How many interviews did you f*up?
I´m just wondering what the ratio for other people is like, I had 4 interviews for spring weeks at BB so far and only got 1 offer. It that normal for summer internships as well? I´ve read that people got offers from multiple (like 4-5) BB´s and EB´s. How did your interview went?
My interviews so far:
2 of them went horrible (1 interview was finished after 8-9 Minutes and at the other one, the person who interviewed me seemed not even to know what kind of questions to ask).
1 went really great but still got rejected.
1 was somewhat bad, I was under a lot of time pressure to catch my flight, I felt it was bad, nevertheless, I got the offer
You only really fuck up an interview if you don't learn anything.
Getting the offer doesn't necessary mean you messed up, sometimes there is just someone better or they already had someone else in mind.
Interviews should also not end after 10 minutes, you should be prepared with information and questions double the schedule interview time.
Very, very well said.
100% agree with the first part. Many times, especially in finance, not getting an offer simply means that there were better candidates, not that you did anything wrong. Most of the time, you really could not have done anything differently to change the outcome of the situation.
I disagree with your second part. Are you saying if it's an hour-long interview, one should prepare enough questions to take up two hours? That's extreme, and if you really do get to the point where the interview ends in 10 minutes, you're either dinged already or are being shown a massive red flag about this company and its interview practices.
Let me clarify, the double interview time in questions is not a hard and fast rule.
A better idea would be to be sure to have talking topics, smart questions to ask and some communication skills. If they cut it off after 10 minutes, just chalk it up to there really wasn't anything you could have done to get the role. However, if the person interviewing talks for a couple minutes then answers for questions, be able to provide some and "steer" the interview the way you want it to go.
For example, if the job said we want someone who knows how to do a DCF, include that on you resume but also find a way to work it in.
When you get to an interview, usually you have a solid resume and its all face time. Part of banking is selling, and the first part of that is selling yourself.
Thank you! Actually this reminds me of my search for summer internships as well, I applied to a bunch of places fucked up the technicals but kept improving till I actually answered all the questions (naturally with the help of BIWS) and finally got an offer at a mid-cap m&a boutique after my first year.
Nevertheless, once I´m finished with midterms next week I want to start networking regarding the 2019 SA programs, how can I tackle this task? Should I just start to cold-email people from my country who are working in london?
So many 1st round interviews...so many dings (Originally Posted: 09/28/2015)
OCR recruiting season is almost over, and I am still uncertain about my future. This isn't even just IB, I'm gunning for fldps and 3rd tier consulting jobs, and equity/FI research. IB dinged me immediately too though.
How many first rounds did it take for you guys before you finally landed a job? I'm thinking it takes about 100 first rounds before there is a statistical chance for a job.
Browse WSO and M&I to learn how to network the right way. Its very important that you follow convention with regard to your emails and phone calls, because in my experience people will expect you to err on the side of formality. I would get my story down, keep reviewing the technicals, and start practicing the typical behavioral questions now too. If you keep at it you'll get there, no doubt.
If you're getting dinged by literally everyone you need to do a hard review of yourself buddy. That's the only way you will get an offer.
If you didn't manage to get an offer this semester, I'd say delay your graduation or network like crazy until your graduation in May. Try to shoot for internships, especially off-cycle and summer internships!
Yea... I was actually talking to some older people in the finance industry earlier this week. They were telling me about how they graduated no-name schools with liberal arts majors and were clueless during senior year and still landed in their dream careers out of college, or no more than 2 years out of college.
It's funny how 3 GS/MS/JPM internships and 4.0 from top school is pretty much a pre-requisite for anything decent nowadays.
Have you considered reaching out to boutiques? Many do not do any formal recruiting. Gaining some experience at one before lateraling is one option.
Times have changed. The number of spots at banks has not increased at the same rate as the number of college graduates has.
yeah, lots of dings. FT recruiting is tough when 15 people are gunning for 1 seat.
even that is no guarantee. everything is made exponentially tougher now because of the ever increasing pool of applicants. more technicals, more rounds, more grilling and posturing, so they can whittle the pool down
I just graduated from a target MBA program. I had 30+ first rounds (every single industry... banking, consulting, corp strat/dev, FLDP, etc..) and got about 12 final rounds which converted to 3 offers. The whole process was a huge pain in the ass and took up my entire 2nd year of school. By the time I had graduated I became so good at interviews (unfortunately after burning through several BBs in the beginning) that I ended up with my 3 offers within the same week.
I really feel that the human capital market is extremely inefficient... Someone who may be far more qualified for a job will often times get dinged in favor of some idiot who just happens to possess the ability to fake a smile and charm the interviewer. People really get dinged for extremely arbitrary things...
Especially with large organizations, where interviewers who are given the discretion/power of choosing who moves on to the next round have little to no incentive to ACTUALLY analyze and pick out the best talent for their companies. Most interviewers from large companies I've interviewed with really just go off personal impression, are too lazy to actually read the resumes before the interview, and just want to GTFO back to their hometown.
Seriously..the only people who have truly scrutinized my resume and tried to find out my real talent are boutique MDs. They actually have a stake in my failure/success as a hire. All the big places have such a "industrialized" process.
Did FT recruiting last year. Had about 15 first rounds which translated into 5 superdays and ultimately 1 offer. Fortunately that one place happened to a top choice for me.
I wouldnt say OCR recruiting season is almost over. As a matter of fact a few firms are still conducting interviews until the end of Oct and early Nov. This info was made by a recruiter thats an alumni of my school that knows the process since the 90s.
It's relatively clear your issue is you. You need to work on your personality a bit, learn to relax. The guy who walks into that interview room and actually DOES smile, act personable, be inquisitive, etc. is the one who goes round two. Contrary to popular belief, in my opinion R1 is about eliminating robots, people that aren't interesting, non personable, etc. That way in R2 and final they can focus on the nitty gritty with people that are actually worth it.
As someone who never was successful for with OCR but still able to eventually land roles. I would say that continue working on interview skills and keep looking out for roles. The more interviews, the better able to polish skills.
Join a frat or a varsity sports team and become a bro.
Dont worry man, I didnt even have the opportunity to get dinged by OCR. I had networking phone calls and totally fcked it up, but it led me to think about how to structure my next calls so I can lead the conversation to topics about their hobbies and etc.
The point is your gonna fck up a bunch of times before you become good at this stuff. Just try and think about what happened afterwards; remember how the conversation flowed and where you messed up, then practice on fixing it.
Thanks man. I assume that you're younger than me though, so you still have time. Your attitude will get you places, I'm still working on mine! Good luck.
If you're actually getting first-round interviews, that's definitely a positive sign. Your resume's job is to get you in the door- anything else is on you. I would do some mock interviews with alums, and friends/colleagues who work in the industry to make sure your story is tight, make sure your technicals are sound, etc.
Barring that, I would start targeting off-campus opportunities (companies that would provide a good experience, but don't do OCR at your school). The thing about OCR to remember is if you're a rock star (on paper), things can go well for you. But sometimes even being above average (on paper) isn't necessarily enough and you can still miss out on a lot of opportunities.
Hope that helps -Otto
how many interviews before you started rocking them? (Originally Posted: 03/19/2014)
idk why but i still haven't had an interview where i just felt completely in control/satisfied with how it went. and i've had quite a few now. i'm guessing some of you monkeys were just natural born killers with this shit but for the rest of you, how many did it take you to get to the point where you had everything down pat?
If you finished in 8 or 9 minutes then it means you're really under-prepared and/or a horrible conversator. Don't go into an interview expecting it to be a one-sided interrogation, where they just lob you question after question to answer. It should be more like a conversation and you're expected to arrive with some prepared questions too. You'll know you had a great interview if you go through the entire thing and they don't ask you more than one or two prepared questions because the conversation was flowing so seamlessly.
My rough rule of thumb is a 25% success rate, as it generally seems like there's 1 spot available per every 4 or 5 candidates at a super-day. So if you're below a 25% success rate then you're probably not doing something that successful candidates are.
Like 2.
The first 3 ish times I interviewed for anything (college undergrad) I was scared and awful. Then I decided I had to grow a pair and realize it's just a conversation where you talk about yourself. Took another 1 or 2 to get used to my own answers.
If you've been interviewed more than maybe 5 or 6 times in your life and you still feel uncomfortable, there might be a bigger issue. If you can't talk to interviewers and you can't get it though your head that it's not hard, you probably need to talk to more people in general. Go to parties and talk to people you don't know. Talk to your friends' parents who have important jobs. Try to set up a meeting with big shots at your school if you're a student -- president of university, major deans, etc. If you can get comfortable in those situations, interviewing is no different.
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It probably took me about 3 interviews to finally feel comfortable and feel like satisfied. I did a few mock interviews with some friends who already received FT offers from banks such as WF and GS, which really helped. Main thing is that you need to get your story down perfectly. Practice it over and over until you can do it in your sleep. I was nervous in almost every interview but I got more and more comfortable when I realized that botching an interview isn't the end of the world. Just relax and sound confident. I am a big believer of faking it till you make it.
I bombed my first and then killed all the other ones. Everyone else said it right. Do a ton of mock interviews with friends and this will help you big time. The mocks are what get you comfortable answering all the odd one-off questions.
Mocks are huge. I was one of those people that didn't believe in mock interviews initially, and thought that practicing my story in my head would be sufficient. I was terribly wrong. First IB SA interview I had was very below average, and the following 2 were even worse. That's when I started hopping on the phone for mock interviews and also doing in-person ones.
I would say that after 4 interviews and many MOCK interviews I was completely confident.
I think it is important to note that nearly everyone still feels a little anxious about interviews before going in / feels like things could have gone better if they had done something differently during the interview. If you are not a little bit nervous, I think you probably do not understand how important the interview is. If you are not thinking about the interview and how you can change things to do better next time, you will probably not get that much better as time goes on.
You will probably never feel that you did everything perfect and will never feel like you are 100% prepared going in. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be confident that you will do well. The world's best musicians still get a little nervous before shows, make mistakes, and wish they did this and that - and some of them have done shows 200-300 nights a year for decades.
It shouldn't take many. Recognize what areas you are lacking in (technical, behavioral, even small talk) and work to correct those problems.
Took me awhile. For everyone, it will differ a good amount but as long as you can see an improvement from one interview to the next, that is most important.
I bombed my first few formal interviews. I was nervous and didn't know how to properly prepare. The more you do the better you'll get.
Make sure you take notes of your mistakes. I have made the adjustments and this has resulted in Superdays.
I once told an interviewer that their question was a very odd question, so don't feel too bad.
Interesting... I told the VP interviewing me that another BB had asked me more interesting questions.... I still wonder why Blackrock has rejected me after that interview hahaha
Had 6 interviews in my life and landed 2 roles. agree with what top comment said about learning. The biggest problem is how many jobs i've applied to vs how many interviews I've landed. I dont really know how to learn from not hearing back...
The first finance interview I had was horrible. Was a phone interview with two associates at a small boutique. I was super nervous and not well enough prepared for many of the questions. At first, I was really disappointed with me, however, afterwards I realized that it was a massive learning opportunity.
Since that interview, every interview I had went really well because I prepared thoroughly in advance.
Keep in mind that selling yourself at an interview is a quite difficult skill and you can't expect to be born with it. So don't worry if you messed up your first interviews, but see them as learning opportunities. It is important, though, that you go over the interview again and think about what you did wrong and how you can improve.
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