Interviews Are So Fake
I'm currently a sophomore who's trying to recruit for summer internship position. I luckily got my 1st internship during my first year after one interview. This is my first time to actually know what it's like trying to recruit, I networked my ass off, do multiple interviews, etc.
Currently I'm just wondering why interviews feels so fake especially the behavioural ones, which I actually struggle with. I think it's just a game where candidates say what the interviewer wants to hear instead of trying to know the real character of the candidate. Compared to coffee chats, I think you can actually know about a person more than when you actually do interviews. Any thoughts here?
"Why do you want to work at this bank?"
Because you're one of the 100 banks I applied to that gave me an interview?
exactly my thoughts!
Because, for the most part, they are. Just like half the politic-ing that goes on at a business, especially one like banking or PE
Isn't it ineffective though? Why don't they change on how they do their behaviourals. I think doing genuine coffee chat for 1st round and THEN technical would be a way better method.
Oh it is very ineffective. If it was up to me, the interview process for any entry-level PE/IB/etc job would look something like this.
(1) HR screens for obvious nos.
(2) Applicants are given a full case study. They are given the underlying information and are told to create a model and slides to pitch the deal. Besides this being the best way to test technical competence, it is a great screening tool to weed out people who aren’t actually interested in the role.
(3) The first actual interview with analyst(s)/associate(s).
(4) Second interview with associate(s)/VP(s).
(5) Applicant presents the work done in 2.
(6) Final interview/Superday.
In personal life, and at work, you will have situations where you have to provide instantaneous answers with feigned passion to trite, mundane, and sometimes borderline idiotic questions. Your employer wants to know if you are capable of marching as a dutiful soldier thru the corporate charade.
Exactly. Zoomer brains are so addled by 10 second video clips, online communication and standardized tests that apparently they can’t comprehend that others don’t want to work with an autistic doofus.
This isn’t China or India where a standardized test essentially determines your life. I’ll give up a few IQ points in an applicant, especially in non-quant focused finance, as long as they’re thoughtful, eloquent, put together and generally pleasant to be around. This is what is gleaned in a behavioral, which OP seemingly can’t figure out.
I don't disagree with that. But the point that I was trying to put across is that these interviews feels exactly like a standardized test. As other comment have mentioned, I haven't been in as much interviews as others has been but these behavioural questions that I come across even have guides on how to answer them well. You might've studied these questions well and answered them perfectly but in reality might not be pleasant to work with once accepted. Again, I don't think that I'm 100% correct on this topic but that's my thought.
As you grow up you'll realize almost everything is fake. The economy being strong. The government being competent. The generally agreed upon science of healthcare. How much people seem to have things together. It's all to a degree just guesswork and faking it till you make it. Godspeed.
Lol. At this point, I'd argue that the government is way more competent than it is generally believed to be (since it's thought to be completely incompetent) and that the "science of healthcare" is far more accurate than it is widely considered to be.
I mean, government is probably not any more or less competent than an average large corporate entity. Once you take out the differing motives, it's merely a question of the size and complexity of the organization. At some point, inertia sets in and you lose the ability to be competent in the way that an individual or small team can be. Do you really think Citibank, or an insurance company or healthcare company, are really that much more competent or efficient than government? Or an airline? What you're really complaining about is the inability of an organization that serves tens of millions of people to be responsive to individuals.
Nope, wrong, just being your usual lackadaisically ignorant blue-pilled self Ozy. In no way is government more competent than organizations like Citibank, insurance companies, or airlines. They are at best as competent as the lowest common denominators in all those - the only exceptions being certain aspects of intelligence/law enforcement/military orgs. You make silly comparisons because you are an unserious person.
I’m older than most here but this is so true. Sigh.
It's a simultaneously terrifying and liberating truth to realize when it hits haha
You've been through internship recruiting and now can comment on all interviews in general? Haha. I needed a good laugh, thx.
You can also just be yourself regardless as opposed to being yourself during coffee chats and "fake" during more official interviews.
But I don't think you can be TOO genuine in an interview right? I'm not saying the genuine me is the "wassup bro" kind of guy but I think there are just some questions better told untruthfully
Don't lie in interviews, that is just dumb. You can paint a different picture without lying.
Don't be a dumbass and say the only reason you're there is because you need a paycheck, but just be your polished self.
It's just like a first date, it ain't that deep bro. It's life. Just put your best foot forward and rmb that HR are mostly trying to be debt investors in the early stages - they're trying to avoid losers not pick winners - so don't stress about it too much.
Hey thanks for that man! I was always trying to answer the questions to become a "perfect" candidate and I think it hinders me a bit, I'll try to put this on my mind next time
Don't even try to be perfect in life because no one is. The people who try way too hard to be perfect just fizzle out quickly. Time in the market beats timing the market - monster returns are not achieved by perfect returns, but by consistently and patiently compounding years and years of average returns.
My favourite strategy from The Art of War - Book 4: 'First put yourself in an undefeatable position before you even think abt defeating your enemy.' If you can live to fight another day, you get another shot at life - just wait patiently and don't be afraid to pass up opportunities, like a patient value investor insisting on a good margin of safety. Control the downside and the upside will take care of itself.
I've gotten myself burned by trying to wear too many hats (i.e., be perfect), when in fact the biggest priority should be to put myself in an undefeatable position (i.e., be 'good enough') - by staying in the game and living to fight another day.
Howard Marks' idea of the most desirable investment record - 'Always good, sometimes great, never terrible' (Behind the Memo: Fewer Losers, or More Winners?). In life, just try to stay in the game.
Just be authentic then.... I've never "faked" being anything but myself. Just be honest, who gives a fuck, HR isn't at the interview
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