Interview at Quantitative Money Manager
I have a phone interview with HR at a quantitative money/asset manager, >40 billion AUM. The specific firm is called INTECH. All I know is that interview is for a summer internship in a FO role. Does anybody know what types of questions they might ask in that interview and in later interviews. Are stock pitches still fair game since the funds are mostly systematic and quantitative rather than discretionary? Any advice would be appreciated.
Don't pitch a stock a quant interview.
I'd expect a standard but low-key quant interview.
The interview will start like any other finance interview, where you spend 2 minutes saying who you are, why you're there, and why you are a good fit. Then, a quant interview can get weird. If you have a programming language on your resume, expect some general questions on it. Also expect math problems. Some quant interviewers just have a list of math problems, and then they see which kid can get through the highest number of them. Expect this at INTECH; their PM is a math PhD out of Princeton.
If it's with HR, it probably won't be very quantitative or even technical based. They'll probably just ask you some questions about your background, where/why you went to school where you did, your interest in the position, what you'd like to do in the future, what kind of experience you've had in the past, what kinds of quant skills you have that may be useful (SAS, STATA, C++), what your future plans are, what you've accomplish/ what you've accomplished in the past. Remember that your answers must show that you're a good fit skills-wise as well as personality wise.
If you're talking to an analyst or PM there (someone with quantitative finance skills) I think it would be a good idea to review some programming that you've had experience with, understand various risk measures (correlation, variance, beta, systematic and unsystematic risk), get a really good understanding of probability and statistics (various distributions, kurtosis, sampling), if they do econometric analysis understand some issues with doing regression analysis (serial correlation, heteroskedasticity (tests to detect and fix these issues)), how to determine good 'fit' like R^2, F-tests, t-tests. If you can find a bootleg copy of CFA level 1 and level 2 quant section go through that, it will give you a good idea of how to calculate returns as well as econometrics (from level 2)
Would I be expected to know about their strategy and research, at an in-depth level? From their website it seems like they have developed a new form of portfolio theory and have been working on it since 1982.
No, that wouldn't be expected of an intern. At intern level it's about enthusiasm, energy, and basic intelligence.
Any other tips or hints, particularly for interviews past the HR one?
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