TIAA CREF Interview Questions

9 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (92%)

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 (76%)

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.

2.6
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (79%)

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.

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

Interviews at TIAA CREF

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2020
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division Retirement
Location Charlotte
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Other
Year 2018
Job Title Other
Group/Division Financial Planning and Analysis
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Risk
Location New York
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2017
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Private Equity
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Other
Location New York
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Average
Consultant
Year 2017
Job Title Consultant
Group/Division Wealth Management
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
2nd Year Analyst
Year 2015
Job Title 2nd Year Analyst
Group/Division Generalist
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Vice President
Year 2014
Job Title Vice President
Group/Division Wealth Management
Location Southfield
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2013
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Wealth Management
Location Denver
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - TIAA CREF Examples

Advice and Client Relations Intern Interview - Retirement

Anonymous employee in Charlotte
Interviewed: September 2020
Date Submitted: Sep 09, 2021
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
Just one Zoom Interview for the position. This was during the Covid Era so perhaps it would be in person under normal circumstances. It was pretty much all behavioral: Tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume, what is appealing to you about TIAA etc.
Interview Questions
Make sure you know a lot about the company, what the do and how they operate. Obviously this will vary between department but for client relations, it's important to know that most of their clients are institutional (hospitals and university) retirement plans.
Sample Answer

Senior Financial Anayst Interview - Financial Planning and Analysis

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: September 2018
Date Submitted: Dec 13, 2019
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
Standard corporate finance interview, initially applied online view company website. First contacted by Human Resources, for standard 30 minute phone interview. Entirely behavioral, they do not know anything of substance surrounding the open position. Continued to phone interview with hiring manager approximately one week later, which was again almost entirely personality/fit driven. Phone interview lasted approximately 1 hour. Two weeks later, had three hour in person meeting at headquarters, with hiring manager, as well as hiring managers boss. Interviews continued to be about 90% behavioral and 10% technical. Technical questions were of average difficultly, and revolved around typical corporate finance/fp&a responsibilities. Was offered role the following day.
Interview Questions
Interview with hiring manager:
Standard behavioral questions including
-Please walk us through your resume
-Provide examples of times you failed
-Provide examples of times you worked as part of a team
-Asked about presentation skillset, specifically how to present information creatively.
-Asked about data management/analysis skillset, including how you would go about solving problems where you had limited information

Interview with senior manager was entirely driven by me, he did not come prepared with any questions. The only way to successfully navigate this interview was to be able to speak about yourself freely, and have researched the company sufficiently to be able to ask a hours worth of questions. Failure to conduct said research would have ended this interview immediately.
Sample Answer

Enterprise Risk Management Interview - Risk

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: March 2018
Date Submitted: Aug 27, 2018
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Phone interview with three managers. Questions were fit based and only lasted 30 mins. They took about 2 months to get back to me about my offer.
Interview Questions
Honestly, there were no difficult questions asked. They asked about my work experience, why TIAA, why ERM, and a few other behavioral questions. I had previously done a risk internship so I was able to talk about that in depth and they were impressed. If you don't know anything about risk I would find people in your network that are in risk or familiar and ask them. A lot of info online about risk is not very helpful and does a poor job of explaining what it is like. Although WSO has honest opinions.
Sample Answer

Summer Intern Interview - Private Equity

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: January 2017
Date Submitted: Aug 07, 2018
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
Applied online via college portal, got email 3 months later about interview, did phone interview which was just behavioral with some skill but not a lot, less than 1 week later flew up to NYC for the super day. Interviewed with 3 directors and 1 analyst, all at different times. Tough questions.
Interview Questions
1)I don’t remember the exact numbers that were said but the gist is:
If you have this credit investment at a xx% default rate and xx% return (and then have 3 different options) what investment would you pick for yourself right now and an investor that you are investing on the basis of?
2) Why pick TIAA over other asset managers?
3) Where do you see private equity and debt in 5 years? What happens to the industry when there is a recession? How can we protect ourselves while still generating decent returns?
Sample Answer

Data Analyst Interview - Other

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: February 2018
Date Submitted: Jun 20, 2018
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Personality Test
Interview
I was contacted by the hiring manager directly, who proceeded to ask about my experience and goals for the future. The interview was not too technical, more behavioral.
Interview Questions
How have you dealt with taking risk?
How have you failed in the past and how did you recuperate?
What technical experience do you have and how might you apply that to your future internship?
What are your goals for the future and how do you see yourself attaining them?
(Following up on my experience) Why did you choose an exponential model to model the predictions of the data set that you were working with?
How well do you work in teams, and have you ever found yourself unable to work with someone?
Sample Answer

Client Relationship Consultant Interview - Wealth Management

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: August 2017
Date Submitted: Sep 17, 2017
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
I applied online through linked-in. It started with a 20 minute phone screening, after which, I was told my information would be forwarded to the hiring manager. Submitted information online for a background check. Submitted online interview via webcam. Had 1-on-1 interview with hiring manager. Will have second interview with hiring manager and Director of wealth management.
Interview Questions
Standard interview questions but more conversational. I was asked to go through my resume. The hiring manager asked clarifying questions throughout. I was asked to tell him something about me that he would not find on my resume. Asked why I am leaving my current position. Asked why I want to work for TIAA. Asked to describe my typical workday at my current position. Asked to describe as situation in which I had failed. Asked to describe a situation in which I was a part of a team. Asked to describe my sales process.
Sample Answer

Investment Analyst Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: 2015
Date Submitted: Sep 17, 2016
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
The hiring process is conducted initially with HR followed by interviews with the investment team and other senior members.
Interview Questions
Why do you want to leave your current job? Why do you want to move into an investing role? What makes you wake up everyday? Why do you want to make the move from investment banking? What do you believe from your background makes you a valuable job seeker in the market? What are your biggest strengths and what are your biggest weaknesses? Why do you want to move to New York? How strong is your modeling experience and do you believe that you have the necessary requisite training in order to hit the ground running at the new job that has a very steep learning curve?
Sample Answer

WMA Interview - Wealth Management

Anonymous interview candidate in Southfield
Interviewed: May 2014
Date Submitted: May 04, 2014
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Good process, smart people, strong sales culture. Multiple interviews over the phone with multiple recruiters. They were really interested in making sure that people were a good fit for the firm.
Interview Questions
There were no terribly hard questions, the interview was behavioral in nature. Strong educational culture, structured environment.
They did not provide me with a business case. They asked a lot about my former positions and specifically how many assets did I bring in.
Sample Answer

Intern Interview - Wealth Management

Anonymous employee in Denver
Interviewed: April 2013
Date Submitted: Mar 05, 2014
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Applied through university job website and received a phone interview approximately one month later. After I was brought in with around 10 other candidates for interviews with the hiring manager. All questions were behavioral, some centered on the length of time commitment willing to give. Received offer around two weeks post interview.
Interview Questions
Who is your role and model and why? Describe a challenging environment you have worked in and what you did to succeed in it? Why are you applying for this position and what sets you apart from other applicants?
Sample Answer