Resume and Interviews
Does the resume really not matter once you get the interview? Say a company was between two guys
1-Harvard 3.9, captain of football team, internships at blackstone and kkr
2.-UVA 3.6, internship at ubs private wealth management and boutique
and the second guy has a slightly better interview, will they take him over the first guy? i know the first guy is probably gonna be a better interviewer since he has that experience but just a hypothetical - if he was sick or something and wasn't able to answer questions as well as the second guy
It's really dependant on the situation. Obviously walking in the door candidate a is going to have an advantage and that will probably carry over. Their impressive record will stick in the interviewers head. If there is only a slight difference in interview I would think A gets the nod. However, if candidate A can't put a coherant sentance together, then they probably don't get it.
The way recruiting worked at my shop was:
After the Superday, the recruiting committee gathered each banker's feedback regarding each candidate. We than assessed the candidates based on both their feedback AND their resumes. If they had a poor resume, it could still hurt them even after a strong superday. So, to answer your question -- the second guy will be at a disadvantage throughout the entire process.
Candidate 1 goes to a better school, has better grades, and has better experiences. They will get the benefit of the doubt almost not matter how the interview goes. Unless the one kid soils himself during the interview, he will beat out the 2nd.
The thing that people always forget is that the conversation (how the interview plays out) very much depends on what's on your resume. So the resume, at least indirectly, influences the interview's outcome. Think about the typical fit questions: Walk me through your resume, tell me about this experience, what's your most important accomplishment, etc. Maybe several got first rounds, but the ones whose background most impresses the interviewer will move on, and that will often come from the resume. That's why a hypothetical question like the above is difficult to predict. I might still be very impressed with the first guy even though he was sick, for example. But what if the first guy was a bumbling idiot while the 2nd guy carried himself very well? Then maybe not. It really depends on how much we want everything else to equal. But bottom line is that the resume steers the conversation, and many forget about that fact.
Of course a purely technical interview, written test component, or a case interview will be a different story because performance is the real signal of your abilities in these situations. I was referring to fit interviews. If the second guy knew everything while the first guy missed important parts, then 2nd guy (most likely) wins.
jaclee-definitely understand that, wrote that as a hypothetical (e.g. 2nd guy was sick and incoherent as result)
what if the difference was just GPA; eg same level school and experience, one had a 3.9 and the other a 3.4-3.6, would a slightly stronger interview make up that difference?
I'm just a college student, so take my words how you want, but I think it's important to separate the attributes you listed.
From what I've gathered, coming into the interview, your school in the first place and GPA in the second do not carry through as much as your previous experiences.
Hence, a strong interview will absolutely make up for a non-target school, possibly make up for a weak GPA, but weak experiences are intrinsically tied to the quality of your interview, as someone already mentioned, and so they would be much harder to overcome.
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