Securities and Exchange Commission Interview Questions

10 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (90%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

4
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (52%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

2.2
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (1%)

The % of Interns Getting a Full Time Offer chart is meant to provide a realistic estimate of the hiring practices of the company based on the reviews at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few reviews). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to the simple company average and away from the average of the entire data set.

10%
  • 0%
  • 10%
  • 20%
  • 30%
  • 40%
  • 50%
  • 60%
  • 70%
  • 80%
  • 90%
  • 100%

Interviews at Securities and Exchange Commission

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Risk
Location TysonsCorner
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Very Easy
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Risk
Location Farifax
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Very Easy
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Generalist
Location Washington
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Management
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division Risk
Location Washington
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division Risk
Location Washington
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2016
Job Title Intern
Group/Division N/A
Location New York
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2016
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Management
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2015
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Mergers and Acquisitions
Location Washington
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2014
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Risk Management
Location Washington
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - Securities and Exchange Commission Examples

Data Science Intern Interview - Risk

Anonymous employee in TysonsCorner
Interviewed: March 2021
Date Submitted: May 23, 2024
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Other
Interview
There was no interview, I got called and I accepted the job. This was part of the SEC scholars program.
Interview Questions
I was asked what kind of work I'd like to do during the summer? This was asked in a quick manner with little time to think
Sample Answer

Business Honors Intern Interview - Generalist

Anonymous employee in Washington
Interviewed: November 2021
Date Submitted: May 02, 2022
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
3-4 months
Application
Group Interview
Interview
Submitted application in September for the spring internship starting in January. Listed the top three divisions on my resume and got an invite from Audit, a month later. Didn't make it past that one and the day after Thanksgiving, I received an invite to a Corp Fin interview. Thankfully landed that. As far as interviews go, no technical questions. More about previous experiences, what the division does, and the work that the SEC is focusing on. Just finished up the internship, it was fine. I did 20 hours a week during school. SEC brand name is huge.
Interview Questions
Tell me about the work the division does?
What was a time when you worked with a team but it didn't work out?
What do you like about the SEC?
Sample Answer

Student Trainee Interview - Investment Management

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: March 2021
Date Submitted: Mar 23, 2022
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
3-4 months
Application
Group Interview
Interview
First received email of interview two months after applying. After interview, there was a one month period between hearing the offer decision.
Interview Questions
Why are you a good fit for this position?
Sample Answer

Summer Associate Interview - Risk

Anonymous interview candidate in Washington
Interviewed: January 2018
Date Submitted: Oct 31, 2019
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
Background Check
Interview
It was good mainly consisted of a phone screen and and on-site test. The background check portion took some time.
Interview Questions
There was no one specific interview question. The phone screen was mainly interested in my economics, statistics, and math classes and what I was learning. The on-site test covered a variety of topics, but relatively basics. Topics ranged from accounting (what's debt, what's equity, how do you leverage etc), basic coding in SQL (write a function to grab certain data), some math (derivatives, integrals), and some economics knowledge (macroeconomics outlook, role of central bank) and so on.

The hardest part was the variety but it was relatively shallow.
Sample Answer

Honors Business Intern Interview - Risk

Anonymous employee in Washington
Interviewed: April 2018
Date Submitted: Jan 26, 2019
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Generally enjoyable interview. Some behavioural questions and technical questions involving econometrics and statistical background.
Interview Questions
Technical questions - what is the equation of standard deviation; what is the definition of an annuity; How do you run a regression - what are the independent and dependent variables within an example regression? Other than this it was pretty straightforward - asking about specific research experience on my resume, some about familiarity with coding languages and finance experience. There were some behaviourals about why I wanted to work here and what my interest in financial regulation was!
Sample Answer

Intern Interview

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: March 2016
Date Submitted: Nov 04, 2016
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
It was pretty easy and straight-forward. No technical questions asked. It was all typical personality fit.
Interview Questions
No difficult questions. These were the questions:
1. What did you do in your previous internship?
2. Why the Securities and Exchange Commission?

A lot of just standard questions. I think they expect candidates to know the reputation and what the Securities and Exchange Commission does in the US. Regional office inters differ from the national office. It was a pretty late interview and it was quite short. The interviewers were very nice and will give you time to answer, but also asked a lot of questions in the allocated time.
Sample Answer

SEC Business Honors Fall Internship Interview - Investment Management

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: June 2016
Date Submitted: Jul 08, 2016
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Submitted an application online to a handful of SEC branch offices. After a couple months, I began receiving emails from the different branch offices inviting me for interviews. I was interning in another city and explained that I would have to have a phone interview, which they permitted.
Interview Questions
1. Could you tell me about you level of excel competency? / What level of comfort do you have with excel?

2. Why do you want to work at the Securities and Exchange Commission?

3. Could you tell me about you previous work experience?

4. Could you tell me about a time where you have had to work on multiple projects at the same time?

5. What experience do you have with processing and synthesizing large amounts of information?

6. Could you tell me a problem you see in the financial services industry?
Sample Answer

Corporation Financing Division Intern Interview - Mergers and Acquisitions

Anonymous employee in Washington
Interviewed: February 2015
Date Submitted: Jul 15, 2015
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
1. Apply through your University's career center (alternatively, through the USAJobs.gov website)
2. Phone interview with a small team of accountants that ask almost exclusively technical questions
3. 1 on 1 interview at the DC headquarters with mostly fit questions (why government? why SEC?)
4. Background check and security clearance process
5. Receive offer
Interview Questions
Can you give an example of how Dodd-Frank affected a company's public filings?

Generally, Dodd-Frank decreased the threshold for "materiality" when examining public filings- meaning that the SEC wants to see more disclosures of items that might inform the decisions of investors. For example, Dodd-Frank explicitly required financial companies to disclose more information related to loan and mortgage origination. Dodd-Frank was passed to try and address some of the lapses that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Since that crisis was partly driven by the securitization of mortgages that were originated in spite of poor credit quality, the thinking was that if more investors were aware of the origination of low-quality loans and mortgages going into the securities, then the crisis may have been more contained.
Sample Answer

Division of Economic and Risk Analysis Intern Interview - Risk Management

Anonymous employee in Washington
Interviewed: February 2014
Date Submitted: Nov 29, 2014
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
It was overall a positive experience, I applied online and heard back about a month later to do a phone interview. The process only consisted of the one phone interview and a background check.
Interview Questions
What is going on in the markets now?
What does the SEC do?
Where do you see financial regulation going in the next few years?
Sample Answer
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