I don't remember where / who I stole this from, remember kids, there's no originality in banking, but my favourite question when they ask: "Do you have any questions for me / us":
What is it about my resume and experience that interest you.
It's a beautiful question, makes them recite a list of why you're awesome, right before you leave. Aside from the ego stroke, it makes them verbalise about why they should hire you. Also, their answer lets you know what they are focusing on, so you can tailor your follow-up and prep for the next round interview.
What are your favourite questions?
One of the safe questions I ask is this:
"Tell me a little bit about your background? I mean what did you study at University and how did you find yourself in banking?"
Generally they'll answer the question with something and I would use their answer to hook another question. i will give you a general example of an interview I did a year or two ago:
Interviewer: "I think that is all. We have some time left for questions - do you have any?" Interviewee: "Yes, please. I was wondering what is your background? I mean what did you study at University and how did you find yourself in banking?" Interviewer: "I studied Economics at Cambridge and did an internship at XYZ then ended up here bla bla" Interviewee: "Which college did you go to if I may ask?" Interviewer: "Selwyn College" Interviewee: "Yeah, they have a fantastic rugby team - have been winning a lot recently. Do you play sports yourself?" Interviewer: "Yes, I played rugby at college actually. I played in the first team bla bla" Interviewee: "I'm assuming you played union rugby? If so, do you know a professional player called XYZ who play for XYZ? I know his sister - he's pretty a big guy"
From there we struck up an interesting conversation about rugby and what position we both played. I ended up with the offer.
Above example is a good example of the way I ask questions at the end - try to hook it up with something outside of work and show them my personality.
Good thinking and I love this thread btw op. Oddly enough most the people I've interviewed with tended to talk about their background at the start of phone screens and superdays.
The "I played rugby" conversation usually goes well until you say that you were a hooker
I always ask questions that I already know the answers to. I am very good at finding information about people in creative ways. Usually starts with a linkedin check, a finara broker check about their past work history, instagram/twitter and most importantly facebook check. A lot of times they will have their facebook semi private, but the part where u can get a lot of info is from their friends. Usually the closes friends and family are the ones that like thier profile pictures and whatnot, these "likes" show up a lot on their public profiles. From there I now have access to 20-30 of their closes friends and families as well as those people's facebook accounts.
There was this one MD who's facebook was very private except for his pro pic which listed the 40 likes it had. I clicked on the number 40 and it showed me everyone that liked his pics. From there I was able to find his mother's profile as well as his wife's. Going into the interview I knew where he got married, his children's names, what private schools they went to, what sports they play, what organizations they support, etc.... Oddly enough going into the interview him and I had *A LOT in common ;)
That's fkn creepy
Never know when you might need the info. Interview going bad? Smile and say I know where your kids go to school.
I think you are vastly underestimating how much having stuff in common positively influences how you feel about that person.
Ok guys need to clarify. I drop subtle hints. when he asks me what I do for fun: "I like to go boxing every now and then. There's actually this really good gym around the corner that I'd like to join if I work her... Wait what? You've been a member of that gym for 7 years and are in charge of outside social events for all the members? No way!" "When I was in high school I was looking at some of the boarding schools in CT. Hotchkiss and Deerfield are really nice? Oh your son goes there? I almost played soccer there? He's the captain of the soccer team? Excellent! How's Coach Felipe doing?"
that type of stuff.
One of the guys was a huge italian soccer fan. I personally just watch major premier league games every now and then. Regardless, I loaded up on recent news that's happening with Juventus since their stadium was his cover photo. We talked about it for 30 minutes, which was scary because I had only googled relevant info the night before that would give me 5 minutes of talking points. good thing the guy could talk for days and told me about his vacation to Italy last year.
Coach Felipe was indicted on charges of running an underground drug and sex ring and is currently facing 20-30 behind bars.
Sips water*
Lots of good points in all of this. Personally I got into the habit of doing three things during that 5 minute "ask me" section.
This is super-formulaic but developed from coffee-networking and felt/was natural. Analyzing it in hindsight:
1) Use the time to build rapport, within or outside of the work conversation. Generally I've found that most interviewers will give their background, but if they have not I would ask about it and try to connect. - Demonstrates social capability / empathy.
Necessary to be remembered at all.
2) Beat them to the "Okay seriously, time to get out of my office". Be the one to end the conversation, on time. Thank them for their time, and salute their busy schedule by kissing the bank's ass about the deal-flow. - Showes situational awareness (not autistic) and close mental attention to the clock / deadlines.
Demonstrates quality of a good analyst.
3) After the exit segway, "Before I go, is there anything else you think I should know about this group / this role / the industry?" - Give's them the last word, an opportunity for them to get invested through advice, and demonstrate's thoroughness.
Demonstrates quality of a good analyst.
Every candidate will try and tell their interviewer they have the qualities of a good analyst, but I think 2 and 3 give you an opportunity to actually show a few basic capabilities that saves time and ensures quality work process, and that you are possibly ahead of your competition in terms of time it will take you to take on the kind of workloads you were hired for.
Awful question. I don't even look at your resume until we start interviewing...
When can I start? - During my early days, I would always ask this at the end because 1) I already showed you that I am good, 2) there are other firms who wants to hire you, 3) I am setting the expectation for the next step.
Usually there are a few responses: 1) We will let you know - Translation: your chance of getting is very low. This just means that you are just one among the 100s that they interviewed. Or they already had someone that they want and you are just there to prove that they had interviewed enough people for the job.
2) Well our next step will be to round up everyone to get a feel of the candidates internally and we will get back to you - Translation: you are being considered seriously and there is a path to get there. I would usually ask a bit more on i) what is your concerns about my candidacy that the employers has [lack of experience, fit]; you would take this chance to convince them, ii) what is the steps on deciding [sometimes if all the candidates looked the same, sending in work samples at this point would help]
3) The best one is that something along the line of "Well you the most qualified candidate so far, we just need to run through HR to fill in the paperwork. When can you send in the data to HR so that we can do our background check and get the paperwork done?" - There are cases where the employers will tell you straight up like that.