So our (regional BB) office just wrapped up recruiting for Summer 2020 Analysts, and I thought to provide some stream-of-consciousness feedback on what candidates did right, and what they did not do right.
Candidates we hired exhibited the following traits:
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Acting normal, humble, passing the "airport test." We don't just want maximum intellectual horsepower but a well-rounded candidate that is mature beyond their age, which is tough being 19/20 but I digress
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Fluent communication. This extends to crisp, professional emails, pleasant informational interviews, and fluid answers during first round and superday interviews. On the last point, the best candidates were able to talk through their thought process concisely while answering questions -- too silent is not great, and neither is rambling. Memorized "500 question" answers did not seem memorized but were answered in a way that I could stop them halfway through and know they got the rest of the answer.
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Ability to deal with tough / case study style questions. Beyond the standard guide questions as above, we always give some case studies or other situational style interview questions. Some candidates that did really well were able to stop, think, and walk us through their logic. It's not all about getting the "right answer" but really more about taking a position and doing your best to support it (just like the real job)
Some deal-killers throughout the process were:
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Too stiff (delivering a jilted, not smooth performance) as well as too casual (don't tell us about how you get after it on weekday nights at the Bungalow until after you get hired)
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Amazingly, still not being able to walk through the standard interview questions well (at this point in time, you really should know how to walk through a paper LBO or DCF and actually do the calculations by hand)
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Thoughtless case study answers. Beyond numbers, you should be thinking about business fundamentals and rationale. Perhaps some candidates could benefit from watching how management consulting or private equity interviews work, in that you should be thinking about the market, competition, business model of the company in a simple way (how do they make money, who are their customers, etc) and how this connects to the fundamentals. Not rocket science.
And the biggest deal killer of all was ... not following up!
fuckkkkk
So this post is both sobering and enlightening.
Sobering due to the fact that we are speaking of next summer.. you know June 2020 lol and the fact that your firm is already done means they started even probably in April/May while students are wrapping up said academic year.
Enlightening due to the fact that WSO users get an insider view as to the main points that both sold them and hurt them.
Glad I secured my FT offer when I did but something about the rapid acceleration makes me wonder, will interviewers realize students will care less about the job interview and treat it more like a test? Memorizing information because in Freshman/Sophomore year, most aren't thinking at this deep level, but I digress.
SB sir.
Great post, and I completely agree. I have outlined in great detail in the past how much I hate the current recruiting cycle and regime.
At least speaking for our office, we definitely can feel the difference between when we recruited juniors for the upcoming summer, after their sophomore internship and after some more advanced finance classes, compared to what it is like now.
The real unspoken question that isn't being talked about here, but that we definitely discuss in depth when considering candidates, is if you want to hire the freshman, uhhhh "hardos" that have known they wanted to do banking in the womb. There is a strong correlation with also being weird / overly nerdy (and I say this as a nerd) people who are not very well rounded. Some of the very best candidates may not realize they want to do banking until e.g. after a summer internship in computer science or asset management.
We in the finance community are doing ourselves a tremendous disservice by perpetuating this stupid, early recruiting cycle. And this has knock-on effects down the line when these hardos become Associates and beyond, and need to manage other people. It's also why I strongly support MBA Associate hiring, even though technically a lot more useless, they are much more normal people and bring in a fresh outside perspective to managing people that is incredibly healthy for our organization.