equity derivatives sales interview tips?

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Upwardslowing,

In securing my S&T summer associate position, I interviewed at several BB firms. Equity derivative sales is actually what I wanted to get into (though I'm now leaning toward interest rate derivatives). Most places I interviewed had a first round "fit" interview and a second/final round more technical interview. Of course, you don't know which way they are going to start, so you definitely want to be prepared for a more technical interview.

Here are a few pointers that I gather from my interviews:

1) Have an opinion on what you think the market is going to do. While there isn't one "right" answer, but you need to be able to support how you came to your viewpoint. I think in this day and age, you need to be able to explain a bit of a global viewpoint.

2) Be prepared to articulate why you want to get into equity derivative sales. That involves being able to answer three questions: a) why S&T?, b) why equity derivatives?, and c) why sales?

3) Do not attempt to overstate your understanding of derivatives. When asked, how much do you know about derivatives, I would answer with "Not enough". Then if you can explain what an option is and what the 6 factors that determine its price are, decent odds they won't quiz you any more on that. Some people try to get fancy to displaying their understanding of derivatives without ever covering the basics.

4) Be able to tell them clearly and concisely why they should hire you rather than the dozen or so smart people who are being interviewed for the same position.

5) Be highly motivated in your interview. Enthusiasm could be the difference between getting an offer or not.

Hope that helps, Xango

good post...but the "not enough" should be soemthing in the lines of "never enough" not enough can backfire, although i do like it

Know a little bit about the Greeks, skew, Black-Scholes etc. Be able to talk about other equity derivatives such as dividend swaps, volatility/variance swaps... how they have traded recently, how they are structured, etc. Be able to give atleast 2/3 trade ideas in derivative space. As a salesperson, the best way you can convince them to hire you is to give a trade idea that is well justified and seems plausible to work. The number of times sales candidates go in without having a trade idea is ridiculous.

For a junior equity derivatives sales position they will ask some questions like basic principles of seals,difference between seals and marketing,Sell me this book.

Intro to Var/Vol Swaps, all you would need be expected to know for a junior sales/trading position (and even this is pushing it): http://www.leveredhedge.com/articles/trading-articles/variance-swaps-pricing-and-hedging/

Things to look at when generating trade ideas: http://www.leveredhedge.com/articles/interview-articles/trading-ideas/

Good luck.