summers 2010 - spidi2.iimb.ac.inspidi2.iimb.ac.in/~networth/resources/preps/r5.pdf · 2. one thing...

Summers 2009-10

Interview Experiences, DayZ

Profile

Interview Experience

Company: JP Morgan Chase

Interviewed for IBD

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline Interview 1- fit test (by head IBD division), Interview 2- slightly technical

What do you think they were looking for

Fit, interest to learn, and interest in fin & IBD in general, confidence

What went wrong/right Very simple interview – nothing went wrong.

Tips on what you think helped you in the interview

Meeting the people during company PPT beforehand. Since, we had talked at length already, there was no stress in the interview. Personals are important. Some amount of technical stuff won’t harm. They look for confidence while you speak.

Dos/Don’ts, Special Preparation

Personals, basics about the company and what it has been doing recently should be known.

Please list down some of the main questions that you were asked:

Q1. What is your outlook of the telecom sector in the year ahead?

Q2. Take me through a recent M&A. – I talked of Bharti & MTN

Q3. Tell me about an IPO that you have followed recently. - Indiabulls

Q4. Brief me on how the sensex has been doing over the past 2 months.

Q5. What are the different methods of valuing a company?

. Why IBD and not markets?

.

Name Kanchan Mishra

Educational Qualification B. Tech (ECE), IIT Guwahati

Workex (Company/Mths) NVIDIA Graphics (23 months)

Summers Company JP Morgan Chase

Profile


Company: Boston Consulting Group

Interviewed for Summer Intern

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline A personal question followed by a case followed by a chat with the partner/principal


Someone with good communication skills, convincing ability and strong extra-curriculars

What went wrong/right Nothing went wrong


I was calm, my friends helped me a lot; they calmed me down. I analysed the case well. Covered all basics.


Prepare personals well. Be ready to talk with the concerned people about the company.


Q1. You have good extra-curriculars. How have you managed to balance that with

academics?

Q2. We see you have a good resume. But there are many good resumes we’ve seen

already. What makes you special from the others?

Q3.Would you like to ask us something?(twice)

Name V Harikumar

Educational Qualification B.Tech Electronics

Workex (Company/Mths) None

Summers Company Boston Consulting Group

Profile


Company: Goldman Sachs & Barclays

Interviewed for Markets

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline Personals


Confidence

What went wrong/right

Right: Maintained my cool, try to talk as much as possible (but don’t be verbose and boring) and be friendly Wrong: Jumped on to the answer to some of the personals, without actually thinking through and was caught in a trap in the middle of the answer


Just be cool, calm and hold your nerves.


Personals are a must Always say in case the answer is not known, instead of trying to bluff or rather say that not sure and take a “calculated guess” Never express preference for a role/location as rigid. Be flexible to accept anything unless you are ready to sacrifice that company if the role is not available. Even in that case, better not to be rigid in expression.


1. Tell me about yourself. 2. One thing in the resume you are most disappointed about and would like to

improve/change it and one thing you are really proud of (asked in Barclays Capital) 3. What is the most stupid question that an interviewer can ask? (blackstone group) 4. Its going pretty boring, tell me something interesting about yourself. (blackstone) 5. What is your weakness? (GS) 6. Are you suited to work in Goldman Sachs? (asked in Barclays)

a. Screwed it by saying no initially and then trying to modify in the middle of the answer when I realised that I am bashing myself by saying no!

7. After I said I am interested in structuring, the question was that lets say we have no role in structuring. Would you then not join us? (GS)

8. What are the parameters that affect the price of an option? (Barclays and GS) 9. Why would someone use straddle? (GS) (This was asked because I deliberately

used the word strategies, when asked about my knowledge on options)

Name Umang Mittal

Educational Qualification B.Tech (Computer Science), IIT Delhi

Workex (Company/Mths) Nil

Summers Company Goldman Sachs

Profile


Company: Royal Bank of Scotland

Interviewed for Corporate Finance (IBD)

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline

First interview was totally about personals. It was sort of an informal chat. We talked about life at IIMB - the huge amount of competition, the fact that there are very few girls on campus, about summers process, about acads and something about why I wanted to join RBS. Second interview was about basic FinAcc and CorpFin fundae because I said that my preference was for IBD in the first interview. Else you would probably get questions on markets and math puzzles.


I think they were looking for honesty, confidence and comfort level while speaking. The interviewer wanted honest answers and didn’t tolerate globe.


I was quite comfortable during the interview and was able to give honest opinions about various aspects of campus life, placements and my interests as such which I think worked in my favour. Confidence was also important.


I think that my honesty, my passion for learning, confidence levels, ability to keep the conversation going and connect with the speaker.


No globe answers in personals.


Q1. How has IIMB been for you? Have you made friends? Girlfriends?

Q2. Why do you want to join RBS?

Q3. What is WACC? How do you calculate it? What is the formula?

Q4. What is P/E? Is there another way of looking at it?

Name Sadanand Kamat

Educational Qualification B. Tech (NIT, Surathkal, E&C)

Workex (Company/Mths) LSI Logic (Semiconductor company)

Summers Company Royal Bank of Scotland

Profile


Company: RBS GBM

Interviewed for RBS GBM

No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline Very Quick; personals; was the first interview


People who could interact well; Fit for the bank; Readiness to accept change

What went wrong/right Personals and previous internship experience


Smiled a lot; Was confident; Directed the interview to my comforst areas



Q1. Tell me about yourself

Q2. How would you solve a problem when your team member knives you from the

back

Q3. Locational preferences

Q4. What do you think is the most important aspect in banking today.

Name Savio Joseph P

Educational Qualification BE Hons Computer Science


Summers Company RBS GBM

Profile


Company: Anand Rathi

Interviewed for 5 minutes

No. of Interviews one

Interview Outline Personals based


Aspirants with good communication skills and better understanding about the company and the division they have come down to hire for. Also ability to walk through the resume completely is tested.

What went wrong/right I was right in being able to express myself in a brief yet effective manner.


I was able to focus on my strengths in terms of academics and work experience and brought out my interest for IBD in a perfect manner.


Know your resume thoroughly and get your personals right. Get to know the way valuations are done in several industries and the several functionalities in the IBD division.



Q2. What do you know about the work at IBD

Q3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now

Q4. What are your key interest areas in the investment banking silo

Q5. What do you know about Anand Rathi

Name Sonali Korada

Educational Qualification C.A.

Workex (Company/Mths) PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. / 13 months

Summers Company Anand Rathi - IBD

Profile


Company: J.P Morgan

Interviewed for Markets (Sales)

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline 2 rounds of 20 mins, 1 tech/finance , 1 HR


Basic finance , more stress on communication skills


Wrong: More preparation on financial instruments would have helped, was not really able to answer few basic questions. Right : Expressed interest, indicated as a person suitable for the role


Remembering stuff from the PPT also helps !


Knowing the relevant courses – Corp Fin, Fin Acc basics was tested upon.


Q1. If the inflation rates are high, would you want to be a borrower or lender ?

Q2. A product should have fixed returns of 20 if price of RIL is above 100 , else no payoff.

Can you design it ?

Q3. Explain the trends in the markets over the last 1 year.

Name Navin M

Educational Qualification B.E(Hons), BITS Pilani

Workex (Company/Mths) 0

Summers Company J P Morgan (Sales)

Profile


Company: Bain & Co, Nomura

Interviewed for Bain & Co, Nomura

No. of Interviews 4 for Bain, 1 for Nomura

Interview Outline Bain was focused on cases; Nomura on oil prices, supply and demand of oil, personals.


Bain – Fit, case solving. Nomura – Fit and basic knowledge of markets, macro and micro economics.

What went wrong/right Bain – Cases can get stressful, especially when done in a row. The panellists always try to help you relax though.


Both companies – Being yourself is important, especially with personals. Staying relaxed helps the most.


Bain – Case solving. Doing the case guides from Wharton, Vault etc helped, attending the case workshops by the seniors and Bain folks. Nomura- Basic knowledge of stock prices and economics.


Q1. Nomura – Price of oil, factors that affect supply and demand of oil in the long and

short term.

Q2. Nomura – What are your 3 key learnings from your work experience?

Q3. Bain – Why consulting? What will make you fit in a consulting role?

Q4. Bain – What are you passionate about?

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Name Maithri B

Educational Qualification BCA

Workex (Company/Mths) 34, Father’s Joint venture co and Infosys.

Summers Company Bain & Co

Profile


Company: Goldman Sachs


No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline 1 interview of 20 mins.


Confidence, interest, good communication skills


I was able to answer all the questions passionately since they were focussed on items I had been really interested in. I don’t suppose anything went wrong.


Good communication skills and ability to answer the questions in depth.


Dos : Know your resume really well


Q1. Walk me through your resume

Q2. Talk about your JP Morgan experience. Then detailed questions on the China

consumer space (the sector I covered at JPM), things like management structure of a

particular company, why invest in the sector etc.

Q3. Which sectors I had invested in and why in detail

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Name Pulkit Singhal

Educational Qualification BTech EE, IIT Madras

Workex (Company/Mths) 14 months JPM, 8 months ARM Embedded Company

Summers Company Goldman Sachs

Profile




No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline One panel, mostly personals


I think they were looking for a proper fit since they asked very simple technical questions.

What went wrong/right I went in early – that might have helped.


I did some mock interviews with seniors, which helped me be confident with my personals. One of the seniors actually explained the entire sub-prime crisis to me in detail which I exactly reproduced when they asked me the same question ☺



Q1. Explain your work during your internship at GS. What do you think you could have done

better? What did you do well?

Q2. Would you say you are a team leader or a team player?

Q3. Can you explain the sub-prime crisis?

Q4. Which role would you be interested in? Why? Any location preference?

Q5. What are your strengths? Why should we not hire you?

Q6. Why was GS not your first preference? (tricky one �)

Name Jyothsni Reddy

Educational Qualification BTech, IITM


Summers Company UG intern at Goldman Sachs Quant Strat

Profile


Company: Cowell & Lee Hedge Fund

Interviewed for Cowell & Lee Hedge Fund

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline Macroeconomics + General knowledge+ personals


A good feel for the macroeconomic environment and the markets; ability to take a well reasoned view on market, across geographies; Ability to synthesize data, not just number crunching ability

What went wrong/right Wrong – Didn’t handle one personal right; Right – Handled the Macroeco part , GK and rest personals well;


Read lot of blogs and sites on the industry(hedge funds); Went through Global economic outlook report released by IMF some days back. ET articles


Don’t mention terms that you donot know about. I was cross questioned on the things I mentioned in my responses/questions.


Q1. Macro trend in currency, int rates, regulation etc.

Q2. Where are global markets right now, where they will go from here

Q3. Some well known strategies that hedge fund take – long/short, global macro etc.

Q4. Recent Examples of curiosity and creativity – two qualities very much needed to

succeed in this industry

Q5. What unique skills you ‘ll bring to table

Q6 Your view on Democracy and free markets, there relation and where will they evolve from here

Q7 Pros and Cons of having multiple funds in one hedge fund

Q8 Regulation and hedge fund industry

Q9 ETF(Exchange traded Fund) and hedge funds, flight of capital, use of ETFs

Name Vishnu Dutt Sharma

Educational Qualification B E

Workex (Company/Mths) Texas Instruments, 35 months

Summers Company Cowell & Lee Hedge Fund

Profile


Company: RBS


No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline Personals


Willing to work under pressure and take initiative on his/her own

What went wrong/right Good communication skills helped me


Proper answering of personals adequately supported by examples helped me


Personals



Q2. Are you willing to work on mundane tasks?

Q3.How will you handle pressure situations?

Q4.Why banks and not consults?

Name Ankit A. Zatakia

Educational Qualification BTech (IT)

Workex (Company/Mths) 9 months

Summers Company RBS

Profile


Interviewed for IBD

No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline Personals, work experience, basic finance questions


Passion


Right: My intro and my pitch for why IBD clicked very well. They asked only one Fin question to me; even though I did not answer it more convincingly my intial pitch related to my work experience more than sealed the interview


Enthusiasm in the interview and reflected passion in the globes I sold. They aren’t looking for your ability/ it s all about perception building


Personals...intial pitches and relating your strengths by giving sufficient stories.


Q1. Why IBD?

Q2. What qualities do you think you possess that matches the requirements of IBD

Q3. Majorly questions were relating to my work experience.

Q4. How will you assess the financial health of a company

Q5.

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Name Arun S

Educational Qualification BE Mechanical engineering

Workex (Company/Mths) Mu Sigma Business Solutions

Summers Company Anand Rathi

Profile


Company: Macquarie

Interviewed for 25 min

No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline Mostly Personals, Just trying to gauge my interest and drive


Basically enthusiasm and drive

What went wrong/right That I sounded a little interesting, and, enthusiastic


That the interviewer was very relaxed, so, I could settle in.


Personals. Why IBD? Why not IBD? Basically, research should show.


Q1. Where did you interview before us? What other shortlists?

Q2. Why not markets? It suits you looks like. Why IBD?

Q3. Why finance?

Q4. What do you bring to the table?

Q5. What do you think you will have to do as an intern?

6. What downsides do you see of asking for Singapore as a location? That of

Bombay?

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Name Chinmaya Kumar Sharma

Educational Qualification B Tech- IIT Kgp


Summers Company Macquarie

Profile


Company: Avendus Capital

Interviewed for Investment Banking Position

No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline 1

st round: Resume based; 2

nd round: Slight valuation fundaes and

sector knowledge; 3rd

round: HR


1. Energy 2. Fit to the company 3. Basics about finance (corp fin fundaes) 4. Reason for IBD

What went wrong/right Right: Enthusiasm and energy, strong personal preparations Wrong: limited knowledge on valuation


1. Personals preps 2. Reading of the company outline kept outside before the

interview 3. Clear reason for IBD


Do’s: Sound confident, prepare personals Don’t: Don’t tell things that you don’t know


Q1. My major projects (at work), Are there any parallels that I can draw from it and apply to

finance

Q2. About myself

Q3. Automotive Sector- Major deals

Q4. Valuation of a small company

Q5. Are you an emotional person, which animal represents your nature ☺.

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Name Sreejith Narayanan E

Educational Qualification B.Tech, IIT Madras

Workex (Company/Mths) 36 months, Tata Motors and Volvo

Summers Company Avendus Capital

Profile


Interviewed for 1 hour

No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline Technical + Personals


Mostly an individual who was aware about current market conditions and financial products. Also a good job fit.


Wrong - 3 rounds of technical interviews, others had mostly personal interviews Right – Reading the Networth guide. Parts on bond pricing and company valuation were especially useful.


I did not have any fin. related background. Therefore, I kept on proving that I had the hunger to learn the domain and the necessary skill sets to pick up new things. The company had mentioned in their ppt that they needed people who had “fire in their bellies” – so a little bit of aggression/bullishness (not arrogance) was also helpful.


Don’t go in fin areas that you are not comfortable with. Think about how various products would be used to meet the client needs of varied backgrounds. Understand the basics of monetary policy, derivatives, swaps, options, contracts, futures etc.


Q1. I am a senior manager from RIL who has just dropped by to have a cup of tea with you.

You want to make use of this opportunity to sell some products to me. What would those be

and why?

Q2. If I want to buy a portfolio with low risk and you can make one using one or more of

bonds, equity, derivatives and gold futures, then which would you use and why?

Q3. How is a 5 year treasury bill priced? Suppose two years down the line, the r changes

from 5% to 8%, and you had to sell the bond at that point, would you make profit or lose

money?

Q4. What is the role of central bank in a country?

Q5. What are the method of valuation of an organization?

Name Anshumaan Prasad

Educational Qualification Dual Degree in Biotechnology and Biochem. Engg., IIT Kharagpur

Workex (Company/Mths) iRunway India Pvt. Ltd. (Technology Consultation in Intellectual Property Rights), 12

Summers Company Royal Bank of Scotland

Profile



No. of Interviews JP – 1, ML - 2

Interview Outline

Mostly Eco related stuff since im a fresher and have an Eco background. Also some general view questions on the economy, inflation, monetary policy (again eco!!)..barely any personals..at times i felt that the interviews were getting too technical for my liking..some very basic option related questions (Knowing the concept of BINARY OPTION is extremely important)..a lot about my resume..surprisingly – no puzzles!!


I felt they were trying to gauge my capability to perform in the role by extrapolating from my past performances(hence the stress on resume and eco)


Wrong: was not too comfortable with technical aspects.. Right: whatever basic personals that they asked; answered all resume related questions and as much of the technical ones that i could.. Was honest about the questions that i did not know the answer to..


Good communication skills, knowing my resume well and at least the basic aspects of the technical parts


Do: Be confident, get your point across smoothly Dont: Try to beat around the bush/globe in your answers..they will ask you to cut the crap on your face..


Q1. Questions on RBI policies, effect of interest rate changes on the economy, exchange

rate; also effect on financial and banking sector (they were probing into all my answers)

Q2.Some basic Microeco stuff – lemons problem, state and market failure

Q3. My opinion about Sensex, where it is heading..how to relate the real growth of an

economy to growth in Sensex..which sectors/stocks would i recommend and based on what

parameters

Q4. Touched upon at least 10 different bullet points on my resume

Name Priyank Patwari

Educational Qualification B.Sc. Econ Hons.

Workex (Company/Mths) -

Summers Company Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Profile


No. of Interviews 7-9 (lost count)

Interview Outline Was a 2 hour long interview, in which I was made to meet everyone who had come down in a one to one interview( sometimes 2 together), sometimes the same interviewers coming back


Passion, and an assurance that i could do the work

What went wrong/right Not very sure about this one,


I had already done all the puzzles that i was asked in the interview. I think the thing which really clinched it was that I had given a lot of thought to my personals. I basically made use of everything which had been told to me, including preparing good questions to ask when given a chance. Be extremely enthusiastic. Refuse to agree to the fact that you are exhausted even after two hours. Be prepared to answer anything from your resume.


Be extremely energetic throughout your interview.


Q1. What do you think is the main source of worry for economies the world over?

Q2. Do you follow any particular stocks? ( actually did for sometime and hence wanted this

question to be asked)

Q3.Puzzles, all a subset of the collection available on DC++

Q4.Questions on options as I had mentioned that i had an idea of the basics (may not have

been a good idea)

Q5.Strengths , weaknesses, what drives me.

Q6. Any particular roles which I had in mind ? (structuring/trading)

Q7. Questions on probability.

Q8. Guesstimate on the number of marriages in India per year.

Q9. Many questions connected to the resume.

And basically many other questions which came out of the above. Can remember only

these many right now. Interview was quite exhausting.

Name Shruti Johari

Educational Qualification B.A. (Hons) Mathematics

Workex (Company/Mths) Nothing as of now

Summers Company Deutsche Bank

Profile



Interviewed for Special Situations Group

No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline

The interview was more conversational in nature. Questions asked included:

1. You are a CA and have chosen Finance again now. Doesn’t that show you as a conservative person who takes no risk?

2. Why did you mention your preference at IBD? (had initially mentioned my preference was for IBD)

3. What did you like/not like about your work with PwC 4. How would you describe the manager you worked for at

PwC? 5. Talk about any Accounting Standard you are comfortable

with 6. In an inflationary scenario, which method of inventory

valuation would fetch higher profits? 7. Imagine you are a journalist. Tell us how you would

chronicle all significant events in the financial world between January 2007 and June 2008

8. What is subprime? Why did the subprime crisis happen? 9. Do you have any specific questions for us?


Basic Financial Knowledge; Good communication skills; Confidence

What went wrong/right Right : The mood was light. Interviewers were cordial Wrong: Nothing specific


Fluent conversation and Finance background


Do: Be confident; Reason out all your answers in case you feel you cannot directly get to the right answer and need a thinking process in place (Basically think out loud instead of remaining silent while you ponder over things in your mind) Have intelligent questions prepared regarding the division you would be working with / people there / special focus areas during internship etc. Dont : Get flustered or become nervous. Any answer would come to you if you think over it in a logical manner.

Name S Vidya

Educational Qualification CA, B.Com

Workex (Company/Mths) Price Waterhouse Coopers (4 months); Also, interned there for 3 yrs during CA

Summers Company Goldman Sachs, Special Situations Group

Profile


Company: Credit Suisse, Merill Lynch


No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline Focus on what you portray as your strengths


Enthusiasm to learn and genuineness

What went wrong/right Full on Enthusiasm


Be confident that you are the best candidate for the job


Take 2 seconds pause before answering


Q1. How many planes are flying in India right now?

Q2. What is market capitalization of NSE?

Q3.India or China what is better?

Q4.What is CAPM? Its limitations?

Q5.Why do you want to join us?

Name Aditya Bhargava

Educational Qualification B.Tech, Computer Science VNIT Nagpur

Workex (Company/Mths) Oracle 23months

Summers Company Merill Lynch

Profile


Company: J.P. Morgan

Interviewed for IBD

No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline Tech-HR-Tech


More than technical skills, they were definitely looking for someone who was very eager to learn. I could not answer quite a few technical questions, and told them outright that I do not have a lot of knowledge of this field, but I am very eager to learn and work in this field.

What went wrong/right In the HR questions I was able to lead the interview a lot, and managed to convince them that I am willing to learn new stuff.


CP with the company helped a lot. One of the interviewers remembered me from the CP. Also, being upfront about limited knowledge in the field and eagerness to learn might have helped.


Personals..basic sector and economy knowledge


Q1. Describe happenings in any sector, the stocks, which one to buy, describe to a layman

how stock market has been over last one year...

Q2. Diff between ROE and ROC, some industry debt-equity ratios,leverage-Lehmann

collapse, free-market hypothesis and economic profit (ME),

Q3. Valuation methods, (made to solve a problem using multiples method), on what

parameters to forecast future cash flows of a telecom firm,etc..

Q4. How many people from your batch know you? Are you willing to learn a lot more about

finance? What did you do in your undergrad? How has your performance been here....

Name Anurag Jain

Educational Qualification Electronics Engg. BITS-Pilani, Goa

Workex (Company/Mths) -

Profile


Company:Macquarie

Interviewed for Common interview for funds and ibd.

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline 1 was technical. The other was HR.


Interest in finance


I had read a lot about Real estate and infrastructure and kept on talking about that. Got a bit nervous while explaining valuation and FCF calculations in the technical round


Detailed knowledge about the sector in which the company is specializing and the stock market in general


Don’t lose your cool during the technical rounds. Know a lot about the company and the sector in which it is specializing


Q1. Technicals of valuation and FCF in details. (Corpfin stuff)

Q2. Why IBD? Why Macquarie? Why infra?

Q3.How do you decide which stocks to invest in? (I had shown my interest in stocks)

Q4.5 stocks to invest in

Q5.5 role models

Name Shashank More

Educational Qualification B.E. (Hons) Electronics and instrumentation, BITS Pilani


Summers Company Macquarie

Profile


Company: Barclays Capital


No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline

Both technical; was asked a lot of opinion related questions like views on oil, India Vs China, Interest Rates, Derivatives, differentiation, puzzles and calculations. Probably I was asked so many questions as I had a finance work ex.


Were looking for people with sound interest in finance


Wrong: Didn’t know a lot about the co. Right : Answered all the technical stuff well; especially the questions on opinion on various markets.


Technical knowledge in finance, Please Read Hull, Know all the major indices, oil prices, gold prices, etc


Don’t tell the company that they are low in your preference order.


Q1. Short term and long term view on oil prices. Underlying factors.

Q2. Pricing of futures (probably due to my work ex)

Q3.Gave me a situation and asked me to decide which derivative to use

Q4. Interest rate movements...Basically about the correlation between interest rates,

inflation and exchange rates...

Q5. Puzzle...gave me a proof that “2=1”... and then asked the flaw in the derivation...

Name Sumit Bhartia

Educational Qualification B.Com, CA (Inter)

Workex (Company/Mths) 6; Futures First

Summers Company Barclays Capital

Profile



No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline The first was an HR interview followed by a 1 hour technical interview and then a 15 min interview


Hull Fundae, knowledge of macroeconomics, views on economy, career focus. In my case, because of my background in risk management, they asked a lot about it.


I was able to answer all their technical questions and they liked my views on macro economic affairs


Macro and current affairs, Hull


See the market trends and reasons for them.


Q1. Why CFA, Why FRM? Why HSBC? Why markets? You seem to be someone who jumps fields

Q2. Your view on markets. When do you think it’ll touch 17k?

Q3. What have been the three main monetary policy decisions lately?

Q4. What is the nation’s repo rate? Whats Fed rate? Whats TARP?

Q5. Whats the situation in the world economy right now? Why did the recession happen?

Q6) How have govts been bailing out firms? From whom and to whom is risk getting transferred this

way?

Name Sunny Somani

Educational Qualification Maths & Computing - IIT Kgp, CFA L1, FRM

Workex (Company/Mths) Symantec, ZS Associates

Summers Company HSBC Global Markets, Sales

Q7) Whats your view on a cap on CEO compensation? Should govts have a say in it? Should HSBC

follow it?

Q8) What is the biggest vulnerability of the Black Scholes method? How do companies work around

it?

Q9) If you’re interested in markets, why didn’t you invest in them so far with your workex money? At

least a part of a single months’ salary?

Q10) Examples of Team Work

Q11) How do you find one day’s volatility given a years’ volatility?

Q12) What are Greeks? How would you explain them to a layman? What are they used for?

Q13) For those who’ve done NCFM in Derivatives Markets, I was also asked about which options are

traded in India.

Q14) What did I learn from my workex that will help me at HSBC?

Q15) Do you think the Governments are correct in bailing out companies and in giving stimulus

packages?

Q16) If no major news comes out today, where will the markets close by end of day?

Profile


Company: Nomura


No. of Interviews 3

Interview Outline Mix of personals, general awareness and quant questions (probability and calculations)


Awareness of market, decent quants and communication skills


Right-Was able to convince the interviewer that Nomura is right for me, answer about global economic scenario Wrong- Spoke too fast, stuck up on simple calculations


Preparation for personal questions


Knowledge of probability is must, and clear thoughts about why you want to join the company Special preparation-learn about world indices the previous day, bank rates and GDPs of some countries


Q1. Others have similar resume as you have. What is unique about you?

Q2. How did the financial crisis start and what did the governments around the world

do to come out of it?

Q3. Why do you want to pursue a career in finance?

Q4. Where do you think that the oil prices will go in future-long term and short term?

Q5. Some questions on probability : What is the expected length of longer part if you

cut a 1 m rope at any location?

Q6.What is the value of 73, 8

3? What is the GDP of China, India, USA? What is the current rates for

T-bills? Where is SENSEX, S&P etc currently?

Name Ankit Sinha

Educational Qualification B.Tech. (Chemical Engineering), IIT Kanpur


Summers Company Nomura

Profile


Interviewed for Private Equity

No. of Interviews 2

Interview Outline First interview was with the Director of MS PE, the second with an HR rep


Work experience. Unfortunately (or fortunately) most PE’s would only focus on your work ex. More specifically – experience in preferably IBD or consulting. Solid excel modelling skills and good communication skills


Right: I was able to convey my enthusiasm. Wrong: Did not have enough IBD experience. Tried to counter that with other quant/excel experience


Its all about personals at the end of the day. If you are enthusiastic, know your basics, and have a convincing argument as to why you want to join a particular desk/role/geography – you are set


Do’s: Basic Finac – balance sheet. Know every point on your resume inside out – and be ready to elaborate on each point. Prepare examples of instances where you have shown your qualities Ask questions about the company – their latest investments etc Don’t: Get nervous... confidence is key. Do not take the HR interview lightly. It is important too.


Q1. Tell me why you chose to study Finance?

Q2. Why do you want Private Equity ?

Q3. How comfortable are you with Excel spreadsheet modelling? Give Examples.

Q4. Give me examples of a time when you were entrepreneurial.

Q5. Give a detailed account of your work experience.

Name Kshitij P Sheth

Educational Qualification BSc Econ (Finance)

Workex (Company/Mths) Citigroup Global Markets (NY) – 24 months; Family business (real estate) – 8 months

Summers Company Morgan Stanley Private Equity (Mumbai)

Profile


Company:

Interviewed for Macquarie

No. of Interviews 2 rounds

Interview Outline More of personals, very little technical


Good academic background, communication skills and whether the candidate was a ‘fit’ in the company

What went wrong/right Being confident, honest and enthusiastic throughout the interviews, being myself completely


Know your personals well Know every point in your resume Keep smiling and remain confident


Know about the company and show enthusiasm


Q1. What are your hobbies? (and several questions based on that)

Q2. Which were your most and least favourite subjects in Term 1? Why?

Q3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Q4. Which sector do you know about? Please elaborate.

Q5. What do you think will be your biggest challenge during the two months that you

intern with us?

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Name Miloni Agrawal

Educational Qualification B.Tech (Computer Science)

Workex (Company/Mths) N.A.

Summers Company Macquarie (IBD)

Profile


Company: Alvarez & Marsal

Interviewed for Consulting

No. of Interviews 1

Interview Outline Personals and Cases


Good Logical skills, Interest in the company

What went wrong/right Could communicate my interest very well, asked good questions to them


Focus on Personals




Q2. Why A & M?

Q3. Two Cases

Name Shekhar Gurav

Educational Qualification BE

Workex (Company/Mths) Deloitte Consulting 22 months

Summers Company Alvarez & Marsal

Profile


Company: Deutsche Bank


No. of Interviews 6 rounds (1.5 hrs)

Interview Outline Hovered around personals and touched upon puzzles, basics of finance, market awareness and logical questions on derivatives


Not necessarily people with high existing knowledge but people who can learn and think through logically.

What went wrong/right Right: Personals, knowledge about DB, logical questions on finance Wrong: Market awareness – goofed up a couple of numbers


Gathering a lot of information about DB, thinking over the personals and discussing/practicing them with others.


Prepare well for the personals, every company is invariably focusing on the personals. Try to maintain a certain level of calm in the room, smile at every opportune moment and a bit of sense of humour might help.


Q1. Why finance, why DB?

Q2. View on market, is there going to be hyperinflation? (more macro questions)

Q3. Impact on dividends on options pricing? On Spreads?

Q4. Create markets out of the number of people in your batch?

Q5.

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Name Varun Garg

Educational Qualification B. Tech (IIT Kanpur)

Workex (Company/Mths) Shell/36 months

Summers Company Deutsche Bank

Profile


Company: Nomura

Interviewed for

No. of Interviews 3 very short interviews of 10 mins each

Interview Outline


Certain parameters in mind- cgpa, preferred people from iit, freshers, interest in nomura

What went wrong/right First candidate to get in, good answer for why nomura, profile match, decent interest in markets


Some knowledge about markets, view on gold price, commodity price, where is nse,bse, dollar-euro, dollar-yen



Q1. Why nomura

Q2. Explain the subprimecrisis in 4 mins

Q3. Who is fed chief, what is dollar euro/dollar yen/nse/bse/s and p

Q4.100/14 upto 4 decimal places

Q5. A few puzzles

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Name Nishant

Educational Qualification B tech Electrical engineering IIT Delhi


Summers Company Nomura

Profile


Company:

Interviewed for MS

No. of Interviews 7

Interview Outline Bonds, mental maths, Indian economic scenario, global economic scenario, some basic currency rates


Quick at mental maths; passionate about MS; wanted someone who was hungry for fin

What went wrong/right Right: My communication skills; enthusiasm and the fact that I have been trading for over 4 years in stock markets; wrong: goofed up in some mental math questions


Knowing that this was the only shot I had got; BarCap had left without interviewing and I had tanked ATK


Be confident and passionate..show them you can make money..prepare general bond funda, read newspapers regularly and understand stuff rather than mugging where the DJIA or NIKKEI was in the last months


Q1. 1.02*1.03 ; sqrt(1.03); 98*102

Q2. Currency rates AUD/USD; EUR/USD; INR/USD -- compare INR and AUD

Q3. What’s the approx duration of a 10 year 7% annual coupon bond with market

interest rate=7%? Duration for zero coupon bond

Q4. GS uses the prop trading model? What are the pros and cons?

Q5. Globe stuff – why MS; what can u bring to the table et al

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Name Amit Mundra

Educational Qualification IITM(2007); CFA L1

Workex (Company/Mths) American Express(10); Grail Research(13)

Summers Company Morgan Stanley,FID

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