Wells Fargo SIG Final Rounds
Hey, this is my first time posting so don't rip me apart. I have final rounds with Wells Fargo - Securities and Investment Group this week and was wondering if anyone could provide insight about the questions I'll get and what to do to prepare.
Also, any good questions to ask my interviewers?
https://www.wellsfargo.com/downloads/pdf/careers/College_job_descriptio…
Each banker you interview with will appreciate if you know some of the deals they've done recently and can speak to the general trends in each sector.
Ask them about the recent IPO or M&A activity in whatever sector they cover. But be prepared to have some of your own thoughts and commentary. You don't need to be expert, just show that you have genuine interest in their sector.
Huh? Isn't Securities and Investment Group their S&T area not IBD? So why would he be interviewing with bankers and want to know about recent M&A and IPO activity? He'll likely be interviewing with senior traders or salespeople.
In this case, the interview will likely be mostly fit. Be able to explain why you want to do S&T (in particular whether you want to do S or T and why).
Also, know what is going on in the markets. You should be able to speak fluently about what is happening. Be able to give an outlook on what you think is the direction the market will be heading.
It is also possible you might get a brainteaser or some basic probability questions, so be aware of that.
And of course, know why the firm you are interviewing with.
Awesome, thanks guys. I think Revsly is right about interviewing with traders.
Any good sites for sample probability questions and/or brainteasers?
Probabilities could be something involving coin flips, likely not too difficult. If you say you like poker, they might ask heads-up odds or something.
Does anyone know how many summer interns Wells Fargo SIG (S&T) usually takes? Is it more or less than IBD? What is superday like?
I think I remember the recruiter saying something like 40 spots for SIG and 140 spots for IBCM.... I could be wrong about that though. My school is a target for Wells Fargo, so there is only a first round on campus interview, and no superday; I don't know how it is for other schools.
Anyone have any idea what the first round SA interviews are like for Wells?
Its probably a lot more math focused and probability focused than IBD interviews. Knowing a particular group you are intersted in is probably helpful too. For example, WF S&T is really good for FX and FI (top 5 or such).
I was interested in WF too. I applied online, (my school is a non-target). I have a pretty strong resume for a junior, any chance I'll get a call if I haven't heard by now or no chance?
Similar to other BB's I think it's best to apply through a target school or do some networking to get your resume in.
Yea, I go to a non-target. I don't really have any alums there, most are in PWM. I have an uncle who works for them, but its in a PWM capacity as well...should I just call HR directly and carpetbomb them or what?
Wells Fargo is a total joke.
You'll probably be interviewed by a bunch of clowns who went to state schools.
Use it as a backup... you'd be better off at pretty much any other bank.
Haahah....What's a matter? Get dinged by them? Or maybe you're their backup? Nice username....troll
nope. i used to work in that shithole once upon a time.
take my word. it's the worst place ever. but if you do end up interviewing there, let me know who you're speaking with and i can give you their background (it'll probably be a pathetic one).
You used to work @ Wachovia or WF? It's my understanding that they've trimmed the fat post-merger. Perhaps you were part of that fat?? :)
seems like a bitter excandidate who just made an account. sorry bud but WF is top 5 in many S&T groups and top 10 IBD overall. Get over it.
Got an interview coming up with WF SIG... any tips?
you should know market questions, favorite stock, 1-2 brainteasers depending on the person talking to you, why SIG, fit questions, why Wells Fargo, what group you may be interested in since its a group specific offer and not a generalist offer, and other general market based questions or math questions.
you guys don't know crap. it's a rotational program. and it's a joke.
top 5 in s&t and top 10 in ibd? i don't know what rankings you're looking at buddy. wells fargo sig is not top 5 in anything. it's a commercial bank trying to do some investment banking work. it's a high volume business dealing with small companies that no real investment bank would even look at.
here are the league tables you clown. not even in the top 20 for ibd.
http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/9763.cntns
top 5 in fixed income? http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barclays-jpmorgan-top-2009-fixed-incom…
i don't see them anywhere on the list buddy. i don't know where you're getting your information. you're misinformed. try looking at the vault guide too. wells doesn't even crack the top 20 overall.
dunno y i'm responding to a troll who uses sources like vault and hereisthecity. sorry about your rejection. http://online.thomsonreuters.com/DealsIntelligence/
Thomson Reuters: 7th in M&A in 3Q in US, 8th for debt, 10th for equity
you also don't read well since I didn't even mention fixed income. You realize commercial investment banks are the best places to do trading and IBD? Not prop trading obviously but they have a huge advantage due to their client relationships. If you went to a single info session you'd realize that.
ranked by OCC and competitors they are top 5 in derivatives outstanding (with 5.2 trillion outstanding deriv contracts), top 3 for ABF by league tables and also a top public finance team, I forgot what else but it was in their presentation for OCR.
I'm sorry that you're retarded. 7th in M&A? Nice. The only place that Wells Fargo shows up in the top 10 on any of the M&A rankings on Thompson is in a category called "deals involved." That means some companies tossed them a bone on some deals and let them play a small role. Try looking at the tables that show which banks were the lead on deals and the fees they got paid. Those are the real league tables and how bankers get paid.
ECM and DCM is not part of sales and trading. Again, sorry that you're ignorant.
Commercial investment banks? There's no such thing. I think you meant investment banking divisions of commercial banks. The best place to do trading and IBD? Yeah if you're retarded and can't get a job at a Goldman, Morgan Stanley, or Credit Suisse etc.
So WF came to present on campus huh? Nice to see that you're at a target school. Do you go to Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Berkeley, Chicago, or UPenn? Go speak with your classmates who joined the last couple of years and they'll tell you what a circus the place is. And if you're interviewing with SIG, tell Dan Thomas I said hi.
I'm warning you guys now, joining that place would be the worst decision you ever made in your lives. You're better off anywhere else.
I'm sorry, but I'm still under the impression that you're the retard. Again, I ask this question: Are you talking about WF or Wachovia? You mention "classmates who joined the last couple of years", so I'm going to assume your resentment is towards Wachovia, since no such investment banking arm of WF even existed in the last couple year. If that's the case, I agree w/ you; Wachovia was a poorly managed casino that deserved to be in the position that they found themselves in during fall 08. But you need to understand Wachovia Securities is not WF Securities. Upper mgmt @ WF is one of the best on the street:
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10668366/1/wells-patience-with-wa…
The argument you're making is analogous to saying JPM sux because BSC sucked. And obviously no one is making that argument because is fallacious and based on poor logic. There's a reason why some banks continuously beat on earnings and why other banks fail and have to be taken over: it's mgmt. Diamond, Blankfein, and STUMPF are the cream of the crop right now.....
yeah have fun selling CD's to customers and opening checking accounts. i'm from the wachovia side... but who cares? wachovia sucked, and wells fargo sucks too.
I don't know how I stumbled across this post but I worked for WF for three years in their mid market real estate group prior to going to b school and I'll echo fwellfargo, it blows hard.
Easy to "stumble" upon it when you're on the same account. First of all, no mid market real estate group even exists. Eastdil wasn't even a part of WF 3 years ago and REITS are a top 3 for WF.
Your trolling isn't working out since you talk about S&T, IBD, and then commerical banking. There's a big difference between all three and the part you're trolling at (SIG) is not related at all to the commercial side of opening accounts. I have a bank of america account but it doesn't relate to their IBD practice at all.
Actually, WF shows up in top 10 in U.S. Targets Completed, which is probably the most important one for Thomson Reuters. Announced deals can go awry and are not as important of a scale. Most recently it was #12, beating out some BB's as can be seen from a thread here: www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/us-4q-2009-ma-league-table. WF has even stronger showings in ECM/DCM due to its balance sheet and corporate ties.
As far as "throwing a bone", that really makes no sense since WF is always joint or lead, recent examples shown: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9D5PN4O2.htm http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1743321020091217 http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1522268520091215 http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/sprint-to-buy-virgin-mobil… http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14249675?source=most_emailed http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/inergy-lp-announces-public-offe…
Ah okay. Take it as you will, I worked for wells in their mid market real estate group and I thought the company and it's culture really blew.
I will add that I now work for a mid market PE firm and WF isn't even a consideration when it comes to IB or leverage finance. Perception is reality and the perception is that it's a retail bank.
That's funny since our alum there recently exited into upper middle PE (3 billion+) and growth funds, so I don't think you are a consideration either. If you were at a target u'd prob be able to go to an info session sometime.
wells fargo blows. i worked in SIG in my dark dark past. couple of years i'm trying to forget. real blemish on my resume.
here's an internal memo i just dug up:
Sent on behalf of John Shrewsberry
Established in 2007, the Managing Director promotion process was created to ensure fairness, transparency and consistency for the MD promotions within Wells Fargo East. This year, we will be instituting the same cross-platform process for the SIG and IBCM Managing Director nominations that will include both legacy groups. Candidates will be assessed on their overall performance, leadership capabilities and impact. To achieve our mission, we have selected the following members to serve on the 2009 MD Promotion Committee:
· Schumaker-Krieg, Diane: Chairperson of MD Promotion Committee · Bartlett, Chris: Equity Sales and Trading
· Bloch, Dennis: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Caldwell, Trip: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Caperton, Julie: Asset Backed Finance · Cummings, Mike: Corporate Access and Equity Business Management · Dolhare, Walter: Fixed Income Sales
· Farrell, Brian: Fixed Income Sales · Flowers, Derek: Credit · Floyd, Chris: Fixed Income Sales · Garrett, Pat: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Golightly, Gail: Research · Hee, Teresa: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · McPhilliamy, Kelly: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Mitchell, Alan: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Mullins, Tim: Fixed Income Trading
· Pink, Chris: Asset Backed Finance · Roncevich, John: Financial Products · Ryan, John: Financial Products · Silva, Rick: Financial Products · Smith, Phil: Municipal Products · Thomas, Dan: Financial Products
· Timperman, Mark: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · White, Stuart: Investment Banking and Capital Markets · Wick, George: Principal Investing
Next Steps:· November/Early December: MD Promotion Committee members will complete due diligence on their assigned candidates by interviewing candidates’ references and managers · December 15th and 16th: Committee will convene for 2 day session to review candidates based on due diligence findings · January 2010: Committee to make final recommendations to the Shrewsberry, Rob Engel, Jon Weiss in addition to Tim Sloan and Dave Hoyt · Early in the 1st Quarter 2010: Promotions to be communicated to all team members
An important derivative benefit of this Committee will be the opportunity for leaders across IBCM and SIG to get to know each other and learn product areas outside their LOBs. Please join us in congratulating our 2009 MD Promotion Committee members, each of whom represents the level of outstanding leadership we seek across our entire MD population.
WELCOME 2009 SIG ANALYSTS & ASSOCIATES Steve Cella Principal Investment Group Associate Audrey Pahmer Principal Investment Group Associate Caleb Smith FP Interest Rates Trader Tatsiana Sianko In Rotation Donny Pipino In Rotation Kathy Ptouchkina Principal Investment Group Associate Ishan Malik Equity Linked Products Trader Nate Wong Equity Linked Products Trader Chris Taylor In Rotation Anthony Cangialosi In Rotation Mary Ho In Rotation Richard Zhu In Rotation Drew Kettwick Principal Investment Associate Ryan Moffett Commodities Sales Will Rothermel In Rotation Alex Kaulins Commodities Trader Doug Lottes FP Interest Rates Analyst
From: King, Kevin G. (FP) Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 5:43 AM To: G=FP Rates Sales Subject: $127k days aren't going to get it done. We finish weak our bonus pool gets hit disproportionately.
Regards,
Kevin G. King Executive Vice President Wells Fargo Bank tel 415-222-7012 cell 707-479-6992
Co-ordinate with Wholesale U: Ray Orquiola Erik Bidenkap
Co-ordinate with Corporate HR: Barbara Mattson
Timeline: October – fall on-campus recruiting, issue bonus checks to interns November – finish permanent hiring, finalize intern on-campus dates December – finalize intern job postings, work with Kevin and Derek to sketch out the 2009 program January – WU posts intern jobs February – recruiting on campus for interns March – finish intern recruiting, April – prepare intern program, finalize start dates for permanents May – first wave of interns arrive, process relo checks for permanent hires, prepare training plan for permanents, set fall recruiting dates June – second wave of interns, process background checks on permanents, remind permanents to send us final transcripts July – finalize fall job postings August – permanents start, interns leave, WU post fall jobs September – interns leave, fall on-campus recruiting events/presentations
Throughout the year we should send the permanents selections from our book list, the WF annual report when it is released and other random gifts.
Tom Financial Products Group312-345-8624 (Desk)312-823-7262 (Cell)[email protected]
Here's some more insider info at what a joke the recruitment program is!
Securities Investment Group
Summer Internship and Fall Analyst Recruiting Process
General Timeline:
October Fall on-campus recruiting, issue bonus checks to interns November Finish permanent hiring, finalize intern on-campus dates December Finalize intern job postings, work with Kevin and Derek to sketch out the 2009 program January WU posts intern jobs February Recruiting on campus for interns March Finish intern recruiting, April Prepare intern program, finalize start dates for permanents May First wave of interns arrive; process relocation checks for permanent hires; prepare training plan for permanents; set fall recruiting dates. June Second wave of interns; process background checks on Analysts; remind Analysts to send us final transcripts. July Finalize fall job postings August Permanents start; interns leave; WU post fall jobs September Interns leave; fall on-campus recruiting events/presentations.
Throughout the year and before the Analysts start date, we should be sending the permanent hires selections from our book list (see Appendix A), the WF annual report when it is released, and other random gifts.
Campuses Where SIG recruits
UC Berkeley Stanford Northwestern University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania
We would like to add University of Chicago, though a constraint would be that Wholesale University can only support 5 schools. Niemier to discuss with Ray Orquiola, and the Strategy & Research Group (SRG), which is part of FP, would be willing to be the main point of contact in lieu of Wholesale U, especially given that Niemier and Kakodkar are both in Chicago.
We discussed dropping Michigan and Northwestern, and adding a second day at University of Pennsylvania. Flowers supports this approach. Roach agrees with dropping Michigan and Williams asked if we should drop Northwestern.
FP has one Analyst in the 2009 class from University of Michigan (Alex Kaulins). As such we should maintain our effort there. Also, we currently have an outstanding offer to William Rothermel of Northwestern. Therefore we do find candidates from Northwestern that we like and will continue our efforts at Northwestern in 2009 as well.
Flowers’ suggestion of adding a 2nd day of interviews at University of Pennsylvania makes good sense given the large interest we draw. I will contact Erik Bidenkap at Wholesale U to ensure we coordinate with the University of Pennsylvania’s Career Center.
Wholesale Bank Recruiting Effort
The Wholesale Bank recruits at:
Berkeley UCLA USC UTexas, Austin University of Minnesota Jackson State Texas A&M Arizona State University UCDavis, and Iowa State
UC Berkeley is the only campus where SIG and Wholesale U overlap. At this time, SIG is not interested in expanding to any of the other schools covered by the Wholesale Bank.
We need to find out the timeline for each school (when to sign up for interview dates with the career centers, when resume submission opens, etc.). Tentatively we are scheduled for Internship on-campus interviews at Berkeley on 2/5/09.
External contacts:
Ray Orquiola and Erik Bidenkap from Wholesale University Barbara Mattson from Corporate HR Becky Christensen from UC Berkeley Career Center Find out if we have established relationships with school administration, or certain clubs on campus
Summer Internship Program
Historically the job posting is for one rotation through both PPG and FP. Niemier is discussing with King and Flowers if they want separate programs (managed together) in 2009. Find out what groups interns rotated through/for how long/what training they received
Sumer 2007 Internship Class Recap:
Intern School Offer Outcome Ryan Yu Stanford FP Trading Accepted Brian Chae UPenn Wharton PPG Accepted Ling Xu UCLA PPG and FP Accepted (PPG) Dane Joella UPenn Wharton PPG Deutsche I-banking Samir Mainthia Univ of Michigan PPG Jefferies I-banking David Zaray-Mizrahi NYU - - Cindy Wu UC Berkeley FP Sales Accepted
Summer 2008 Internship Class Recap (ask Lee? Or Brian Roach?)
Fall Rotation Program
Job posting is separate for FP and PPG. FP is for a sales and trading rotation through rates, commodities, and CIS.
Current UC Berkeley process:
Wholesale U participates in career fairs and some student group programs on behalf of the Bank. SIG sends representatives to the general Wells Fargo Info Session for first-round interviewees, covered within a Wholesale Banking breakout session. Should SIG be distinguished from the rest of Bank (i.e. have our own info sessions, own marketing materials?)
Cindy Wu who graduated from Berkeley and was a Summer Intern and is now a first year Analyst believes:
• General career fairs not worth going to as they are too generalized • Activities and groups worth getting involved with are: o Investment Banking Forum o Delta Sigma Pi and Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternities o Asian Business Association o Career Center’s Winter Externship Program o Mock Interview and Resume Critique case competitions • Go to UGBA132 (FP) and UGBA131/133 (PPG) in educational role to talk about derivatives to build our brand name. Tara Kramlich on PPG did this before, though she had developed a rapport with the professor prior to getting the opportunity to present to these classes.
Process for other schools:
At the other campuses that SIG recruits from and the Wholesaler bank does not, SIG does not present at any info session. Wholesale U works as SIG’s liaison to the career recruiting office, getting our jobs posted, collecting the submitted resumes, delivering to SIG for review, and selecting those for on-campus first round interviews. SIG lets WU know who we’ve selected and coordinates with the career centers for setting the interview schedules.
Ask current analysts about their recruiting experience
Should we host a networking session the day before interviews at each school, or before resume drop closes in order to generate interest?
2008 Fall Recruiting Feedback
Northwestern and Michigan: Kitchen was disappointed with turnout at Northwestern, commenting that we looked a little light in comparison to competitors. Citi showed up with 5 people and hosted a network session. Dave also noted that we were the only sales and trading recruiters at Michigan and Northwestern.
Stanford: Hawk said the school coordinated the process well but somehow we did not get the cream of the crop. He thinks we should not do any networking or info sessions outside of UCBerkeley, Stanford, and UPenn, because 1 or 2 hires from each school does not justify the resource commitment. His approach would be to focus on where we’ve had more success and downplay those campuses where we have had limited success. Steve also commented that on the training front, Wachovia has an internally-created and fairly formalized program which we should considering integrating into our process once the Merger closes.
UC Berkeley: Williams was disappointed with UC Berkeley candidates. He supports keeping the internship program the way it is, rotating through both PPG and FP.
UPenn: Significant number of applicants.
Summary of Job Applicants:
Resume Drops from Erik Bidenkap as of early October: Penn (September 26) Credit Analyst: 123 6 call backs to 2nd round Sales/Trading: 187 6 call backs
Michigan (October 14) Credit Analyst: 11 0 first round interviews Sales/Trading: 22 7 first round interviews
Northwestern* Credit Analyst: 20 Sales/Trading: 31
Berkeley Credit Analyst: 66 3 call backs Sales/Trading: 69 1 call back
Stanford* Credit Analyst: 7 Sales/Trading: 10
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