<p>I always try to come with questions, but now I am beginning to wonder if my questions are somehow inadequate. I seem to have bad luck with interviews and I have no idea why. These interviews absolutely NEED to go well (I have one in NY and another in SF, back to back. The firms are paying to fly me out) – I can’t afford to have these opportunities slip.</p>
<p>I always try to ask some combination of:
What do you consider the most challenging aspect to this type of position?
How do you define success in this company?
What are the key traits you’re looking for in someone applying to this job?
How the firm has weathered the economic crisis storm (for more financial-oriented positions especially)
What type of models/languages/concepts etc do they use?
Can you walk me through an average day at this firm?</p>
<p>After that I start to run out of steam a bit because anything else about the position I’ve either learned through the website or previous discussions with the hiring managers. Each firm unfortunately knows about the other (since they basically wanted to occupy the same timeframe for flying out), and so I’m honestly not sure how I’d reply if they asked me why their firm and not the other (BOTH positions are a lot of fun and are amazing for different reasons) – I can point out the positives in both cases, but I wouldn’t want to harp on the other.</p>
<p>That being said, I’m not sure what to expect. Both firms decided to fly me out after the second interview stages . Without revealing too much, each firm basically had “assignments” for me to help assess my abilities, and they were pleased with what I had delivered to them. I plan on further optimizing both of my assignments to bring to the interview… to one firm, I had told the manager that I was very much interested in the position and really wanted the opportunity to show that I was well-equipped for the job (asking him to send me harder stuff or anything they may actually need help with).</p>
<p>Other than that, I am quite nervous and don’t know how to really ensure I nail these interviews. I have a fair bit of financial and technical knowledge and can quickly find the answers to things I don’t know, but this type of approach seems to backfire on me. I feel like sometimes they want someone who oozes confidence and may oversell themselves, even if it’s about things they don’t know well. I am extremely passionate and excited for these kinds of opportunities, and I feel like I am simply too shy of a person to adequate portray this in my personality. </p>
<p>Seriously though, I absolutely need to hammer these interviews. ANY advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I know it’s hard when you are nervous and so much is riding on the interview, but you need to at least APPEAR to be relaxed. Not TOO relaxed (i.e. don’t lounge in the chair with your leg crossed), but relaxed as in confident. And BE YOURSELF. You won’t make a good impression if you try to put on a fake persona.</p>
<p>I agree with not insulting anybody. Someone tried to trick me into bad-mouthing a school once and, fortunately, I knew that one of the interviewers had attended that school, so I was very diplomatic in my defense of my choice of my particular school. So-do your homework (which I know you will) and also be able to talk about the city and how much you would like to live there.</p>
<p>many of them are OK if you have luxury of other jobs</p>
<p>I always try to ask some combination of:
What do you consider the most challenging aspect to this type of position?..OK</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How do you define success in this company?..ditch</p></li>
<li><p>What are the key traits you’re looking for in someone applying to this job?..ditch</p></li>
<li><p>How the firm has weathered the economic crisis storm (for more financial-oriented positions especially)…ditch</p></li>
<li><p>What type of models/languages/concepts etc do they use?..I don’t know what this means</p></li>
<li><p>Can you walk me through an average day at this firm?..ditch</p></li>
</ol>
<p>appropriate…and semi intelligent non offensive questions.</p>
<ol>
<li> does the new recruit have mentoring, guide, buddy?</li>
<li>Can you tell me some of the projects I will be working</li>
<li>does it have flex time or set hours</li>
</ol>
<p>Do not ask about flex time or set hours, as a matter of fact, do not ask about vacation or benefits or pay. You are only interested in the job itself, type of work, growth opportunity… I get really turned off when people ask me about time off during interview.</p>
<p>Be yourself, but MoWC is correct – diplomacy is key. Picture yourself as a salesman and the product is you. You have ammunition to sell to either company (w/o slamming the other – actually the competition can be played to your advantage). </p>
<p>Be prepared to answer a prompt akin to “Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Tell me about one of your weaknesses.” Yeah, yeah, it’s about the spin you put on it. But it shows you’ve done self analysis.</p>
<p>I started my own business decades ago that thrust me into the business of selling “me.” One of my top selling points was that I was resourceful and could quickly answer/solve the issue at hand. I never failed to land a client.</p>
<p>OP – you’re a Wharton grad, you’re expected to ooze confidence! For me the easiest way to do this was NOT by acting like I knew things that I didn’t but rather trying to liken what they were talking about to what I knew. For example, if they are describing a certain type of financial modeling that you’ve never done – you can say that you haven’t done it but it sounds similar in concept to some other type of financial analysis that you did at your previous internship. That shows them that you can pick up skills that you may not have right now and it allows you to speak more in the interview. You never want the interviewer to talk the whole time describing things to you bc you are also there to sell yourself – that pulls the conversation back to you and your prior experience.</p>
<p>Contrary to what other posters have said, I would keep all your questions except maybe No. 4. The questions that you list are very typical to ask in a finance interview and they want to know that you’re thinking about not only working there but also about the traits that will make you the best analyst there. Like it or not, finance is competitive and they like people who want to compete. I used to ask – what are the key traits/qualities that you look for in an associate on your team; or what makes an associate on your team stand out.</p>
<p>Do not under any circumstances ask about flex time. That may work in some other types of jobs, but in finance often you are expected to work 24-7 without complaint and you don’t want to show the slightest bit of interest right now in shorter hours, vacation time, comp time, working from home etc. As for the financial crisis question, use your judgment; you obviously want the answer to that but you don’t want to offend or have someone give you a flippant response (i.e. obviously we survived the crisis ok or we wouldn’t be hiring).</p>
<p>If there is a meal involved do not order messy or hard to eat food or something very expensive. Drink little or no alcohol if it is served - you need all your wits about you. Eat with good table manners. Don’t talk with your mouth full. Use a piece of bread and not your fingers to push vegetables onto your fork, etc. Eat light - you don’t want to be sluggish and sleepy for the after-lunch interviews.</p>
<p>Avoid extremes of fashion. If you are a guy and wear an earring, take it out before you go for the interview. Wear shoes that can take a shine and make sure they are shined. If you have tattoos make sure they don’t show.</p>
<p>Be prepared to talk about what your short-term and long-term career goals are.</p>
<p>Be prepared to discuss a real example of a time when you faced a difficult problem and how you went about solving it and what the final result was.</p>
<p>You can discuss wages, bonuses, hours, flextime, etc. with HR person AFTER you have been made an offer. Do not bring this stuff up when talking to the hiring managers.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I like your questions, or at least the first four. (And the fifth, if it is clear that it will make sense to the interviewer. It would work fine for an economic forecasting firm. If you asked it at my law firm, you would get blank stares.) “How do you define success” – I’ll bet people are happy to discuss that! And all of them solicit answers that you can then play off of to sell yourself in ways specific to that company.</p>
<p>When I am hiring, I assume everybody who makes it to the interview is intelligent enough to learn any skill I need (based on GPA; major; college). It sounds like these firms have additionally given you a “skills” test that you passed. Therefore, this second interview is more likely to be about personality fit than knowledge. Harping too much on your technical skills may very well backfire.</p>
<p>They will want to know that you can work well with their team and you will want to know the same thing about them. I therefore would be prepared to talk about the positive aspects of who you are as a person, sharing any stories that show you work and socialize well with others.</p>
<p>I’m very involved with the hiring at my small office within the federal government, and agree with TheAnalyst–we’re usually confident based on your resume that you have the technical skills to do the work. It’s important that we have a good fit–i.e., someone we’d like to spend 40 hours/week with.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’ve focused much on what questions the interviewee asks me, and would in fact be a bit put off by someone who appeared to come in with a laundry list. I’m much more concerned with how they answer my questions. I think it’s much better to have a fairly natural conversation flow. I don’t expect pre-scripted answers to something like a strengths-and-weaknesses question. I’d much prefer someone who gave a thoughtful impromptu response.</p>
<p>As many have said, relax. If you really want the job, that’ll come through. Give an honest picture of yourself. That’ll come through too.</p>
<p>That is my problem though – I don’t want to show up with too many “canned responses” that sound like they came from a laundry list, but at the same time, I don’t want to show up unprepared. I’m just fine at communicating/being social with coworkers on the job, but I am just not very good at the interviews themselves. There’s so much pressure riding on this and I don’t know what they want to hear. I know I’d be a good fit for the positions, and I am confident in myself and how I work with others, but that doesn’t mean I can effectively portray this in an interview. I’m not sure what kind of examples are the most powerful, or how much I need to say, or what the best questions are to be asking necessarily.</p>
<p>Maybe it’d help to hear examples of things you WOULDN’T want to hear in an interview? What would make you hesitate about hiring someone (i.e. what would make you not want to spend 40 hrs/wk with someone)? What might be some things I should definitely avoid doing that I may be doing without realizing it? To note, I absolutely do not discuss benefits or salary unless asked, and I typically just give a range of about 15k buffer.</p>
<p>I would try to stay positive most of the time. When it comes to salary, my response has always been “salary is negotiable”. I only have to give a range of numbers to HR person.
And the most important thing is to RELAX and have faith in yourselves. You have made it this far all on your own.</p>
<p>Max, the absolute essential interviewing skill is finding a way to mesh your agenda with the interviewer’s, while always giving the interviewers the sense that they are in control. That means that you really have to listen to them, and pay attention to them, and respond to what they are asking you, not what you thought they would ask or what you would like them to ask. That’s a huge litmus test – if you’re not going to listen to them and respond to them, why would you listen to and respond to anyone else in the company? At the same time, if there are things you want to get across about yourself, you have to fit them into the responses you are giving to the interviewers’ questions.</p>
<p>The idea is to show (not tell) that you can be a good colleague, by being a good listener and going with the flow in the interview, and also by not getting sidetracked and making sure your agenda is satisfied. If you can pull that off well, you are going to pass all the smell tests.</p>
<p>Part of a personal interview is to get a sense of the candidate beyond the basic qualifications. When I interview some of the questions I ask are an attempt to ‘draw out’ more from the canidate - i.e. I want them to elaborate on aspects of themselves - I want to find out more about them. I want to find out if they’ll work well with other team members, if they seem like they have initiative, if they’d be a hard worker, and determine their comfort level around others. </p>
<p>The best way for the candidate to handle it IMO is to try to be relatively relaxed while still paying attention to the interviewer, to not give monosyllabic responses (i.e. ‘no’, ‘yes’ rather than a real response), and to remember to smile. Some candidates are either so nervous or it’s just part of their personality such that they never smile during the interview (genuine one - not forced), give only very short responses, and sometimes just fire off multitudes of questions at the interviewer because they think they should which comes off as forced. Others ask no questions which come across as either not interested or a desperate non-curious person. The other thing - make sure you know something about the company, their products or services, etc. Show interest and if possible some excitement about the company and what they do.</p>
<p>Good luck with it all. Again, relax and smile and project yourself as someone who is self-confident and someone who would fit right in as a member of their team.</p>