Off Cycle Internship - Sales & Trading

After applying online, I received 3 months later an invitation for an interview at JP Morgan's office in canary wharf. Officially, the interview was competency based. However, I also got some technical questions. The technical questions you could get depend on your background. Given that I had a rates background, I had rates technical questions.

I had two one on one interviews.

-The first one was with an Italian rates trader. He had a questionnaire with questions that were prepared by the HR. I had the classic questions like why Jp Morgan, why trading, what has been your biggest accomplishment, give me an example where you worked in team, give me an example where you failed and would you do differently if you had to do it again. What's the duration and convexity of a bond. How do you price an Interest rate swap. How do you build a zero coupon curve. Could you explain the difference between the yield of a 10yr government bond and the 10 yr swap rate.

-The second interview was with an equity swap trader. Again, he had a questionnaire with questions that were prepared by the HR. The questions were: what is the angle in degrees when time is 1.50 pm (brainteaser), what would happen if ECB increase rates by 100bp, which are your biggest strengths/weaknesses.

Overall, I did well. It was not very technical, and I was prepared for competency based question.