2018 UBS Summer Analyst Superday

Hey all I just got invited to an IB superday at UBS NY for summer 2018. I wondered if any one had any UBS specific interview tips as well as insight as to what are the better groups at UBS.

Thanks!

 

Two kids from my school had a super day on the 17th and got offers that night while at the airport, I had a super day on the 18th and was given an offer that night also, so the turn around is pretty quick although i was told that the latest i would hear back was the Tuesday of the following week.

 
jsuo19:
Two kids from my school had a super day on the 17th and got offers that night while at the airport, I had a super day on the 18th and was given an offer that night also, so the turn around is pretty quick although i was told that the latest i would hear back was the Tuesday of the following week.

I think they were told that they would hear back by Tuesday of the following week.

 

I don't think that choosing a later interview date would hurt you guys since im sure they only take a set number from each superday. from what i understand they only gave 1 offer to one person in each interview group, so on the day that i went we were split into 4 groups and 4 offers were made.

 
God of Wine:
Thanks for the info, jsuo. Where did you hear that from or what makes you think they only took 1 person from each pod?

The two other people from my interview group did not receive offers, and a friend of mine who interviewed on the same day as me who is as qualified if not more so then I am did not receive an offer but someone else in his pod did.

 
youngIBD:
pretty sure you didnt get it if you didnt hear back yet...UBS is notorious for NEVER getting back to candidates

Damn, that really does suck. I called up HR on Friday (the day after) because I had some other offers outstanding (not front office) and they said they would get back to me latest by Wed. I really hope they do. This wait is awful.

 
youngIBD:
pretty sure you didnt get it if you didnt hear back yet...UBS is notorious for NEVER getting back to candidates

As I said earlier, UBS is known for pulling that shit. I have plenty of buddies who got dinges at UBS that wnet on to get offers from other banks, many some might consider better AND that pay actual bonuses.

This practice creates so much ill-will. I really hope some clown from their HR group reads this.

 

I guess that makes sense or it may be some crazy coincidence.

Makes sense just because everyone is pretty qualified once it gets to superdays and it's not like we interviewed with every MD/Director/AD/Associate. So maybe the way its done is the interviewers from your POD meet up and pick their favorite candidate. They have seen all 4 candidates and therefore can pick one. That way 4 offers are made (from 4 pods).

However, if that were the case, I would think that SOMEONE who interviewed on the 24th/25th would have responded that they got the job. Maybe not though.

God of Wine, do you know anyone else from our superday or Friday's superday that got the offer? I know two kids so far haven't received any communication...

 
rurookie:
I guess that makes sense or it may be some crazy coincidence.

Makes sense just because everyone is pretty qualified once it gets to superdays and it's not like we interviewed with every MD/Director/AD/Associate. So maybe the way its done is the interviewers from your POD meet up and pick their favorite candidate. They have seen all 4 candidates and therefore can pick one. That way 4 offers are made (from 4 pods).

However, if that were the case, I would think that SOMEONE who interviewed on the 24th/25th would have responded that they got the job. Maybe not though.

God of Wine, do you know anyone else from our superday or Friday's superday that got the offer? I know two kids so far haven't received any communication...

Rurookie,

I only reached out to my pod. No one in my pod has had any contact. So, that's why I was wondering about the 1 offer per pod thing. I would like to know if I had previously reached out to you, or if you were from a different pod. You can PM with me with one of your interviewers last names or something about your pod if you want so we can clarify if we're double counting.

 
rurookie:
I guess that makes sense or it may be some crazy coincidence.

Makes sense just because everyone is pretty qualified once it gets to superdays and it's not like we interviewed with every MD/Director/AD/Associate. So maybe the way its done is the interviewers from your POD meet up and pick their favorite candidate. They have seen all 4 candidates and therefore can pick one. That way 4 offers are made (from 4 pods).

However, if that were the case, I would think that SOMEONE who interviewed on the 24th/25th would have responded that they got the job. Maybe not though.

God of Wine, do you know anyone else from our superday or Friday's superday that got the offer? I know two kids so far haven't received any communication...

I know of at least one person from the Friday super day who got an offer. They mentioned they got a call before 5:00 PM from someone they spoke with earlier that day.

 

Is this Europe? The numeracy test will likely be SHL or PSL (PHL?). See SHL.com for examples.

The case will probably be a basic case that will require you to come up with a framework for analysis. Your logic and organization is the most important thing. When I interviewed, mine became pretty technical but that's because I had prior finance experience and led it that way because I liked the technical side. It's usually timed, so plan wisely.

 

dayaam, thanks for the reply. I can't say I'm perfectly current with the issues, and I'm not sure if I understand them VERY well. I do know, however, that keeping senior tranches of their CDO in the morgage securitization business in the US was a pretty bad idea, much like I guess it was for Lehman. I was not planning on bringing their problems up in my pitch ("and now that youre doing shit and cutting everyone's bonuses, I feel truly enthusiastic about joining UBS"), but rather thought I might bring it up in Q&A.

Bravehart, I am not sure. Lots of people seem to want to go to HK so it seems like they still have a solid reputation over there, but I would appreciate any information on their Asia business. Seems like a good thing to mention in the "Why UBS" question!

 
swetom:
Bravehart, I am not sure. Lots of people seem to want to go to HK so it seems like they still have a solid reputation over there, but I would appreciate any information on their Asia business. Seems like a good thing to mention in the "Why UBS" question!

Mention "I want to end up in UBS HK so I'm applying to UBS London"? Uhh no. At least dress it up as liking their global platform or something..

 

ask them why they have so many lawsuits, scandals, and lost so much IBD business. tell them u expect ur offer soon and that you need it by next week so you can go back to focusing on the REAL banks that you are applying for. tell them they are a back back back safety and that you're only applying because its a "sure thing". finally, mention that UBS would be a sinking ship but you don't think so 'cause ships don't sink this fast. More like a sinking warp drive mach 8 jet or something.

Or you can just avoid the issues like everyone else suggests.

 
fembotma:
ask them why they have so many lawsuits, scandals, and lost so much IBD business. tell them u expect ur offer soon and that you need it by next week so you can go back to focusing on the REAL banks that you are applying for. tell them they are a back back back safety and that you're only applying because its a "sure thing". finally, mention that UBS would be a sinking ship but you don't think so 'cause ships don't sink this fast. More like a sinking warp drive mach 8 jet or something.

Or you can just avoid the issues like everyone else suggests.

Appreciate the suggestions for topics to discuss :D
 

Thank you Gecko, very insightful.

Anyway, does anyone else have any suggestions as to how to avoid talking about how poorly they are doing? Naturally, I could take about their new "one firm" model and how they look to be turning the ship around in 2010, and mention that they are doing well in Asia (ex-Japan...) However it would be interesting to hear what they think about the future for their health care team, for example :)

Any comments are greatly appreciated.

 

I would just say that you have read about some of the problems UBS has been having, but you are confident in the company and want to be part of a team that is improving things and hungry to succeed rather than work for a complacent firm. I wouldn't go into the problems or make it sound like you are bashing the firm, but everyone who is interviewing you are people who have managed to not get fired so probably believe that they are part of the solution not the problem.

 

Are you for real? I can just see the MD going: "CDOs a bad idea? No! Really? You just worked that out? Let me write that down before I forget." Lol. I was interviewing with UBS London when they were having REAL problems.

My advice to you, if you sooo want to focus on the negatives, would be to cover RECENT news like client outflows in the Swiss unit because of the US business (some yankee cowboys who thought it would be clever to smuggle diamonds & other shit in toothpaste tubes, and offer to "relocate" their clients' funds into off-short accounts as a form of "tax structuring".) Don't talk about the US business, UBS are not proud of it, but shit happens. Talk about UBS missing out on the DCM glut and how they are rebuilding that now (along with FICC).

On the positives, talk about them maintaining their strength in the European business as well as them profiting from the recent Asia ECM/IPO boom.

But seriously though, once you get past the "why UBS" question (and for any negative you must give an upside if you want to get the positive ticks) it should be plain sailing.

__________ Just my 2c.
 

Lorello is a US case, so unless your interviewer works in healthcare or is/was from the US, then they'll just try to laugh it off because they probably don't know themselves. They'll probably say something along the lines of "Well, it was just one team, not really important to the UBS business, we have hired people to replace them, etc." then most likely there will be an awkward silence as the interviewer runs out of steam.

A closer to home example would be Jim Renwick moving to BarCap. Now, Jim was head of UBS's uber profitable (esp. when you consider that UBS doesn't churn its balance sheet as much as other BBs do) ECM business as well as VC of IBD, and from what I hear a real rainmaker. With that in mind you could ask (in a conversational sort of way) about the importance of personal relationships in ECM and M&A, how has the loss of Jim affected ECM (and considering that they still fairly strong, it appears not that much) and how would it affect M&A if they, for example, lost an MD equivalent to Jim.

But generally, the best approach would be to look to the future positives, i.e. how can UBS maintain their Asia presence, how can they regain their US presence, how long will all that take, etc.

A final, really on the money, point would be UBS slipping to third in the UK corp brokerage tables. I think there was a FT article on it and their points are that, JPMC maintained their lead with 36, BAML have made huge progress and now have 32, and UBS lost a couple and now have 30.

__________ Just my 2c.
 

Forgot to post back to this thread. Thanks a bunch for all the answers, I think the AC went well. Presentation exercises etc felt fine, and one of the interviews was great. Didn't connect too well with the second interviewer, however, and I did not get an offer. Found out from feedback that second interviewer ranked me "average". Anyways, still some interviews to go so not the end of the world. Got many great hints from here.

 

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