BlackRock interview w/o finance background, advice?

Long time reader first time poster here.

I found out I have interviews with BlackRock's cash and securities lending group and their global market strategies group in a few days. I have a quantitative background, but have no experience in finance and possess little domain knowledge.

Any advice on how to prepare (both technical/fit) and what to expect in the interview and on the job would be greatly appreciated. The interviews appear to be great opportunities and I don't want to blow it.

I have been reading through the vault guide to finance but assume there are more effective preparation materials out there.

8 Comments
 

is that 2 different groups? for cash and securities lending, I wouldn't expect the interview to be overly technical. its a middle/back office function and from what I understand of it, you don't need much finance knowledge. its basically making sure the funds don't go overdrawn and checking the credit worthiness of hedge funds, etc. who want to go short with your stock.

global market strategies will be full of economists so brushing up on your macroecon and current affairs, esp. wrt to the current market crisis will be a very safe bet. the vault guide is pretty useless for asset management roles as it is heavily slanted towards IB/S+T

 

yeah, two different groups and interviews.

great, thanks for the advice, any materials you'd recommend?

for both of these positions, what would the exit ops be (if any)? would it be difficult to move to other areas of finance?

 

It wasn't that technical. The most technical was tell me about the markets? What's going on? A lot of behavioral questions. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. I've been waiting for a response for the San Francisco office.

 

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