Should I correct an analyst?
This happened at one of my SA interviews during this spring.
I was talking to an analyst one-on-one and somehow the conversation drifted to PE and the latest goings on in that market. He was trying to feel out my knowledge of the space and asked a question about a major event that was being discussed in the media at the time. I responded after which he made a ludicrous claim about that same event, not really contradicting what I said, but just making a comment in passing. The comment was really stupid and I couldn't even tell whether he was shit-testing me or legitimately ill-informed. At that moment I felt that correcting him would be embarassing for us both and I just pretended to not have caught it. We moved on. In the end I didn't get an offer, but that might have happened due to several other reasons.
So, was he expecting me to correct him? What would you guys do in such a situation?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
You can't really say. Social settings are tricky, it's a learned ability to see if someone's trying to test you, or if they're actually retarded. As you come across more of these situations, you'll end up picking stuff much faster. Learn from your mistake, and try to notice it more next time, and move on.
Thank you for your input.
Yeah, I probably should have paid more attention to non-verbal communication. Guess, since I was unsure what to do for a moment, it was just easier to let it slide and move on. Might have been the wrong move. You're right though, I need to land more interviews in the first place.
My bosses say stupid crap and state their opinion as fact all the time. Don't correct them, they'll get sooky.
Well, since it was an interview, the guy might have been testing me. But even now I can't tell for sure. If it was a test then a very subtle one. There's probably really no better solution to this than following your gut feeling.
No way to analyse or judge this.
My technique for dealing with this is to ask an open ended follow up question, and express a bit of surprise. Him: something crazy and/or wrong You: Really? I hadn't heard that/didn't know that. Could you tell me more?
There's only a few things that can happen next. They will expand on their thought and you'll learn something new, or they will back off their statement once they fully realize what they are saying. In your case, he could admit to testing you, or he would just move the conversation on. Either way, you don't look bad. You just can't sound sarcastic when you ask.
You could have just asked for clarification and then acted like you misread the piece or whatever that contained that specific bit of news.
ex: "Oh, really? I thought (blahblahblah) happened. I must have interpreted it incorrectly." If he still thinks he's right, he'll just move on and think nothing of it. If he's unsure, he'll ask you to elaborate which is then cue for you to say something intelligent.
But yeah, this is just basic social stuff. I wouldn't overthink it.
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