CITI IBD Korea 1st Interview
Hey guys,
I hope this post would be interesting for people interested in IBD in Korea.
I just got off the phone with an analyst with Citi IBD in Korea. These guys were super unpredictable. And probably with the least manners in terms of the times they are calling at. I got a phone interview at 11 PM when I just started sleeping at 10PM.... since it was Friday and all decided that after an intense week of working in the city MWF, two case comps and one final paper, I decided to sleep early.
Two weeks ago they called to tell me that I made it to their interview round and said they will email me the details of when they were going to call me. And they never followed up. Also, most important part, the analyst spoke only in English when this is for a position in Korea and I thought to myself something is wrong here.
So, well the interview started off with him asking about my status and talking about a story of an intern who went to the army had an offer and came back and worked there afterwards. Then he wanted to start interviewing and mentioned that he is diving into the interview because they changed up the process since interviewees are searching up answers on wikipedia and so on.
The questions were like what is EV, EBITDA? Then what are the three financial statements? What is in the income statement?
And obviously big problem here, I'm half asleep like dead..... probably the worst interview I've had so far ever. Simple questions but I was barely able to think through the follow-up questions he asked. Pretty horrendous and embarrassing. They never asked any fit questions and my friends also only had technical questions and nothing else. So, if there is any other question regarding IBD in Korea, I'll be sure to ask other friends who had the interview!
oh many thanks to you.
it is very helpful!
can i ask you what other technical questions you got?
i'm also interested in ibd in korea and still find internship position there.
hmmmm
interesting...
Are you fucking kidding me?
First of all, interviewees should always work around the employers' convenience.
Second of all, isn't Korea at least a 10 hour difference? Hours are unpredictable as is, due to the nature of the job no matter where you work. It's hard getting a hold of a banker on the phone when you're in the same time zone, let alone a banker that works on the other side of the world.
Third of all, you clearly don't deserve the job. Students who are hungry enough for a banking position can answer those questions (what is EV, EBITDA, walk me through the financial statements) in their sleep.
Btw, how internships at BBs in Korea valued upon?
I've heard that BBs in Korea not considered too highly by some people, i guess it really depends. do you want to say in the US or Asia?
@VelCro: hey man understand where your coming from but getting a phone call during a test was not fun (got a call two days before), you should try it sometime upper div stats class with 40 kids crunching numbers and everyone stares at you and the professor......hahaha either way thanks for the criticism. Just wanted to provide how Korean IB groups hold interviews since there are not too many koreans posting on this site.
I have to agree with VelCro - be grateful for even getting the call. If you don't want it, there is a stack of resumes from people who will be more than happy to take that late night phone call instead. You are recruiting for a role half way across the world - time difference will be inevitable. Do you expect those guys to give you a call at 3am Asia time so it coincides with your class schedule??
I have interviewed and landed jobs both ways around (US to Asia and Asia to US) and having midnight interviews was pretty much standard. If you can't stay focused through iviews past 10pm then not sure how you will be able to stay focused on your model/pitch/whatever at 3am.
As for IBD in Korea, every single junior person I worked with there on IBD side absolutely hated it (beyond just typical analyst complaining). I would think it has a lot to do with combining what already is a pretty tough job with Korea's oh so pleasant social hierarchy system. Enjoy. For what it's worth, the few guys I know in S&T seemed to be slightly less miserable...
CITI IBD Korea Interview (Originally Posted: 04/03/2012)
So, I applied to the IBD division of Citigroup in January for Korea.
And now recruiting is almost over and they call me to tell me that they want to interview me.
My friend who also got an invitation for an interview told me that the interview process will be very technical because he asked the HR person who called what type of questions will be asked and the HR person answered "very technical questions".
What should I expect? I originally thought that offices in outposts like Korea was less quantitative heavy. Could anyone give me advice on how I should prepare? I was never expecting a BB to call me back so any advice would be great.
Have you looked at any interview guides?
lol I just checked their spot in league table. what a joke
In KR, DCM, ECM and all other syndicates are dominated by local firms. Overseas IPOs and M&As are dominated by the Big 5 GS, JPM, MS, CS, BAML, although JPM and BAML hasn't really done anything in Q1.
can you speak korean? Heard it was a mixture of both korean and english
Citigroup IBD Korea Interview (Originally Posted: 04/03/2012)
So, I applied to the IBD division of Citigroup in January for Korea.
And now recruiting is almost over and they call me to tell me that they want to interview me.
My friend who also got an invitation for an interview told me that the interview process will be very technical because he asked the HR person who called what type of questions will be asked and the HR person answered "very technical questions".
What should I expect? I originally thought that offices in outposts like Korea was less quantitative heavy. Could anyone give me advice on how I should prepare? I was never expecting a BB to call me back so any advice would be great.
Sounds awesome. From my experience, HR always told me "expect very technical questions". I think it's their 'default' answer. They will never say that the interview will be a breeze. As for me, I always ended up getting a bunch of fit/background type questions mixed in with some technical stuff. If I dont know the answer to a technical question, I just keep the conversation going by fishing for clues from my interviewer, and asking useful questions to maintain positive control of the interview.
But if I had to choose, i would take the time to make sure i can answer the fit questions with perfect ease. It's one thing to stumble through a tough technical question. But if you don't show complete confidence when answering some fit-type questions like "why I-banking?", or "What motivates you?", etc, you aren't going to get anywhere with your interviews.
So prep for both (as you should), but just make sure you can talk about yourself and answer your fit questions like a boss.
is da interview in k0rean?
hey, can you tell us how this goes?
i'm curious. would htey expect you to do a dcf in korea/explain technical concepts in korean?
interesting to hear how ibd recruiting is in korea
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