junior positon

The hiring process consisted of three rounds.

The first round was a written assessment, including quantitative and logical reasoning questions as well as a writing section. The writing portion was relatively unique to the nature of an exchange. Candidates were asked to comment on recent news or market developments related to derivatives, so it tested both writing ability and understanding of financial markets.

The second round was a leaderless group discussion. The topics were usually open-ended questions where both sides could be reasonably defended. For example, one topic discussed whether futures prices lead spot prices or spot prices lead futures prices. We had about five minutes to organize our thoughts, followed by a 20-minute group discussion. Each group had more than ten candidates, so the actual speaking time for each person was quite limited. The interviewers mainly observed how candidates structured their arguments, communicated, and interacted with others.

The final round was a panel interview. Several department heads or senior managers interviewed candidates together. Most questions were fairly standard behavioral questions, such as why you wanted to join the exchange, how you thought about your career path, and what kind of work interested you. Although the questions were conventional, they gave candidates a good opportunity to show their individual personalities and motivations.

Candidates waited in a common area and entered the interview room in sequence. I waited for around one hour, and the final interview itself lasted approximately 30 minutes.