Research Associate

They interviewed at my school, had a one on one interview with an equity portfolio manager. He asked standard questions, and wasn't really paying attention, the most important question he asked was for me to pitch a stock. He vividly paid attention and was impressed by my answer he later told me that the detail in the pitch as well as the level of thinking is what got me to the next level, as everyone they interviewed had a solid gpa and internship.

Second round was at their office, I was scheduled to be interviewed by 3 people, portfolio managers at different funds at the firm. One was international and asked me about macroeconomics in general and wanted to test if I was up to date on foreign news, he cared mainly about Europe. Second portfolio manager just talked stocks the entire time, asked for my stock pitch also gave me two stocks to choose from and asked for qualitative discussions about prospects, stock prices etc. Third interview was not particularly finance related, was much more about my personality, what I did in school, activities etc.

After the third interview I was told that I had passed and I got to meet the CIO of the firm. He asked a bunch of statistical brain teasers, make sure you know probability distributions, mean reversions etc. He then asked if I had published a thesis, if not if I had a differentiated view of something in the world that I cared about. It threw me a bit for a loop and I expected that I bombed the final interview. He was pretty stern the whole time.

Turned out I got the job,