Hardest interview experiences?
In your experiences, which banks has the most challenging interviews? Based off personal experience, I found the elite boutiques to be way harder. I was even in some EB processes where I got all the technicals right but still didnt get the offer/move on.
I've heard some BB processes are brutal (MS menlo) while others are complete jokes. Also some middle market firms ask questions that don't require calculations or any strange behaviorals. Then lastly, the small boutique LMM firms can be either the hardest thing you've come across or a walk in the park.
you can get samples of some interviews from the top boutiques at eb interviews. from a quick scan, i think its clear centerview, pjt, and evercore have the hardest questions. a lot of them aren't even traditional technicals but case study type questions.
100% agree
1. Centerview
2. PJT
3. Moelis
4. Evercore
5. GUGG
I interviewed at almost all these banks and I agree that CVP was the hardest. MOE was also up there, but different in that they asked me a gotcha question then smirked when I was confused why my answer didn’t make sense lol
Gugg is not cracking top 5 even for rx dude, like 90% behav process
Replace with either hl rx or greenhill (M&A or rx)
H&F
Interested
del
Congrats on
Many years ago, I got wrecked during a lateral analyst interview for Moelis in Dubai. The technicals weren’t hard, but the VP was the biggest assh^le I ever had the displeasure of speaking with
For reference, my dad is group head at a BB.
In my interview, they asked me “how is your dad?”
It was a tough question but I answered it well and immediately after the interview they shook my hand and told me I had the job!
Congrats on UBS!
Jane Street
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Same here, except for me it was BNP Paribas... the guy interviewing me started the interview by saying "let's just get this over with quick" and it was a nightmare from there
Goldman, back in the day.
The last interviewer asks: "Of all the people you met today, which one do you think is the least effective at their job?"
Just to test your level of comfort in an uncomfortable conversation
What do u even say to that wtf
"All of them, put me in coach"
Js say The recruiter who wont accept me would be the one
Not really the hardest I guess but this one person from Oppenheimer treated a chat over the phone like an interview.
Guy started grilling me on techs and their deals as if I was the one making the model. To top it off, he grilled me about the interests section on my resume and told me i picked the wrong HP book as my favorite.
Took a long walk afterwards.
He sounds pretty gay
Honestly, I have a feeling I know who this is, is he a director? Oppenheimer is a shit platform anyway
This was a while ago but he was a first year analyst
EVR RX for SA. The stuff they ask is disgusting
please elaborate
Was asked thoroughly about fraudulent transfer law as it pertained to an ongoing case that hasn’t been settled. Wasn’t the rigor of questions necessarily but the pace at which they were asked and how every assumption was questioned.
Got the craziest technical questions from MS menlo
what specific questions if you don't mind me asking
accretion/dilution, paper lbo, accounting but all at hard indepth levels. Most of them were already circulating this site ib technical prep by the time i interviewed though. I got all the technicals right except for one and didnt get the offer lol
Vista. I think they asked hard and weirdly introspective questions that tested thinking skills. They also make you defend every assumption, which IMO is significantly harder than any complex modelling as you have to defend your assumptions on any possible follow-up questions instead of just memorizing answers. I felt like they were more so testing people on intellectual capability more than actual modelling skills. The opposite was HIG, which was very technical, but fairly mechanically and much easier IMO.
GHL Toronto
Not an interview per se, but I had a dude at Miller Buckfire RX (Now Stifel) treat our chat over the phone like a quassi-first round interview.Within the first minute, he said “quick introductions then we can start technicals”. Starting off talking about different in court/out of court RX techniques. Then started talking about some other technicals. I was so unprepared for it, it was hilarious. Glad It went that way, dude was a Wharton hardo if I remember correctly.
That place is autistic
lol yeah, the few people I spoke with there were some of the most monotonous people I got to speak with during recruiting
CVP coffee chat in November became a 45 minute technical screen. Literally a 4 minutes into the call right after my TMAY. And not just normal techs but deep healthcare questions. For example “what kind of merger model assumptions would u make for the acquisition of a biopharma company if the buyer is under threat of Loss of Exclusivity for their flagship drug in 2 years?” Unsurprisingly, I didn’t make it any further in the process.
Had the same experience LOL
Any other answer besides Centerview, PJT, and PWP being the top 3 hardest interviews is inaccurate lmao. Not saying these are the best banks at all, just saying the most difficult interviews. It’s all extremely complex accounting, niche restructuring technicals, mental math, brain teasers, etc. If you go in thinking it’ll be easy questions you memorized off the guide after your Citi interview, you are highly fucking mistaken.
For me, it was Tidal because the interview was just ridiculous. They asked me for the company's stock price and other relevant trading multiples as of the day of the interview, even though the case study was based on an internship I had completed four years earlier. There was honestly no realistic way to prepare for that.
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