Final step in prop firm but no interview at BB
I am having a very weird situation that is going on since around 1.5 years. I am a student at a target in Europe and l would like to do S&T however l am not able to land a single interview.The strange thing is that on the opposite l reached the final panel with every prop firm that l applied for except JS and HRT.Obviously l am no math genius and l couldn't get the job, however my question is why is that? Why can't l get an interview at some banks? For context My tests always say "well above average"Overall l had 2 interviews at BB and only 1 in FO roles that was for exotic derivatives sales (failed after 2 interviews of 2h on technicals).What can l do to get at least one interview at a big bank?I also have no relevant experience in finance just a research position at my uni, but strong technical skills.Also anyone can provide insights on SIG?
Props care about tests and aptitude in interviews and not so much profiles.
Banks care about school, CVs, relevant experience, motivation etc. My guess is your CV isnt great or your cover letter/hirevues suck.
What type of positions are you applying for anyway?
In banks for off-cycle and summer internships but in the markets division. For example in UBS test I got a very strong score.
Shall l do an internship in a boutique? But are there boutiques for s&t?
Applying to more places without understanding your fundamental problem is not gonna get you very far.
Agree with the above.
Would guess you are a Maths student AT Oxbridge/Imperial with a poorly formatted CV.
Not really, l actually study business and my CV is properly formatted! That’s where my question comes from
Most props only focus on your brainpower, don't really care about ur resume/cv as much as BB. Extremely meritocratic. Same thing happend to me.
TLDR:) Especially for Optiver/SIG/Flow/JSC, they would just let you take the assessment/interview as long as ur resume ain't a fucking joke. To give an example for OPtiver Amsterdam office, I was extremely shocked when I heard from HR during the final interview day, that most of the applicants get eliminated in 80to8/sequence round when I thought its hard not to pass this round. So it makes sense for them cuz no matter how much application Optiver gets, the actual portion of in person interview would be infinitesimal, minimizing the time/operational costs incurred due to application process. At the final interview day, there were 3 trader candidates including me, one had no prior internship experience, but only math major in his local country. Another was also a math major, having only warehouse part-time experience at his linkedin account lol:) Certainly they wouldn't even have passed the resume screening for BB.
Same thing for SIG. (Guessing ur doing interview for them now?) first online assessment is definitely doable if you studied math hard, and have decent grasp of probability, but truth is, most students even at Oxbridge or ICL would consider this assessment impossible to pass. assuming ur applying to S&T at BB, more than half of them major in finance/econ,, not STEM majors. so probably they would be elimated in this round, but at BB S&T, if they have a decent internship experience at financial sector, ur the one who gets eliminated against them at the resume screening round.
So definitely you have to grind urself to write down great resume/cover letter. try to get many feedbacks from alumni as much as possible. maybe u aren't skilled in advertising urself? I don't know about recruting culture in Europe but maybe some networking might help.
Thank you for the help and the insight. Here in europe it’s definitely useful to network but not fundamental, l had an interview thanks to this an interview for a tier 3 city WM😂
Anyway l feel like l can advertise myself in a decent way, however l think the competition is very stiff for banks while for prop shops is lower in numbers but higher in quality, and for this reason passing the test l can proceed.
The problem in my opinion is the lack of relevant experience, but how can l make experience in something relevant for S&T given that l can not ace the panel interview at prop shops?
If ur a final year student looking for FT roles, maybe realistic approach might be to recruit for lower tier banks, and try to lateral for upper tier banks later. Or you can apply for OC internship before graduation in some lower tier boutiques or banks, and apply for 1 year MSC program at target schools. Doing a stem degree would likely strengthen ur CV, since you could apply for internship rather than FT, where competition is less fierce. During that period try to network as hard as you can..maybe joining a finance group at the school, etc..
If your are looking for internship, idk..you still have some time and maybe you should open your expectation toward lower tier bank as well. Maybe StanChart, Rabo, Santander, BNP, Socgen, etc types?
REgardless of intern/FT, you should definitely look up for a mentor or alumni who could give u some feedback on ur softskill. Technical interview at S&T is nothing compared to Props, and I don't really think these tech interviews are 100% cool math/brainteasers, but a mixture of some basic derivatives knowledge/super easy brainteasers, up to date market knowledge. So what I think is that there might have been some problems within ur soft skills, that one you can't find out alone.
Yeh prop trading shops are interesting in that your overall profile doesn’t really matter, as long as you can solve the math problems they throw at you efficiently and logically. When I recruited for IB, I threw in some prop trading apps just as backup, and progressed in most of them despite no math major or relevant experience. Did get an offer with a SIG/Jane Street but went the banking route instead. However, I doubt I could’ve gotten any BB S&T interviews given my M&A and PE internships (would have been a weird profile for HR to push through to S&T interviews)
See? That’s what l am talking about. The fact that l interned in the IT department seems crazy to them and even if l have strong technicals l cant get anything.
Thank you for sharing, l now feel a bit better :)
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