Fidelity (FMR) Equity Sector Specialist (US Based) final round coming up HELP!!!
I have a final round interview for a full-time US based Sector Speicalist position at Fidelity (FMR) coming up next week.
I have been went through two phone interviews and finally get an on-site invitation. The HR told me that I will need to take the p-test in house, and then have a few additional interviews (probably 2 or 3) after that.
However, she didn't explain in details what is "p-test". As far as I know, the "p-test" is based on excel and I might need to do a presentation after that but no details disclosed so far.
I would like to know,
- Has anybody here been through the interview process? especially for the “p-test". Any idea whaat it looks like? (I doubt it will be a stock pitch as the time won't permit).
- What do they usually ask in general interviews? Any typical staff I need to prepare?
I would highly appreciate any Advice/help!!!
A Fidelity p-test is a stock pitch. You get the stock, the annual reports, and the broker notes, and you have 3 hours to come up with a recommendation. After you've presented (5/10mins) you'll get about half an hour of questions from about 2 FMR people (usually a PM and a Director of Research) about your investment thesis.
I did mine in Asia so the format was kind of different from yours. Most of the other candidates were Msc/MBAs. Phone interview x2-> 1 week to prepare stock pitch-> fly to HK to present, 15min presentation 15min Q&A-> superday in HK, six rounds back to back
Some of the questions asked during the last day: - what's a good company vs a good stock - what factors do you look out for in a good company - your long/short ideas - your ideas which turned out bad - what books do you read - how do you get your news sources - brainteasers
If i remember more i'll post here.
I interviewed for this position a year and a half ago. They let me do the p-test remotely (I'm based in NY) and then I did a full day of interviews + presented my test results in Boston a week or so later.
The test is one part industry-driver based and one part stock-specific. For industry, they give you a ton of data and ask you questions that require you to chart/analyze/interpret the data. Examples of data sets would be advertising revenue for different types of media (TV, internet, radio etc.), or housing starts for the homebuilding industry. For stock, it's a basic model that you need to project out and then fill in some ratios and answer a few questions.
It wasn't particularly difficult except I found the time constraint to be a burden.
The following week I presented my test results to the head of sector specialists and was asked more detailed questions. Then I interviewed with a team of analysts where I was given all normal interview stuff like stock pitch etc.
Good luck! FMR, Fidelity, and Pyramis (all the same group) are one of the biggest sell-side clients across the globe so hope you do well!
From the sell-side perspective, we pitch our research and views to you - but at the end of the day, it is your job as to gather enough information to come up with your own internal recommendation to the portfolio managers, hence the purpose of this test.
Thank you putcallparity, einvar, DCFwacc and Shorttermbuy for your help and great insights!!!
I really appreciate it.
edit
Some other questions I remember:
They also asked about modules you did in school, your experiences with your personal trading account, etc.
Thank you einvar!
Dupont analysis is a very general topic which could apply to any companies. Do I need to l come up some more specific metrics for some typical companies/industries? (like average discount rate, which would be a very good metric for online business)
Hmm the interviewers didn't raise that aspect of industry-specific metrics. I think they were asking for a general metric e.g. decomposed DuPont ROE. Good thinking on your part though!
Thank you einvar! really appreciate!
Happy 4th of July!
How is your interview?
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