Securities and Exchange Commission Interview Questions (2024) - 8 Entries

Securities and Exchange Commission Interview Questions

8 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.

Very Negative
Negative
Neutral
Positive
Very Positive

Interview Difficulty (58%)

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.

2.4

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.

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Interviews at Securities and Exchange Commission

Get Prepared

Year

Job Title

Group/Division

Location

Experience

Difficulty

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

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