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April 30, 2024
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This is how mine went:
I got there at around 2:20pm for my interview @ 3:10pm. They had us all waiting in a conference room, and the group I was with was pretty cool - everyone was talking about how unprepared they felt, etc. There were copies of the WS Journal on the table. For those who haven't had their interviews as yet, ESPECIALLY for those doing IB, take my advice and READ THE JOURNAL! The first few questions they asked me were about the stock market, and thank God I had read it before I came, so I killed 4 out of 5 questions about it.
Things seemed to be going well, until they started cutting off my answers to ask me more questions. BTW, i had THREE INTERVIEWERS!!!!! Two is bad enough, but three is absolutely brutal, because they don't stop. They were all successful SEO alums and you cen tell they take pride in SEO and who they let into the program. Anyway, they moved on to a math question (31 x 29) which seems simple enough, but try to do it in 20 seconds with the guy talking all the way through and telling you that you can't use pen and paper. Then came a couple questions about past experiences, where they kept interrupting my answers to ask completely off-topic questions about my family and why I chose the college I went to. The case question/brainteaser was "how many soccer stadiums are there in the US", which I was somewhat prepared for, so it wasn't too bad.
They asked a couple more experience questions, then the "give me your 30 second sales pitch question". All in all, this was the most intense interview I've ever had in my life. As much as I prepared for it, somehow I wasn't prepared for the questions they had for me, as well as the whole 3-person spitfire question thing which definitely caught me off guard.
As long as you answer their questions without seeming TOO stressed, you should be cool. Good luck to everyone else.
I'm sure you did fine, let us know how it pans out.
My interview was also this past Saturday afternoon. It was about 40 minutes, with 3 people, an SEO staffperson (she was an SEO alumna) and 2 bankers from Evercore and Merrill. Although it was relatively intense, it was nothing I didn't expect. In retrospect, I wish I had my story down better but I did well in the technical aspect of the interview. When they asked me how I'd value a company, I went into the instrinsic DCF valuation method. I went through it step by step, but didn't elaborate on how the discount rate is given (WACC, CAPM, or APV). Although they didn't grill me on that, I know I should've went into detail on that because it was part of my knowledge. They also asked me what deals I've read about recently, and I spoke about the US Airways takeover attempt of Delta, going into the details and rarionale about that. I also spoke about the comp. transactions and multiples methods. When they asked me about my interest in the markets, I spoke about how inflation fears have recently been abating and how the Fed might now change its course and lower rates in the face of a downturn. My case question was about the total home attendance of campus athletic events in baseball, football, and basketball. That seemed rather simplistic as I took average home attendance in each sport multiplied by the number of home games in each sport. There was a mental math question which I almost fudged due to nervousness but recovered and delivered within 15 seconds.
Overall I feel I could've done better, but I found myself speaking and operating coolly in the face of 3 competent interviewers by having a great disposition and being myself. I know its insanely competitive, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Wish me luck guys, and good luck to my fellow prospective SEOers.
What is SEO?
I also interviewed Saturday. I've never prepared so much for something in my life. I was disapointed only because it didn't go as perfect as I wanted it to go. I practiced case questions before the interview and I thought it wasn't that hard at all. But when I got there I blew that question. All the hype you hear about it being really intense... so true. They have a magic trick for making the environment to simulate a presure cooker. I'm definitely not trying to scare you but just to be prepared and try to relax... also easier said than done. Try to stay away from saying you are very smart unless you want rapid fire multipiclations or divisions thrown at you, but if you get those then do your best and show you will not buckle down.
I guess that's all I can say. Main point here: RELAX
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