I only land jobs when I bullshit with the interviewer. Also, HR hates me.
So I just got an offer for my second internship. I met with the MD and 2 other people. They had me walk them through my resume. Said something like, 'I see you have the technical skills required.' Then, we bullshitted for like 40 minutes about totally random stuff and laughs were had on both ends. They called me later and made an offer.
My first internship interview, I talked about Star Trek and other nerd shit I'm glad I knew about for once for 30 minutes with the Indian chick and I got an offer the same day too.
When I go in and it's an interview with HR and they ask their bullshit HR questions, I never get the job. Can they sense that I think their career is nonsense? Every non-internship job I've had, it's been the same thing. Every time I land a job, we never talk about job-relevant shit.
Now, I get that people want to work with people they get along with. But how is somebody comfortable hiring me after just talking to me about movies and politics for half an hour?
So, am I fucking up something when I talk to HR or do the traditional interview format?
Also, this can be an interview story thread because I like stories and this is my thread and I call the shots.
people hire people who they like.
I'd like to know the logic behind such hiring practices as well. I remember getting offers from top tier banks without being asked a single technical question. The interviews (superday included) were a combination of behaviorals + conversation on random topics. I guess my resume indicates that I'm probably not a moron, given the school name and previous work experience, but that still doesn't explain why they chose to hire me after asking what seems to me completely irrelevant questions and testing for the "fit", which is so easy to bullshit through.
The only exception is when you're interviewing for Management Consulting - here you actually have to ace the case, you won't be hired no matter how much they like you, if you can't nail the case interview and show them you can use your brain and spit out that number in the end.
Having been through the process myself I have to concur.
When I had my AC's there was one guy who came back to the "boiler room" totally freaked out because they had him do a paper lbo model on a totally abstract fictional company. I was totally shocked as I didn't even have a proper idea of what a LBO model was. Walked out of the interview (same interviewer) with zero, nada, 0, technical questions. We did chat about some current merger rumours and why it would make sense for the companies to take part, but aside from that it was all fit. Later I asked the interviewer why people get different treatments during interviews. He basically told me he adjusts the interviews technicality based on previous experience and academics. My academics were solid (math + perfect gpa) so he just skipped the technicals and went straight to fit.
What he also told me is that they view previous internship experience as a huge plus BUT you must be absolutely 100% ready to talk about deals in depth. For some people, they thought of their internship just as a way of branding themselves as having "pre-experience". If you do this you may get killed. Example: one dude had done a M&A internship at a boutique. Interviewer asks about a deal and whether he did modelling. Applicant says yes. Interviewer makes up a fictional company which can be related to said company and asks: "How would you set up this company, and how would you value it?".
It's a slightly random process.
Same experience. Didn't get a single technical in my FT BB super day and got the offer in my last interview. I think it is because banking isn't rocket science, they can easily train you to do exactly what they want you to do, and so really your technical chops don't matter past you know the three statements and basic finance concepts. I think It's more important for them to find people that they will actually like spending 90 hours a week with.
How did you do that? Star Trek seems way off topic for an interview.
I had an interview with a small firm, first talked with a VP, and then the CEO.
It was mainly fit questions, and wasn't a long talk with the CEO, until at the end he said "do you have any questions?" I looked up behind his desk and saw a picture of Mark Messier, and said so you're a hockey fan, eh? We then talked about hockey for the next half hour and how pretty much everyone in the office plays hockey.
Having HR approve an employee is like having the back office sign off on a trade. I'm sure there are legal and logical parameters that must be met, but at the end of the day they're going on what they think makes a 'good employee' and CYA is at least 50% of their objective. If an MD hires you, they can fire your ass at a moment's notice and no one will blink....but it's unlikely they'll choose a dud in the first place. Completely different decision making process.
Who do you think will have a better idea of what the best course of action is: some 22 year old communications major or the MD who's been running the group for 20 years?
Other thing about HR is that they'll always refer you to another helpful person. Totally Kidding. They'll tell you to look online and then let their motorized sorting algorithm (that they don't understand) tell them who they should hire. In fact, it seems that HR is completely unnecessary given 1. the computers can do it and 2. I'm just going over their head anyway.
This is just my experience. Maybe HR will prove me wrong some day. But right now, I've landed 100% of my jobs in life, ever, bypassing HR.
So you get offers when you make a connection with the interviewer...call the fucking newspaper.
@happypantsmcgee - temper temper, don't let the hangover do the talking
The actual knowledge required for a grad role is incredibly basic and could be taught to a monkey in a couple of weeks. As long as you aren't a mouthbreathing moron it's far more important that they actually get along with you. Nobody will take a genuis from Harvard who is completely insufferable over a normal guy who wants the job and is great to work with. The problem is that you can't really show your personality on a CV, hence the insufferable genii tend to get the interviews.
If you are invited for an interview, they have already determined through your resume that you are qualified/smart enough for the job. The point of an interview is to make sure that they can stand working with you for 12-18 hours a day.
Let's be honest, as much as we all like to think we are the smartest people in the room, anybody with above-average intelligence and a strong work ethic can be taught what they need to know to do well in any analyst role. If they strictly hired people that knew every technical question cold and didn't use the interviews to get to know you personally, then banks wouldn't spend half the resources they do on their new hire training programs and no bank would ever hire a liberal arts major.
EDIT: didn't see the post above me before I wrote my post but we said basically the same thing...
this is as worthless as trying to figure out women. everyone is different, just do your best.
no offense, but you sound like a loser. i'd love to know who hired you...
Nice contribution to the thread. You certainly seem to have the moral authority to make that judgment call.
Lol, you do realize that most groups can comfortably hire someone that will be able to do the job good enough from resume and reference checks alone. The entire interview process is basically a charade, and all they're doing is seeing if they like you and/or weeding people out based on arbitrary minutiae if there are too many qualified applicants. Of course, you never really know a priori what a particular interviewer will like about a person or what minutiae a particular interviewer will decide to set his targets on.
Your concern is valid, and yes, you do want someone who has a verifiable technical aptitude to do a job you're hiring for, but as an intern not as much. As a 'tern, you don't know anything, and you likely won't know too much more after your internship is done.
As an intern, you basically need to come across as intelligent and easy to get along w/ // fit in with group culture. You'll only be with the group hiring for a short period of time, and if you turn out to be a complete bust, they can part ways with you with little damage done. If you're good, maybe they'll extend a FT offer to bring you back.
If when you interview for full time gigs, don't expect the process to be like what you just went through. The group now will be making a serious commitment to you and need you to be impactful. So at this point, if you're getting hired on the same basis, the gig is either pretty easy or the hiring team isn't doing a good job vetting new hires.
I got my job because I ski...
edit
OP - think of it this way: for SA, you're not really getting hired. You're really being invited to an 8-10 week interview process called an internship. Congratulations on multiple offers - now it's time to crush you're interview (aka. internship) to secure a FT offer.
similar experience getting a spring part-time job at a commercial real estate firm. I met with the MD and two brokers. they asked me maybe 3 questions about work and academic experience, then we just talked about music and Six Sigma for about 45 mins. the interview capped off with the MD telling us all his life story and how his post-college days mirrored Dustin Hoffman's in The Graduate.
.. got an offer the next day.
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