Facepalm moments at info sessions
So tonight I was at a GS info session, and a student asked verbatim "what can you tell me about the work/life balance at GS?" The whole room (~100 students), plus the 9-10 alums currently working at GS fielding questions all turned pale and looked awkwardly at each other. It was a classic facepalm moment. To provide us with a little comic relief during recruiting season, what are the worst/funniest questions you've heard at info sessions or other similar events?
[mod note]This kid clearly needed the WSO IB Interview Course...
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Haha, "moe-ellis"
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Classic. Hate when people do that.
I pronounced it like this on the phone and still moved on in the process haha
I think we're at the same school because I had the exact same experience... It was excruciating.
And in my story, the same student also asked a question using a metaphor about where the VP's kids went to elementary school.
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At a BB Info session, one kid straight up asked about exit opps and what type of PE firms recruit. The level of stupidity...
I keep reading that it's stupid to do so on WSO but it seems to get discussed at info sessions at my school all the time. I've been to an info session where the presenters straight up had a slide on the latest PE placement for their very reputable MM firm. I spoke with an alumn at a BB that said the senior people in his group actually expect you to leave for PE (I think he worked in either LevFin or Sponsors). Alumni, especially at the analyst/associate level, seem to have very little issue with discussing this topic regardless of whether it's in a more private one on one conversation or in a large, public info session. Is it really that stupid of a question to ask, especially when everyone knows that it matters?
At boutiques it's less frowned upon. Most BBs it is because it's seen as basically propelling yourself by using them (not to mention the associates and VPs you're talking to are usually the ones who were not able to escape IB into PE). Sponsors and LevFin are less so because they work regularly with PE firms and the implication is much more there
Perhaps times have changed but asking about what proportion of analysts get promoted and where the other analysts go was a pretty common question just a few years ago. IMO Analysts can (and arguably should) be less certain about where they're going to be in 5 years.
Asking about what types of PE firms recruit is dumb, but I actually remember senior bankers using PE exits as a selling point, saying something like "everyone from the previous class who wanted PE got there"
At a GS info session at a target (this happened two years in a row), someone asked the speakers to essentially address bad press the company has received and ask what good they provide to society.
that is a good question. I would respect anyone who asked me that
Still a pretty bold move IMO
It's a dumb "gotcha" question, nobody who is attending a fucking info session is qualified to answer that question or represent their firm in that way. Also, you're a student, of course you think that way!
Advice for the students: Please don't ask stupid questions at info sessions - it not only makes you unemployable, but it reflects badly on your class and your school for not training you to not say stupid shit like that.
seconded. I would totally respect anyone who asked me that.
if you r not confident in what ur firm is doing/representing, prob u shouldn't be working there
Lmao. That's awesome!
At a case event day, we had a few Guys talking to a senior MD at a MM bank. This dude end ups intterupting the MD and says the english equivalent of "later Guys I'm out". No handshake or thanks to the MD, everyone just stared at each other in amazement.
prolly didnt give a fuck about getting the job
Should have provided more context. This was during drinks at the end of the event. The kid was just awkward as fuck in everything. He didn't say this in a I'm a badass and don't want this job kind of way, he probably just had never been in a professional environment and didn't know how to not be socially awkward. Funny part was the MD actually got visibly annoyed and complained to us.
What is an IPO?
deleted
That was a question asked at an event.
Also Snapchat isn't recent anymore, that was over 6 months ago
How do you guys know that was a student and not a recruiter from tech or a prop shop?
GS does a lot of underhanded stuff in recruiting, including booking their info sessions at the same time as JPM, poaching candidates from other firms, and basically running a minimax optimization in nearly all hiring decisions rather than just optimizing their objective function. The question isn't "how can we make more money or hire the best people"; it's often "how can we make more money or hire the best people and screw with a competitor?"
Iif I were a recruiter from Google at GS and knew we had candidates interviewing there too, it would be a dirty trick but it would almost be fair game for the way GS recruits and makes friends doing so. And if they had pissed someone off enough... who knows?
Makes sense. They (along with MS) were the ones that lead making recruiting this fucking early
I had no idea how nasty banks and top firms generally can be about this. Most of the time they all act like we're lucky to speak the name of their firm.
It's an "eat what you kill" environment for a lot of bankers. For some, that means balls-to-the-wall tactics.
Not an info session but at career day, someone asked in the middle of the recruiter doing a presentation to a group of students "Wait so do you guys have a station here?" and everyone looked at her with awkward silence. A few minutes later the same girl interrupted the recruiter and asked "So like, what's the salary like?" and left after hearing "We offer a very competitive salary" lmao felt so bad for the recruiter
UK Target
BlackRock PE comes along; and a kid asks: what does BlackRock do? how do I get into PE? What is PE? Is PE IBD?
Literally, was a crowded event and the queue to speak to the head of dept was out the door - and this prat was asking these qns for like 5 mins. The BR head was like yo, stfu I wanna leave; eventually saying do research and don't expect any offers from BR or our competitors if by now you don't know the answers to the qns you're asking . She proceeded to storm out leaving a confused student.
By Far the funniest and most annoying experience as I was next in line and I was searching for the opportunity to butt in or to shut him up. Could see the frustration and annoyance on the BR reps face..
Recently attended a networking event at the GS nyc, a kid asked lloyd "How do you feel about tier 1 distressed debt capital markets affecting the balance sheet of gs with rising interest rates" something ridiculous like that. Needless to say lloyd responded " Really? That was your burning question you wanted to ask me?" everyone started laughing.
Wait... are you implying Lloyd Blankfein was actually at a random student networking event?
It was a fireside chat with Blankfein as the speaker + a networking event at the end. Really, the kid asked about the implications of tier I capital requirements to GS and its balance sheet. And Mr.Blankfein answered the question and proceeded to deliver a spiel on being a well-rounded person.
A while back I named a video game character of mine "Lloyd Blankfein." Respect!
Dude I was there. I was so mad that out of few freaking questions we could've asked Lloyd, this one dick head gets chosen!!
well in case u dont get it: tier 1 capital requirement from BASEL III is a big deal for the B/S of GS and other banks alike. That was a legit question, just prob not the right question to ask a CEO. he should've asked it to the liquidity desk guys and they will be pretty damn impressed
On the flip side, I was at some event where Brady Dougan was speaking (back when he was CEO of CS), and a student asked what his biggest mistake in his career was. He gave some meandering answer about working hard and persevering but never actually answered the question, which was unfortunate, because that question got me really curious about his biggest screw up.
This is actually a pretty good question.
The one kid who always asked simplistic questions about "fintech" or automation at every info session... Why are you even here? Do you even lift bro?
Had GS' Realty Management on campus. A VP and analyst discussed what they do and the differences/relationship between them and the MBD's RE group for ~30 minutes.
Both guys answered several in-depth questions about their specific jobs and how they interacted w/ MBD for ~30 minutes.
Then a kid asked, "So what do you do and how is it different than MBD?" Very awkward silence. Also, a kid asked if GS would consider putting affordable housing as part of its developments and the MD shit on him w/ facts.
The biggest facepalm moment I can recall is actually courtesy of the people doing the presentation.
Smaller bank, running through the regular banking presentation. However, before putting on the required league table of how well the bank is positioned vs. peers on whatever metric they thought looked best, the guy says "So, I know you are all clever guys and you know that one can basically make statistics show whatever you want" (implying that one should not pay too much attention to it). Proceeds to show the bank positioned as number three...
Maybe I haven't been to enough info sessions, but the presenters have said something to this effect in literally every one I've been to. Obviously they put their bank as number one though haha.
I honestly don't blame him for that. I don't know how large the pool was, but third doesn't sound bad compared to how many people want to get into IB - but also that statistics are really easy to "influence" the interpreter - just a matter of screwing with the way the data is presented.
Not during a company infosession, but a kid rushing my business fraternity asked me: "I'm really interested in Investment Banking and Consulting, but could you explain to me the difference between Banking and Consulting?"
This is unreal.
No Joke...
Not an info session but I once had an intern ask me for a raise... I rolled my eyes so hard I woke up with a gaggle of Silver Back Gorillas and Senator Dianne Feinstein.
...and the scariest part wasn't the Silver Back Gorillas.
Not an info session, but a career fair at semi-target.
Girl walks up to Western AM's table and asks about becoming a "real estate agent" when there were at least five different CRE Brokerage companies with tables not 100ft away. The Western AM employees at the table looked puzzled with a wtf-look on their face and quickly told her to go home and research more about he company.
Felt embarrassed for her.
BB info session a few weeks ago. Some freshman asked them how they plan to make money off cryptocurrency. Was met by blank stares before one vp chimed in to say "yeah that's not really relevant to what we do"
These kids seem to be everywhere now and my soul aches
To be honest, reading some of the comments here, I just don't get all the hate. Maybe it was because my background is slightly different from that of most folks on this forum.
Guy must have had an accent or something. The lack of exposure at a non-target (to weird company names) doesn't help his case. Yes, there was a time when I used to pronounce it as Mo-ellis. Don't know the context for this obv, but if this were a tete -a-tete conversation and if he had a hunch about where the kid was (alma mater, etc), then I wouldn't see an issue. Otherwise it's fucking creepy. Agree. Some people are socially awkward as fuck. That's how WE get their jobs. As far as I know, GS is actually very open to the most part about receiving exposure to its philanthropic activities. They held this investor pitch competition recently where the teams composed of GS guys across divisions had to pitch their favorite charities to a top team of partners (including Blankfein). The winners had a princely donation to their favorite charity. Obviously it's a drop in the ocean, but it sure was interesting for those who took part. Obviously you can't expect GS to be the Gates Foundation and donate $10 b to charity. As for addressing bad press, a prospective candidate has every right to question the company's ethical values, if that sort of thing is important to them. Not everyone wants to get a job to make 7 to 8 figure bonuses. Although going too far and focusing only on the philanthropy part is a bit dumb. I've seen this question being asked at MBB info sessions, and for some reason, they had a good set of answers prepared for this. Every fucking time, they have a huge set of stories to choose from. Yes they are. Their job is to essentially pitch the firm and shed some good light onto it. If they want to use some disinterested folks to do the job, that's up to them. But obv, GS wouldn't be affected by doing so, since there are a shit ton of GS fanboys who would gladly offer their first-borns to the Goldman Sachs. Some guys have issues interacting in formal environments. I used to be one like them (albeit a bit less tbh). They may not have had enough formal interaction previously, as you said. The MD should have been dismissive, but instead went full on whiny bitch. That was stupid. Hope this was an engineering/hard sciences guy who attended the event out of curiosity and not for networking opps. Most likely, it was his first time ever learning about a finance company. To draw from personal experience, I first learnt about an IPO during my junior year, even though I had had a finance internship in soph summer. Laughing from the other sideStupid girl. Probably didn't want employment. Most likely an instagram chick. TBH, I didn't even understand the first question.
I been complained about this a million times by my friends at BlackRock. Many guys outside of finance, or without enough finance exposure, confuse between BlackRock and Blackstone. Not to mention how much more confusing it becomes when BlackRock PE comes. Most likely this kid was again in the hard sciences and did not know anything about finance. Happens. Sometimes, my friends just politely tell them they got the wrong firm, or calmly give them a brief idea, since it reflects well on the firm's culture. Which is essentially the whole point of an info session (apart from giving out interview schedules and networking, which I despise during info sessions). Obviously, you ask these from an analyst and not the head lol. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Be afraid. Very afraid. Remember, almost an entire financial industry (discretionary HF) has been wiped out thanks to a bunch of techies who also happened to know a bit of finance and a lot of math. Reading this made my eyes burn. Legend has it that this kid is still looking for meaningful employment. Probably not what I would do in his place, but damn, he was honest and most likely didn't give a fuck about prestige whores in the crowd who give a damn about rankings. Unfortunately, WSO has been inundated by this garbage. Like Frank Quattrone said, "every firm likes to make a quadrant chart, and every firm wants to be placed in the top right corner". Relax. You're talking about a business frat like it's the place filled with the Masters of the Universe. Not yet. If I were a freshman in a non-finance field, heck, I would ask this question myself. In my time, no one even knew what kind of jobs we would be applying to with our STEM degrees - we all thought we would be building chemical plants and designing electronic devices. And most likely Google would not have helped - Investment Banking and Consulting are both about providing the right advice to clients, albeit for different tasks. Heck, I've seen consulting firms handle M&As, and IBs handling consulting projects for their clients. LSE recruiting is the worst. A colleague of mine had someone try to grope her ass in the info session. Ended up groping me. Fuc* LSE info sessions. Career fairs are confusing tbh for newbs, and she does sound like one. It's not like she would have known which firm was which, and most likely she would have just gone over to the most recognizable name she saw there. Instead of shitting on her and spoiling the rest of her day, they should have directed her to the right firms. This is by far the saddest story I've read here tbh. How about a "yeah, that's not relevant to what we do, but hey, if you are interested in that, I could direct you to the person who handles that stuff in tech at our firm." Or "hey, we don't do that, but you could check out the work we do in cryptocurrency online - we do have solid progress in the area. blah blah." Any BB that isn't into cryptocurrency right now won't be there in 20 years, not because it's the next big thing, but because knowing crypto is a pre-req for working on new technologies that will be at the forefront of finance soon.OK, from my diatribes, it does a bit that I'm biased towards the STEM types (which I am). Tbh, STEM types are the most confused lot, simply because they have a large number of doors open for them, and it's just too difficult for them to choose. Right now, I have a bunch of STEM friends who work in data science, I'm in PE, some in GS strats, some at HFs, some in consulting, some in industry, some in software, some in product sales and so on. But shitting on inquisitive and unprepared kids with a bold guffaw isn't the right way to react to it.
I remember this girl asked a really stupid question in my campus to a guy from a boutique consulting, about their philanthropic work and stuff. The Partner just outright shat on her. She ended up in McKinsey and is doing pretty well for herself.
As for some of my faux pas: * I told a partner at McKinsey that his firm was hierarchical as fuck and they needed to get their Up-or-Out shit sorted out. Turns out, he was handling the "Up or Out shit" for the office I targeted. * Another partner in McK, I asked him would I be able to make partner rightaway if I paid a million dollars for my share. He laughed it off politely, though it was clear he didn't want to continue the conversation. Oh, to this day, I remain close friends with both partners. I learnt from my mistakes, we learn from our mistakes, and I honestly hope that the kids above learnt from theirs too. No need to shit on them from outside.
^ Great example of facepalm moment.
It's 12:30 on a saturday dude. What are you doing.
i remember my first beer
kid at our goldman infosession asks "do you find your work gratifying?"
"...ya"
At a local hf info session I wore my baseball cap backwards because I thought that was what Americans do. Still makes me cringe just thinking about it today.
The backwards baseball cap angle only works if you are also holding a hotdog and a copy of Democracy in America. Then you'll blend right in.
lol dont worry about it - everyone makes mistakes. I once read that square toe shoes were for goobers so I wore these dress shoes to work (at my internship) with fairly pointy toes... not quite elf shoes but getting there. Likewise, it's a suppressed memory.
At one of those meet and greet things the day before a superday had one candidate ask if they would be getting served lunch tomorrow.
Actually laughed out loud when I read this
"Is the summer internship paid?"
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(During open networking session)
kid to associate: "so you do LevFin - I can show you a LBO spreadsheet I did for my XXX class, what's your email?"
associate: (obviously bewildered) smiled and walked away.
So wild.
Lmao
Was at a GS Leadership camp, Lloyd Blankfein came and gave a short talk. At the end he answered some questions, someone asked him what type of finance books does he read. He responded with "I don't read any finance books."
Some girl raised her hand during Q&A, not to ask a question, but to thank the firm for hiring diverse people based on the reps that were there at the info session
I visibly cringed
This needs to be the highest-rated comment
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A student asks me what I do, I respond "investment banking" and he says, "yeah no I get that idea of investing in companies and incubators and s**t, but what do you really do?"
Some kid asked if they hire financial analysts. The firm rep said they do IB analysts and sort of basic what IB analysts do.
Kid re-asked if they can make a role for someone interested in financial analyst role.
If that wasn’t facepalm enough, they said no. The kid then decided to ask why a company doesn’t need someone to do financial analyst role LOL
Worst part was the kid spoke sort of slowly....
Was at an HSBC info session and during the networking period, some dud Asian dude steps into my networking circle to ask an ECM MD "Are you bullish or bearish on fintech?". He then proceeded to give the MD his business card, after the MD gave him a very confused glare. lol
This was actually only ~2 weeks ago, so it's still agonizingly fresh in my head.
At a target in the city, one of the bright young minds at my school goes, "So what is YOUR story? Why did you decide to join Raine Group?"
Now, one might think, fair, not necessarily the worst of questions. But mind you, it was right after the group presentation was just done, so this incoming interviewee for Raine Group IBD summer analyst was asking a personal question in front of the whole entire group. But that's not all folks.
The true catch is that it was asked to Jeff Sine, the INE of Raine Group.
At info session for BB WM. Someone asks, who do i talk to for investment banking?
Depending on how that was delivered, that could be super cringe or just straight up hilarious.
Kid asks the GS global head of M&A: what else makes GS attractive besides prestige and high compensation
Ah yes I remember when I was an intern in consulting and two guys gave us a lunch and learn on their area of expertise. After they were done I asked them if the foosball table had any more balls.
Good times.
"What's the difference between investment banking and sales and trading?"
(At a top target.)
I've cringed hearing these questions being asked.
At an EB info sess - "So everyone tells us why we should be in investment banking, can you tell us why we SHOULDN'T."
During my summer internship at BB someone stands up and asks the CEO - "Your child is about the same age as me, and you are about the same age as my dad. Since you are CEO you don't see your kids often, how do you balance missing out on your child's life and running a company. (literally cringing hearing this out loud)
At a women's event, someone asked a panel of highly successful MD's to talk about a time they did something better than a man.....awkward..
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