Advice on interview questions that I had asked
I had a recent interview for an equity research position. There were a few questions that I was not anticipating and I wanted to get some feedback and see how other people would answer. I am asking because I discuss with a friend after and they said they would have answered differently.
Q1. How would you rate your communications skills on a scale of 1 to 10? both oral and written?
A: I said 10. I am not sure if this is a chance for the interview to hang themselves by saying less than 10 or to try and say something like 8 (strong but room to improve or striving to improve).
Q2. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being extremely smart and 10 being extremely hardworking, where would you rate yourself? You can't say 5 (interviewer said do not pick 5)
A. My gut says they want to hear you say you are hardworking because that will more likely lead to job success for sell side equity research. But I'm not sure
Q3. What is your view on interest rates and where they are headed?
A. I respond by saying I think we are still in recovery and the central bank is still trying to keep rates low so that we can continue to recover. (I went on a bit longer) Not sure how I should have answered. I think it was more of a question to see if I am thinking, but I am not great at Macro Discussion.
1) Usually it's best to show some modesty. Saying 10 is bordering cocky, unless you truly have good enough communication skills to convince the guy that you really are a 10. I would say 7 or 8, and talk about how it's something that I'm focusing on getting even better.
2) You probably can't really go too wrong here unless you say one of the extremes. They obviously want to have someone hard-working and smart, so as long as you can explain yourself clearly you're fine.
3) This question was probably to see if you are paying attention to the markets. The federal reserve has their FOMC meeting tomorrow where they are widely expected to announce QE tapering. That will make interest rates go up. You were right to say they are trying to keep rates down, but a good answer would show that you are aware of current events and that interest rates don't really have anywhere to go but up.
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