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www.efinancialcareers.com/students | Careers in Financial Markets 2014
13 Succeeding at the super-day
In the US, instead of assessment centres, banks tend to invite students in for a day of interviews starting on a Saturday morning, known as a super-day.
10 interviews
1day–
You could be expected to sit through a maximum of 10 interviews at a super-day.
Anticipate anything from competency-based questions to pressure interviews.
Then ‘emails’ will start flowing into your inbox, and you’ll be asked to choose from three set responses, based on your calculations or facts within the documents on your laptop. You may also be asked to advise on a particular strategy related to that firm.
How to excel: This may sound complicated, but the reasoning method is similar to other tests throughout the assessment centre and recruitment process. Use the information you have, digest it and give the logical answer.
6. Written exercise
Depending on the bank, you could be asked to write a multi-page report, a simple email or a one- pager, but the object of the exercise is simple – testing your written communication skills.
You will be asked to come up with a compelling case for, say, acquiring a particular company, again based on information provided to you by the bank.
How to excel: Think of it like an essay – introduce your argument, give up to four reasons why you think this is the case, and cement your point with a conclusion. Don’t skirt around the point – make a decision and take a view. Oh, and make sure your grammar is impeccable.
These are only open to the students banks are genuinely interested in, and who would have passed the first stages of the application process. Generally, a bank will fly in candidates and put them up in a hotel near head office – usually New York – and invite them to a networking event the night before.
This is informal, and gives you a chance to meet other candidates, but should still be viewed as the first test – some banks, admittedly not often, have been known to make hiring decisions there and then.
In theory, super-days are simple – you’ll be required to undertake a series of interviews with various members of the business. There will be at least one interview with someone at every level – analyst, associate, VP, director (or executive director) and managing director – but there could be as many as ten 30-minute interviews from 8am-6pm.
Some firms take a ‘reality TV’ approach – eliminating candidates throughout the day, but others will make a decision at the end of the super-day based on scores submitted by the different people who have interviewed you.
“Expect to get beyond the usual competency questions that do not really differentiate candidates‚” says Peter Harrison, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs who now runs Harrison Careers. “Expect experienced interviewers to test what you don’t know and to find the limits of your knowledge, whether about current affairs, markets, technical knowledge, brainteasers or whatever. Expect that any lies will be detected - do not try to bluff experienced
interviewers. You will ace interviews by being ready for any question.”
Technical questions will be asked, so know weaknesses in your knowledge and focus on them before the day so that you’re as prepared as you can be. And, if you don’t know the answer, try not to panic: “When they ask what the yield on the 10-year JGB Yen government bond is, you can explain you do not know that, but you DO know the yield on 1, 10 and 30-year US Treasuries, the 10-year UK Gilt and the 10-year Government Euro bond‚” says Harrison.
It’s not all about your know-how – the people interviewing you are those you’ll eventually be working with, so they want to know if you will fit into the team. This means you have to be likeable, and genuinely understand what it is you’re getting into – and whether you want to be a part of it.
“One interviewer was incredibly genial for about 15 minutes, until I made a mistake, and then he suddenly switched to a high- pressure interviewer, questioning every answer, interrupting and generally making my life difficult‚” says George Trower, a longstanding investment banking professional and careers coach. “The point is you should never let your guard down – everything is a test.
the checklist
Here are four golden rules to follow at banks’ super-days
1. Be…interesting! You may have spent the last six months travelling around Asia. If so, what did you do and learn? If you spent time fund raising, how was your approach innovative? Say something to make you stand out.
2. Don’t over-practise You may want to cram on your technical know-how, but don’t give scripted answers to questions about you and your motivations.
3. Prepare for stress Interviewers will test how you handle pressure – think questions with no real answers, tasks which cannot be completed in time for the deadline. It’s more about how you behave than getting it right.
4. Know yourself Expect ‘walk me through your resume’ or ‘tell me about yourself’ questions. Don’t fluff your lines, lie or drone on. This will be the first, and most crucial, part of any interview.
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