Temasek Assessment Center

Temasek generally have 2 rounds of interviews and I supposed they may just squeeze everything into 1 day.

The 1st round of interview is a 3 on 1 interview with 1 HR and 2 members of the investment team (assuming if you applied there). If Im not wrong, the HR of Temasek will coordinate with the HR of GIC and the interviews for both firms will be on the same day and same timing. That means that generally you will only get an interview at one of the 2 places.

The 1st round interview is about an hour. The first part is non stop grilling on fit question and generic questions e.g. why Temasek over GIC, strengths and weakness, past deal experience. The second part of the interview would be slightly technical and will be on a random industry. The industry selected for last year is on the airline industry so half way through the interview, one of them will suddenly ask about trends in the airline industry, revenue and cost drivers, how do you forecast revenue, and your opinion on whether you should buy/hold/sell if you are Temasek (Its debatable whether you will consider Temasek as PE and they behave somewhere in between a strategic and a financial sponsor).

The 2 second round is group assessment and you are supposed to compare between 2 airlines. Its like a mini stock pitch and you are being watched by assessors. If I didnt remember wrongly, its between Delta airlines and some other airlines.

While Temasek have a fixed headcount for the number of summer interns, they do not have a rigid headcount for the number of interns they convert. The other thing about them is that very often the conversion is highly dependent on fit rather than whether you can build a M&A/lbo model from scratch.