All things considered, I realize that there are more people applying for IB SA jobs than S&T SA jobs, but there are also more spots available in IB. With that being said, all things equal, is landing a SA job in IB easier or harder than landing a S&T SA job? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
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IB is considerably more selective than S&T. S&T target interviews are very straightforward, and consist of maybe some macro-focused market questions ('big picture' type stuff), with primarily behaviorals otherwise. Sometimes you can get more difficult brain teasers or specific questions but it never happen to me or my friends. That's not to say ib interviews are necessarily hard, but there's an expectation you can at least get through a DCF or explain what a discount rate is.
Interviews for both IB and S&T are pretty networking driven but the selection bar is higher for IB- believe at my target 3.2-3.5 was pretty competitive for S&T first rounds, but there was only a few kids with that GPA range who got offers from upper BB/EB. There's a considerable and very obvious disparity between the quality of candidates who have offers at upper BB/EB from IB, CM, and S&T (ordered from most to least put together). When I say quality, I mean polish, GPA, previous experiences, etc.
I am not sure if there is more spots available for IB or S&T. I would imagine there is more S&T interns taken and less return offers given out (as compared with IB), but I don't know any substantive numbers.
Thanks so much! That's a big help!
There is definitely more competition for IB SA spots. But I wouldn't call S&T interviews a joke. If you aren't good at/prepared for mental math and brain teasers then you will likely be fucked. Some people excel at stuff like that, other not so much.
Unless you are interviewing for a quant desk, I wouldn't expect to have math questions or brainteasers. S&T interviews aren't a joke and you need to have awareness of what's going on in the world recently, but the interviews (especially for SAs) are very doable. I know people who don't know the difference between equities/fixed income or who struggle with converting units (like Celsius to Fahrenheit) get offers.
wow even as someone in IB, I wouldn't call S&T interviews a joke. Judging from your posts, you seem to be a lowly SA: you can talk shit once you have that FT offer.
Top BBs will ask promising interns questions around options pricing/macro trends/advanced math concepts. I'll agree with you that IB interns typically have more "polish," but the skillsets looked for in IB v. S&T are diametrically opposite.
My bad, I changed the wording to be less harsh. I personally interviewed for mostly IB, but all the S&T interviews I had were straightforward, even at top BBs. I'm not sure if that was a product of my background or just luck.
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