Simmons and Company Interview Questions

8 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (96%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

4.3
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (81%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

2.9
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult

Interviews at Simmons and Company

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
1st Year Analyst
Year 2015
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Energy
Location Houston
Experience
Negative
Difficulty
Difficult
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2014
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division N/A
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Intern
Year 2014
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Mergers and Acquisitions
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Average
1st Year Analyst
Year 2012
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location Houston
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Intern
Year 2013
Job Title Intern
Group/Division
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2013
Job Title Intern
Group/Division
Location Austin
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2012
Job Title Intern
Group/Division
Location Houston
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2012
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - Simmons and Company Examples

Analyst Interview - Energy

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: July 2015
Date Submitted: Aug 08, 2015
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Other
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Interview
Started with super day. Very intense. People coming in the room every 20 minutes. They were very cold. only couple of them were nice people and the rest were horrible. Some of them were just pure assholes.
Interview Questions
LBO Modeling for an analyst position. Behavioural part was easy and didnt break me. But technicals were horrible.
Sample Answer

Summer Associate Interview

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: December 2014
Date Submitted: Dec 21, 2014
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
I contacted Simmons since one of my 2nd years in my MBA went there and really liked the company and the culture. After contacting him this year (2014) he gave me a contact information and visited a couple of times the bank before getting the invite for the interview. Last week I interviewed and the met 4 people in about 2 hours and it was about 50/50 technical versus behavioral. As of December 21st I am still waiting for an official answer.
Interview Questions
A company buys PPE with 50% debt and 50% equity walk me through the first 2 years and its effect in all the financial statements.
Sample Answer

Intern Interview - Mergers and Acquisitions

Anonymous employee in Houston
Interviewed: January 2014
Date Submitted: Jan 28, 2014
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Basic valuation questions and a few questions on considerations while going public. The rest of the interview questions were purely fit questions such as walking them through your resume and what you do outside of the classroom. I was also asked about the oil and gas markets and what was happening.
Interview Questions
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each valuation technique?
Sample Answer

Investment Banking Analyst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous employee in Houston
Interviewed: August 2012
Date Submitted: Jul 31, 2013
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
My initial interview with Simmons was with the Director of HR for about an 1 hour. She was very professional, and I was able to learn a lot more about Simmons from this interview. After that, I recieved a phone call to have an office interview, which lasted approximately 3-4 hours. In the office interview, I met with four different people (two managing directors, a VP, and an associate). Although the interviews were challenging, they were fair and they did not ask any irrelevant questions just for the sake of it. I would advise people interviewing at Simmons to be knowledgable about any relevant finance questions and their finance/accounting clases (typical investment banking interview questions). In addition, I would advise people to be very knowledgable about their resumes and to be able to talk clearly and accurately about their past internships. I was asked several questions about my internship and what I was able to learn from it and how that would help me at Simmons. Overall, the people I interviewed with were very professional and were a great reflection of Simmons.
Interview Questions
Walk me through a DCF.
How would you value a company?

They gave some background details and asked how I would value a specific company.
There were several brain teasers asked. Everyone I talked to recieved different brain teasers.
They asked typical questions about the stock market, current relevant business topics, commodity prices, stocks I followed, etc.
They asked several questions about energy. Although expected, these were difficult for me as I was a finance major.
Sample Answer

Corporate Finance Summer Analyst Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: January 2013
Date Submitted: Mar 13, 2013
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Dropped resume via OCR, contacted for 1st round a few weeks later. 1st round was two 20-minute interviews, mix of fit and technical and 2nd round was a few days later in Houston. We were notified of decisions very quickly.
Interview Questions
Really big on fit. Make sure you can talk about why Simmons, why energy and why Houston. No weird brain teasers or anything difficult, but you have to fit in with their culture.
Mostly basic technicals. There was a quick case where the interviewer had a company's basic financials written on a sheet of paper (revenue, expenses, tax rate, capital structure, etc.) and had us calculate net income, free cash flow and walk through the process of calculating the enterprise value. Nothing too difficult, but different from other interviews which may catch you off guard.
Sample Answer

Investment Banking Summer Analyst Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Austin
Interviewed: January 2013
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2013
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Applied through on campus for investment banking internship (SA) after attending information session. Didn't network much.

Interview was twice as long as the other investment banking interviewers and was split into two parts.

Associate went first and was very friendly talked story most of the time. Did brief technical exercise on accounting/typical IB stuff.

HR also interviewed and gauged interest in Simmons style bank (compared to BB or other international banks)
Interview Questions
There wasn't a lot of "why do you want to do investment banking" that comes up in many IB interviews. Be prepared to ace the fairly easy technicals.The interview was pretty straight forward and there wasn't much unexpected.
Other questions asked:

Why do you want to work at Simmons as opposed to other banks to which you are clearly applying?

How much do you know about Simmons?


Why Houston/ O+G space? (Simmons has great rep in Houston banking, competes quite well in OFS)
Sample Answer

IBD SA Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: December 2012
Date Submitted: Dec 12, 2012
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Applied online- heard back about setting up a phone interview for the next week. Still waiting to hear back from them regarding a super day.
Interview Questions
Asked me about myself- all background. They want to know why energy, why Houston, and why a smaller firm like Simmons and not a BB.
Asked a few basic technicals- what are the main ways a bank values a company, walk me through a DCF- I made a brief blunder on this, but thought I generally did alright.
Sample Answer

Summer Associate Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: February 2012
Date Submitted: Mar 18, 2012
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
First round was a phone interview with HR and a VP. Basic questions about your background, why you want to do IB etc.

Most of it was behavioral. Talked about interests and really tried to get a sense about who you were and what motivated you.

They then had a group dinner with all the interviewees dinner where you interacted with 3 to 4 VPs.

The next day was one-on-one interviews with mainly the MDs in the group. I met with 4 MDs and 1 VP and questions were for the most part behavioral.

Overall, the group is pretty laid back. You can tell since most of the interview was behavioral that it's really about how well you fit into the group. Each MD has been there for a long time and the continuity of their experience is what appealed to me about the company.
Interview Questions
What was your favorite class and why?

This came out of left field because every other IB interview was pretty technical. I spoke about my interest in strategy and how it integrated my passion for finance with a deeper understanding of what really creates value for a company.
Sample Answer