Graduate Programme

The first stages of the interview process were organized and executed by a recruitment agency. I had to complete two phone interviews with this agency, of which the first one was rather CV-based / motivational and the second one rather technical (stock pitch, a lot of questions about macroeconomic topics). After around 2 weeks, I was invited for the last one of 4 assessment centres at Berenberg's headquarters in London. The assessment centre included two one-on-one interviews (one with HR as well as a senior management representative, was rather motivational in nature; the other one with a global head, was rather technical in nature, questions about macroeconomic topics and company valuation). After that, we had to hold individual presentations in front of a committee consisting of Berenberg staff from different levels as well as of two of the other applicants. The topics (current macroeconomic / political / financial services industry-specific topics) were given to the applicants in the morning and the applicants had time to do internet research and prepare the presentations in between the interviews. In the last stage of the assessment centre, the applicants were divided into groups of 5-6 and had to solve a non-finance-related problem (during which they were observed by a committee of Berenberg staff) and present the solution to the committee. In general, the atmosphere was rather casual; the interviewers were very friendly and did not try to "screw you up".