S&P Credit Analyst Interview

Hi,

I'm a junior at a semi/non target school (Tufts) and managed to land an interview for the credit analyst role at S&P. I have prior internship experience at a fund of funds where I did some financial modeling and at a private bank where I was working more on asset allocation, but have little to no experience in fixed income investing, let alone credit analytics.

I'm an Econ major, no big coding experience but I'm okay with Excel. I know most about the financial services industry, but don't know much about credit analytics. Can anyone with experience in this give me a better overview of what the job entails, the work culture of S&P, and general interview tips?

Just to note, I'm scheduled for two 30 minute interviews with MDs.

Thank you for your help!

 

If it's only 2 x 30min interviews, there won't be any technical case studies but I would definitely brush up on basic accounting concepts in case they decide to quiz you. Familiarize yourself with how the three statements are linked and what they are useful for showing. Know a few ratios (profitability, leverage, solvency etc), debt repayment and what the process is for determining a credit rating. There are a ton of info out there on general credit analysis, so do a quick search on google and investopedia and you should be off to a decent start. Also think about general macro events and how that could potentially affect the credit rating of a particular sector/region.

 

Hey,

I participated in the summer internship (first batch for that program). If its 2, 30 minutes with the MDs (as opposed to the analysts - which is the first round after video interview). It is mostly fit (no technicals).

That being said, I prepared for all types of questions. The more prep the better. Just show that you are interested (being well spoken is a plus as well as a lot of the work they do is via phone - which is why interviews are (typically) only via phone). Hopefully that helps. Good luck!

 

Thanks guys. I think I did well- they asked very basic technicals (what are the 3 financial statements) and the only one I kind of got messed up on was tell me different ratios that can be used to compare different characteristics of companies. I couldn't come up with a risk ratio on the spot (know I could have said debt to assets or something), but they said don't worry I don't really care, HR forces to ask us- you'll learn all of this through the program.

My interview was 2 weeks ago, still haven't gotten a response. They said HR would contact me- am I screwed? Emailed HR yesterday but they didn't reply...

 

Hi thanks for your sharing. I was wondering whether the video interview is a ore-recording interview and what kind of questions I can expect in that video in?

 

Hey epic bump- got an email to set up a final interview. I'm abroad, so it's going to be a skype interview. Any tips on how to prepare? Never been through to a top tier final interview before.

 
Best Response

My tip for final interview (apologies for being late) is showing an international / cross cultural type of vision/behaviour. Typically, the offices are very 'international' with huddles every morning for updates on what goes on in various teams around EMEA or US (if based there). Therefore, being able to communicate effectively with a diverse group is crucial.

In terms of the day to day, it really depends on what team you are in. In corporates, you are an operational/support member of the team. Works can include, putting aside the final presentation on an unrated company, reading through annual reports to write a business/financial outlook for the company (did this for several companies at different times). Spreading some annual reports on their programs (typically happens especially if fluent in another language -> this is more of an administrative type of process but gives a lot of insight in each line of the statements as you really need to understand what you are doing). Other tasks come on an ad hoc basis. For instance, I worked on commodities for a forecasting project on how prices were likely to fluctuate in the long run.

The big plus of the internship are; if given a chance to attend, the management meetings (very humbling) and a greater understanding of annual reports.

 

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