Excel Test Nightmare??
I just wrapped up four rounds of interviews for a real estate investment banking position in my hometown. Got my foot in the door by cold emailing the MD, which led to my first interview. The first three rounds went great—I really clicked with the team, partly because some went to the same school as me, and we all had that hometown connection. The technical and personality stuff all felt solid.
Then came round four, a 90-minute live Excel modeling test. I got stuck on one tricky formula, so my numbers were all off, and I couldn’t finish the last tab, which was all about data cleaning with lookup functions. The parts I did complete were right, though, and the interviewer said they use this test to compare candidates, not necessarily expecting anyone to finish.
Now, I’m wondering: how much are they gonna weigh this test compared to my performance in the first few rounds and the connection I built with the team?
Btw I'm a senior in college, and this is a full time role upon grad.
Hard to tell without one of us speaking to the hiring managers directly. One person could look at a shitty test and think "Ah no big deal. We can train him on that in less than a week. He's still worth hiring." just as easily as another could see two applicants they equally love and one crushed the excel test and the other didn't and they don't have another way to differentiate between you and the other person.
Keep your head up and keep us updated.
If you feel like you have a good relationship with the interviewer or whomever administered the test, it could be worth it, as part of your thank you email to them, to acknowledge and identify your formula error, and if you can, offer a solution. If you do it correctly, it will come off as thoughtful and not desperate.
The only thing (in my eyes) that matters is your competition. If everyone else bombed it, you’re probably good. If someone else crushed it you’re probably not. Hope that everyone else bombed it
Highly dependent on the team/firm. I’ve found lean groups often put more weight on modeling tests (atleast for value-add/opportunistic funds, not REIB). Have bombed a couple over the years and went 0/3 on callbacks, but YMMV.
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