterhouse Coopers?

Me: Yeah, you guys are a account firm.

Interviewer: Yeah, we're one of the biggest account firm in the world..

Me: Ohh.. really...

... blah blah blah..

Summary, FAIL..

lol, what? I was actually at PWC this morning for a meeting, they do not seem like the type of people to fuck around.

I dont have any crazy interview stories, but my boss did call me out on the graduation date I listed on my resume. I was hoping noone would notice and put the year I was interviewing down, which would have technically been correct, since I hadn't technically graduated at that point. He called me out on it in the interview, scribbled it out and put the year before, then after he left, his boss came in to interview me, and she had a new photocopied version of my resume complete with scribbled out date and new one hand written. Im sure he was quite smug in telling her that he found a mistake on my resume and called me on it. fucking dick. I got the job though.

[suremanok]

How was your interview for Google?

[apu]

the Barcap interview was more stressful cos it was pretty intimidating for me with the two directors interviewing me, one was firing questions at me and the other one was playing the role of the observer

thinking back, it was exactly that bad and probably not harder than other interviews i had, prob just a psychological effect on myself cos coming from an Engineering/Science background, i thought it would be difficult trying to get into an investment banking firm

re. Google interview, it was very technical.........

[djrajio]

lol.. i have one..

Interviewed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a coop job after my 1st year in university....

Interviewer: So.. do you know of Pricewaterhouse Coopers?

Me: Yeah, you guys are a account firm.

Interviewer: Yeah, we're one of the biggest account firm in the world..

Me: Ohh.. really...

... blah blah blah..

Interviewer: So can you tell me the difference between microsoft access and microsoft excell...

Me: hmm.... lets see..

.. few mins of hmm and thinking..

Interviewer: Its ok.. not much people knows this..

Summary, FAIL..

How do you know not know this?! Access is a personal database management system and data aggregation solution. Excel is a spreadsheet tool. Jesus. That's like the easiest question ever...

[totally epic]

For my current job, I had 14 interviews (30-45 mins each) on the same day. Yeah.

[totally epic]

Also, fuck Google.

[djrajio]

I remember a friend of mine interviewed w/ Microsoft a while back for a testing-developer position. The interview went something like this...

Interviewer: So tell me what a testing-developer is...

Friend: Re-iterates word for word what on the job description...

Interviewer: That's NOT what a testing-developer is! In a hauty/condenscending tone. Then goes on and goes about how he's wrong and ignorant about the position.

<Friend grabs his application from the interviewer which has testing-developer circled, scratches it out, and circles product manager right in front of the interviewer>

Friend: Fine. I want to work as a product manager then.

Needless to say, he didn't get the job. Haha.

[djrajio]

Most stressful interview experience:

Was flown out to Tokyo for two days to interview with an investment bank.

8 hours of finance interviews w/ 7-8 people a day for two days w/ jet lag, senior year college classes, etc.

Most ironic:

Did an interview with Real Networks. They gave me a bit of code and asked me what it did. I was still a novice w/ C++ and just sat there for 10 minutes staring at the code. Finally, the interviewer got irritated, told me it was a bubble sort algorithm and gave me a consolation gift card. Now Real Networks is in the shit hole. So glad I didn't get anywhere with them.

[djrajio]

okay, so I had an interview for internship with Barclays Capital today, and all I have to say, it wanst hard but it was definetely stressful.

this one is def. more hardcore, but why, i am not sure

Which division did you interview for?

[apu]

djrajio: def. not IB or sale/trading, with my background i might get lucky with an analyst position in Tech

[sleazie ninja number 47]

if all else fails, send a spokesperson in your stead:

5hWIr9_noRo

Funny interview story, after graduating from college with a finance major, I decided I would forgo the IB route, and try day trading for a living, as it made the most sense for my lifestyle at the time. However, after 2 years of SOESing, I interviewed with a smallish 2 bill Hedgefund with the thought of going legitimate like the Corleone family.

After sitting down with the desk manager, one of the first questions he asked me was:

Whats 1% of a billion?

I totally froze up and my mind went completely blank. My math skillz are pretty good, as I got 800 on my SAT and SAT II, and I also won most outstanding math student in the 10th grade.

My answer: 100,000.

I didn't get the job.

[djrajio]

They're only tricky cuz you have to spit out the answer at spur of the moment. I hate those types of questions...

Supposedly Google used to have the hardest interviews, like ridicuously hard esoteric questions and computational puzzles that required you to bridge a lot of dissimiliar topics to get the question right but I think a lot of smart kids nowadays wanna work for a start-up w/ more glamour, ala Facebook, so Google isn't as stringent. D.E. Shaw et.al. hedge fund also has a reptutation for real crazy interviews. Like Putnam math winner classmates of mine would get rejected. I only know one guy who got an offer from them but he was a genius in all respects.

[evisu 2000]

while going through slides of my portfolio at a design firm; i was right out of high school with no plans for college really (that's how we roll):

interviewer: "oh this is nice, where did you get it?"

me: "..."

\:

[mr fluffernutter]

while going through slides of my portfolio at a design firm; i was right out of high school with no plans for college really (that's how we roll):

interviewer: "oh this is nice, where did you get it?"

me: "..."

\:

what a cunt...

thats the best insult i've ever heard though.

[hamham3001]

How do you know not know this?! Access is a personal database management system and data aggregation solution. Excel is a spreadsheet tool. Jesus. That's like the easiest question ever...

i konw.. easist question EVER.. too bad i didnt even know what the hell a database was at that time..

Apu: u just finished school?? what did u study ? (just curious, as i'm thinking that CS isnt the best job to make money)

[apu]

i am graduating in the end of the semester, tho alot of my colleagues are extending another semester

my background is in Bioinformatics Engineering and Commcial/Environmental Biotechnology, right now i am doing a Masters of Engineering Management with courses such as Marketing, Finance, Decision Analysis, IP/Law, Management, Quality Management (Six Sigma) and Competitive Analysis

[djrajio]

Why not consulting then? A lot of the courses you're taking aren't relevent to IT or Banking to be honest....unless you want to do law...

[ProfMonnitoff]

At Cambridge (for econ):

Her: In three sentences or less, tell me your position on immigration.

Me: ????? (I asked her if she meant a specific part of the issue)

Her: I think my original question was clear enough

Me: (Something about how it's impossible to give a position on this in three sentences as there are tons of different scenarios)

I got rejected

Several months later, I still have no idea where the hell she was going with that question or what a suitable answer would have been.

[djrajio]

Did she specify immigration in a specific country?

Yeah, that's a difficult question to nail because I'm sure she would have had some pre-conceived ideas of what the "right" answer should have been.

I think a question like that is such bullshit because it doesn't help determine how qualified you are for a job. It's a question designed to have you fail.

[Fuuma]

At Cambridge (for econ):

Her: In three sentences or less, tell me your position on immigration.

Me: ????? (I asked her if she meant a specific part of the issue)

Her: I think my original question was clear enough

Me: (Something about how it's impossible to give a position on this in three sentences as there are tons of different scenarios)

I got rejected

Several months later, I still have no idea where the hell she was going with that question or what a suitable answer would have been.

Its an economy question so you should have gone with the whole "less social programs/entitlements, immigrants are less of a charge, immigration becomes only positive" kind of bullshit. They just wanted you to adopt a quick and easy stance that made sense with what an economy major would be interested in.

[calvin1663]

college interview...woman asked me what I would do right now if money was no object. completely blindsided me, I had no clue what to say.

so I told her I'd buy +++Supreme.19CM-MIJ.Vans

[apu]

Why not consulting then? A lot of the courses you're taking aren't relevent to IT or Banking to be honest....unless you want to do law...

yea, i should try consulting, but after getting rejected by Mckinsey/BCG and seeing that Accenture unwilling to sponsor H1B VISA, i gotta explore my other options

[djrajio]

Try Mercer, Deloitte, Bain, Monitor Group, etc.

Gartner is well respected in IT consulting as well.

L.E.K. is coming up.

Have you heard of www.vault.com?

READ THESE:

Vault Guide to Top 50 Consulting Firms

Vault Guide to the Case Interview

Ask your career center at your university if they have these available in paper format or electronic. If you can't get them, I can get them for you for free. PM me.

[hamham3001]

are u in the IT-business field too djrajio?

[mike lowrey]

I havent interviewed for the past couple of jobs I've had as they've been companies that I've been familiar with or worked with before.. but generally, I hate when an interviewer asks what my weaknesses are. it boggles my mind trying to think of something that would sound sincere but at the same time something that would not significantly affecting the job I'd be doing. I'm lazy sometimes and often run late, but I can't tell that.

[ericdw]

legal interviews are different than interviews in the business world, at least for people still in law school trying to get their first job. It consists of three stages. First, there's a resume collection through your school's career services office when you submit a resume to all the firms you want interviews from. Then the firms decide whether they give you an interview. The first interview is held at the school. It's 20 minutes long and the interviewer sees candidates all day long, generally typing on his blackberry at the same time as asking the same old boring questions. The first interview is basically a screening process, and as long as your resume (grades) are good and you're not a complete social misfit, you get a second interview at the firm. This is usually a marathon interview where you meet with a few people during the morning, then get taken out to lunch with a few different people, and then meet with a few more in the afternoon.

but i digress. the best interview story i have is when i was on one of those second interviews with a big firm in Philly. By the end of the morning sessions of interviews, I knew I bombed enough of the meetings to know I wasn't getting the job. So they took me out to lunch at the four seasons where I proceeded to order drink after drink, got trashed, and made generally made an ass out of myself.

[djrajio]

Haha. Actually that sounds about right for campus recruiting interviews. My undergrad university actually has an interview building that companies go to with private rooms for all the recruiters to stay smug in and blast away at their blackberrys for 8 hours straight.

Ham, no I did an engineering degree in college but I'm in banking now looking to transition to buy-side private equity/hedge funds...