Assistant Sales / Trader Interview - Brokerage
Anonymous employee in Geneva
Interviewed:
November
2018
Date Submitted:
Sep 17, 2019
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Presentation
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Interview
I applied online through the career centre website of my university (I am at EDHEC Business School, Nice, France)
I first got a call which lasted for 40 minutes where the interviewer asked for my background, what I did in my previous internship (I was Portfolio Manager Assistant in a startup). I got no technical questions here.
Then they asked me to come to their office in Geneva (the nice thing is that they paid for the airplane ticket) and the interview lasted for 4 hours, I have been interviewed by all the employee. It was either personality, background and even technical questions.
They didn't print my CV so I had to explain my curriculum everytime, as I saw the employees one by one.
The question on my background were very basics (where do I come from, why did I choose finance, etc.)
Regarding the technical questions, it was mostly about derivatives (the company I was applying for is a broker, on derivatives and structured products) :
- basics questions on futures prices (you can find them in the Hull)
- Questions on the time value, intrisic value of a call/put and its underlying. Why isn't the curve straight ?
- I also got some mathematical questions : cdf and pdf of a normal distribution, i have been asked to derive the pdf, give the standard deviation, the mean.
- and finally some IQ questions "what is the exact angle made by the needles of a clock at 15:15 ?" (answer : 7.5°) "if you have three buttons and the rooms and each button switch on the light of one single room, how can you determine which button switch on which room ? You cannot see the light and you are allowed to go to the rooms just once" (Answer : it's with the heat of the light : switch one on for a long time as the light will get very hot, another one for a short time, and you touch the light to see which one is right).
As I mentioned earlier, I saw all the employees. They are various and very different. Some of them are really nice and want you to progress and learn, some of them are just here to intimidate. Even if I had a bad experience there, I must recognize that the employees looked very implied and qualified in their job.
I first got a call which lasted for 40 minutes where the interviewer asked for my background, what I did in my previous internship (I was Portfolio Manager Assistant in a startup). I got no technical questions here.
Then they asked me to come to their office in Geneva (the nice thing is that they paid for the airplane ticket) and the interview lasted for 4 hours, I have been interviewed by all the employee. It was either personality, background and even technical questions.
They didn't print my CV so I had to explain my curriculum everytime, as I saw the employees one by one.
The question on my background were very basics (where do I come from, why did I choose finance, etc.)
Regarding the technical questions, it was mostly about derivatives (the company I was applying for is a broker, on derivatives and structured products) :
- basics questions on futures prices (you can find them in the Hull)
- Questions on the time value, intrisic value of a call/put and its underlying. Why isn't the curve straight ?
- I also got some mathematical questions : cdf and pdf of a normal distribution, i have been asked to derive the pdf, give the standard deviation, the mean.
- and finally some IQ questions "what is the exact angle made by the needles of a clock at 15:15 ?" (answer : 7.5°) "if you have three buttons and the rooms and each button switch on the light of one single room, how can you determine which button switch on which room ? You cannot see the light and you are allowed to go to the rooms just once" (Answer : it's with the heat of the light : switch one on for a long time as the light will get very hot, another one for a short time, and you touch the light to see which one is right).
As I mentioned earlier, I saw all the employees. They are various and very different. Some of them are really nice and want you to progress and learn, some of them are just here to intimidate. Even if I had a bad experience there, I must recognize that the employees looked very implied and qualified in their job.
Interview Questions
The questions of intelligence and IQ were very destabilizing.
As I said before, the one on the 3 bulbs each connected to a specific room was difficult. Reminder: we have 3 switches each connected to a light of a specific chamber. We can not see which switch turns on which room. The rooms are 200 meters away from the switches, how do we determine which switches light which rooms?
I was also asked what was the exact angle formed by the hands of a watch at 3:15 pm.
I was asked if a 1% increase followed by a 1% decrease was an increase or a decrease in the end.
I had the classic question: how many ping pong balls can I get on a plane?
Finally it is not a question of intelligence or IQ but I was very destabilized when I was asked to talk about the value time of a call. I was clearly not prepared enough for this kind of question.
As I said before, the one on the 3 bulbs each connected to a specific room was difficult. Reminder: we have 3 switches each connected to a light of a specific chamber. We can not see which switch turns on which room. The rooms are 200 meters away from the switches, how do we determine which switches light which rooms?
I was also asked what was the exact angle formed by the hands of a watch at 3:15 pm.
I was asked if a 1% increase followed by a 1% decrease was an increase or a decrease in the end.
I had the classic question: how many ping pong balls can I get on a plane?
Finally it is not a question of intelligence or IQ but I was very destabilized when I was asked to talk about the value time of a call. I was clearly not prepared enough for this kind of question.
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