I have a first round investment banking interview with Barclays for a summer analyst position. I was wondering if anyone has advice for this interview. Thanks.
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Congratulations! Is this an on-campus or phone interview?
I'd make sure you know the basic questions like why banking and why Barclays and have a polished story for them.
Check out the WSO Guide tab if you want to brush up on your technicals.
I have found that most first rounds really depends on your interviewer. Some guys just want to shoot the shit, others really want to see if you know your technicals. But definitely know your resume, know why banking, and why Barclays.
NEVER lose your BlackBerry www.conveniencesoftware.com
..first round and then an offer.
know basics of valuation and financial statements/accounting.
have your fit/story down. if you're from an ivy league/super target, congratulations on your offer(s).
oh and make sure you know all recent events. be careful though, you just might get interviewed by some former LEH guys. they are traumatized and might put some of you through hell just for their enjoyment (quite sadistic, I know).
but yeah, this is no longer going to be some blue pinstripe suit wearing, british accent, super polite interview anymore. Barcap has some dope North American teams, they're the shit and they know it.
dress in a blue/navy/blue pinstripe suit. that's their dress code.
We're about to enter a Great Depression. Don't you want a president who's already dressed for it?
Thanks for the prompt replies.
From the people in banking, do you see specific characteristics of Barclays Capital (Lehman) in the US that differentiates the firm from other banks.
Just had a final round with LA office, how did your interview go
I just had a 1st round for the NY office. Interview went well. Fairly standard mix of technical and behavioral quesitons.
How was your final round interview? I have one for the NY office next week.
when you guys say technicals what exactly do you mean, do you mean like what is the difference between a current and quick ratio and what is a good number to have for both? how specific do they get with the technical questions.
It completely depends on your interviewer and your background. I have had everything from simple questions like "what are a few different methods of valuing a company" to slightly harder like walk me through a DCF or more difficult like options pricing or questions about an LBO valuation. It really depends, you just need to be prepared for everything. The Vault guide and the WSO tech guide (cheaper and simpler) provide a great sample of possible questions and answers.
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Interview with Barclays (Originally Posted: 03/14/2015)
Hello everybody,
I had an interview with Barclays on campus for Macro Client Strategies analyst. I sent a follow up letter the following day. The interview was Thursday and now it is Saturaday and still haven't heard a response. He said he would get back to me at the end of the interview. I am very interested in the position. I hope I am not bugging out and that monday or next week I will hear some good news. It would be a great start for me. I am graduating from Stevens with my degree in Quantitative Finance and I have two minors. I have relevant work experience and have trading experience where me and my teammates made the top 10% in the world for the CME challenge. I think he was interested in me, but I did not ask specifically when to hear back from him. I have a contact on linkedin that maybe able to put a good word in for me. I believe it is worth a shot than not.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
m47
It has been one business day. Chill the hell out.
Took them two weeks minus a day to turn me down. W/e moving on.
They are very slow with their process, lots of approvals needed and a slow hr
superday for this was Wednesday the 25. I think its safe to say you didn't get the second round of interviews.
Hi, what does the Macro Client Strategy team exactly do? I might want to apply as an analyst. Many thanks!
Hi m47! Sorry to hear you didnt get the role. I have an interview for this on Thursday morning for the London office, would you have any tips on what they asked? I have an almost identical background to you, with the MSc. QF and trading experience
Barclays Interview (Originally Posted: 01/22/2009)
Do Barclays 1st round ibd interviews tend to be very technical? I felt my interview was mostly technical with only a couple behavior questions... Anyone know?
mine was okay. some Qs required a bit of thinking but i t was simple in my opinion.
Hi,
Myself Jimmy from Canada. This is wonderful information which is given in Barclay's interview. Thanks for this. I would like to know more about it.
Jimmy
Flat Fee MLS
Barclays Capital Final Round Interview (Originally Posted: 09/05/2007)
Anyone been through Barclays Final Round Interview for Investment Banking? I have the final round interview in London coming up so any insight would be helpful
..
IBD and DCM in London
Anyone?
Yea. To be honest at this point I always felt they knew you could do the job or else they wouldn't have brought you this far. At this point its more of a culture fit. So I would say you need to distinguish yourslef in the respect as a person they wouldnt mind sitting on desk ith for 14 hours a day.
did you actually go through this?
Goldson,
If you can please share any info on you final round and the type of questions!
Your help will be appreciated !
Barclays/General Phone Interviews (Originally Posted: 12/17/2009)
I got a call for a SA interview and got all excited... but then I found out it is only going to be phone interview.
Are they only going to be asking about my resume/background, or will it involve technicals? This is for Houston and I don't live near there, so might it be a pre-screening kind of thing?
I never interviewed with Barcap in Houston but have had phone interviews with many other BBs in Houston. They pretty much always ask you to walk through your resume with some standard technical questions afterwards. None of the technicals were very tough and overall it was a basic interview.
I'd take this as a blessing. In my experience, it's much easier to make it to superday through a phone screen than an on-campus 1st round.
With a phone screen, you can have your notes and resume in front of you, and it's easier to relax.
I'd be ready to answer any common technicals (e.g. "depreciation increases by $10m, how does this flow through the 3 statements") The WSO technical guide covers 95% of anything you will ever be asked.
If you truly understand everything in the WSO guide, you can figure out the answer to any question they ask you. Focus on understanding the technicals rather than reciting the answers and you will be golden.
Yea, the WSO guide will cover everything you need for interviews, especially for SA. Take a look and understand everything in there. If you don't understand it, look it up. But don't just focus on the technicals, behaviorals are important too.
Barclays IBD SA Phone Interview (Originally Posted: 01/15/2010)
Hello Everyone,
I have a phone interview with Barclays next week and was wondering if anyone knows what type of questions will they ask. I'm from a non-target finance program.
I'll appreciate any advice.
Everyone needs to realize that interviews vary INCREDIBLY from person to person, even within the same firm for the same position. One interviewer may just want to talk to you and shoot the shit, while another may want to sit there and grill you for 30 minutes on technical questions (since they probably went through the same thing in their interview process).
As I have said in previous posts, the WORST thing you can do is get someone who says "oh my Barclays interview was all fit, not a single technical question" which causes you to go out and prep for all the behavioral questions, completely ignoring even the basic technicals. Then, you get on the phone with an analyst who continuously asks you technical questions, which you are completely unprepared for.
With ibd interviews, you are going to get ALL kinds of questions, at every firm, in every division. While you in particular may not be expected to know the more advanced technical questions since you aren't from a finance program, you should surely know the basics, and if you know more, you will be that much more impressive. It shows you have done your homework, prepped, and worked hard. All things you need to have any chance at being successful in finance.
All that being said, get some guides, study up, and prepare for everything that could be thrown at you. Good luck.
Thanks for the advice.
Barclays Capital interview (Originally Posted: 05/02/2010)
I have an interview with Barclays Capital for an Analyst position in the Technology Sector. Any insight on what to expect on an interview besides the typical fit and technical questions? Thanks for the help!
Dude, why don't you just call a few of the bankers who will be interviewing you and ask them if they can send you a list of the specific questions you'll be asked. I mean, that is basically what you're asking for isn't it? All you can do is prepare for the standard tech/fit/behavioral's and then know the company and a few of their recent deals, etc. If you are reasonably smart, understand basic economic conditions/concepts and can hold a conversation, then you will be fine. IBD interviews aren't all that bad.
To sum up a good IBD interview prep strategy, then go: ibankingfaq.com --> WSO guide --> M&I
M&I, WSO, and Vault have it pretty much covered.
"why do you think our quartlerly results were piss poor relative to expectations?"
Is this SA or FT?
Almost all BB tech interviews have the same format.
"All right. Before you tell me about yourself, let's get straight down to business. Give me a recursive algorithm for counting the number of nodes in a tree. Good, good looks at paper. Now what did you do wrong? You didn't null check your pointer. (But I null check before I recurse). But that's not in the template answer I have in front of me, so it must be wrong. "
I can't speak specifically about Barc, but for any BB tech interview, expect probability questions Monty Hall is a perennial favorite of interviewers who don't think up new questions; you may get lucky and see that one coming.
Be ready to talk about order of complexity (Big-O runtimes) and data structures like linked-lists, trees, hash-maps, heaps, stacks, etc. Try not to sell your knowledge of any one language too heavily or they will start asking you questions about the semantics of the language.
Advice on Barclays analyst Phone interview (Originally Posted: 03/23/2010)
My friend just got me a interview opportunity with Barclays' I-banking team for an entry-level position. I was wondering if I could get any advice on how to study for this interview? I've never had any investment banking experience, instead been focused on real estate. I have had a prior real estate private equity internship over the summer. It's a phone interview with an analyst from NYC.
was the real estate PE firm in Chicago?
No, in Philly. I just found out that the analyst position would be with their real estate group. I was wondering if you could provide any insight on what questions I would get?
Know your usual shit man. Be able to talk slowly, clearly, confidently on the phone. those are the main things. also know your behaviorals but dont memorize. since its over the phone, its usually more technical because they know u have the vault/wso/M&I guide in front of u. so know stuff like:
etc etc
more realistic stuff. know what happens when things change in equations.
goodluck.
Thanks for the advice. I was wondering if you could give me more examples on possible interview Qs. Also, I wanted to know how to answer walking someone through a Real Estate DCF model. Could you provide me some input in answering the question?
know about the real estate market. know everything about it and figure out where it is going. whats happening with commercial, etc etc,.
as far as real estate dcf. pm me i will send you 2 real estate investment excel docs.
btw gimme silver bananas :)
how did the phone interview go? I have an interview for a real estate IB boutique early next week - any advice on good ways to prepare would be greatly appreciated
Barclays 1st round for IBD (Originally Posted: 09/25/2010)
Did anyone interview with Barclays for an associate position this past week? Any replies for 2nd rounds yet? This is for Toronto.
I MEANT TO CLICK SHITTY BANNAA BUT CLICKED THE WRONG BUTTON
SO FUCK YOU
Barclays first round (Originally Posted: 11/08/2013)
An associate at BarCap that I made connections with implied that I would be having a first-round SA IBD interview some time in the next month. Anybody have advice for what I should prepare? Is it possible to have a first-round interview at this point in the recruitment process? It's going to be with this VP in the office that this associate works with. Also, I know for a fact that this particular location's office isn't giving any offers to summer analyst interns. Can an interview of this type count for other locations (e.g. New York)?
What to prepare? standard investment banking prep... go through your guides, know your technical fundamentals and how to structure your behavioral answers. It is possible to enter an accelerated process, are you from a non target?
It's doubtful that you're interviewing with someone from one office for another office, especially for BB.
I totally agree with this. Because it is an accelerated first round or "informational" interview, there would be no point for you to meet with a senior banker from one office to discuss your candidacy for another.
I faced this situation a handful of times back when I was recruiting for SA. From my experience, all of these early interviews (mid/late November) fell into one of two categories. First, they were clear with me that it was an accelerated first round which resulted in some premature recruiting before all the banks' superdays. Basically standard first round interviews with the typical "check the box" kind of technicals.
The other, and more common case, was that these "interviews" were really just informational meetings with a senior banker at a bank I had already developed solid networking connections with. No technicals, just like a half hour conversation discussing my background and interest followed by them talking about their group. These never resulted in me getting early SA offers, but they did position me well for the recruiting process (I.e. Secured interviews for first round and superday).
As DCBro mentioned, feel free to PM with any additional questions.
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