FICC Research Summer Analyst

-Applied online after going to company presentation on-campus. Standard online application with standardized competency tests (Analytical and Logic test by SHL - you can google that for practice).

-Received a phone call a few weeks later, and set up a phone interview with HR for the very same day (later that afternoon)

-Did the first round interview with HR. Consisted of behavioral / fit questions mostly, and a final finance-related question: If you had 1M dollars, where would you invest. I focused on a diversified portfolio across fixed income / equities, large/small etc... Note that HR is just writing down your answers and is unlikely to follow up. The whole call took 20-30 mins.

-Received an invitation to an assessment center in London, a week later. That is the final round, and the equivalent of a superday in the US.

ASSESSMENT CENTER DAY
-Show up: I am escorted to a conference room with 6-7 other candidates, we mingle and have breakfast there.

-First 30mins: Redo a paper version of the competency test you did when first applying. It's easier.

-1 on 1 presentation preparation: You are given 45 mins to prepare a 10-15min presentation on a company. You are given a booklet with all the information, pens, and sheets of paper to use as slides. The company I got was Sony, and I honestly forgot the exact topic, but there was a question I had to answer. I found the most important thing here is time management. I did 2 slides (Dont need more, focus on what you will say). The first was a breakdown of my presentation's main points, the second was a SWOT analysis (Strongly recommend you do this no matter what).

-1 on 1 presentation: I was presenting to a Credit Strategist. The presentation went well, I wasn't interrupted. After that, I was asked if an M&A would be suitable, and other finance related questions (which I forgot). The key here is to be methodical in your answer (i.e. I would do X, because Y, and Z).

-Interview: My interview was with a FX strategist. I sit down, he asks to go through my resume, and that was pretty much the only 'textbook' question. The rest of the interview was him grilling me on markets. At the time, the eu debt crisis was in full force, so we talked about that mostly. It's all about being knowledgeable on the markets, following the news and having an opinion (very important). He basically was more interested in how I defended my thesis.

-Group Discussion: After the interview you're back to the conference room with the other candidates. Now comes the group exercise. The company is the same (Sony), but this time, everyone is roleplaying a diferent role (I was head of sales, some guy was head of Americas, another head of marketing etc...). The goal is to negotiate between us who will get $500Mn of the company's money for our project. We basically have to pitch why our project needs the money more than others.

NOTE: Your evaluators will be sitting in the conference room, but they will not interfere in any way. They are just there to keep time, and listen...

We are given additional information (Sales numbers, growth figures etc...) and 10 mins to prepare, after which each one will in turn present to the group. After we all present, we have to discuss among us and come to a decision who to give the money to before time runs out.

TIPS: If you don't arrive to a decision, that's an auto-ding for all the candidates so watch out. Also, you don't have to 'win' to get the offer, what's important here is how you behave in a group, and how you arrive to the decision. Also, don't try to talk all the time, but do make sure that all the group gets to speak in the negotiations.

-Got the offer later that evening.

The culture was really nice, and the people were really knowledgeable (huge factor in me accepting the offer)