For people who work in the front office, what was the fastest time in which you got an offer from the first interview. 1 week, 2 weeks?
I had something like 7 or 8 rounds of interviews. It took a full month. I don’t know if it’s this painful everywhere. Went something like this: Phone interview with 2 recruiters In-person interview with recruiters Interview with HR person Interview with hiring manager and 2 PMs Interview with other analyst and hiring manager again Given material to be used to formulate an investment recommendation which was presented to no less than 10 people Lunch with manager Interview with manager’s manager
cfa2grunt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I had something like 7 or 8 rounds of interviews. > It took a full month. I don’t know if it’s this > painful everywhere. Went something like this: > > Phone interview with 2 recruiters > In-person interview with recruiters > Interview with HR person > Interview with hiring manager and 2 PMs > Interview with other analyst and hiring manager > again > Given material to be used to formulate an > investment recommendation which was presented to > no less than 10 people > Lunch with manager > Interview with manager’s manager Holy crap !! That BS makes the CFA looks like walk in the freakin park … were these all formal Interviews or were some just meetings/ discussions …
The interview with the other analyst/hiring manager was mostly to go over the material that I would use for the subsequent presentation. The lunch with the hiring manager was really when they tried to sell me on the company, versus trying to suss out whether I was a suitable candidate. And the last step just occurred because the manager’s manager had been out of town and they thought it appropriate that I meet him before being hired officially. Yeah, it was a lengthy process… I finally told them that I wasn’t going to dress in business formal anymore because I didn’t have that much time to take off from work, and couldn’t go to my other job in a suit (as it was very casual biz casual there).
cfa2, what sort of background did you come from?
Real estate, actually. I was a pretty non-traditional hire.
Mine came in about a week. And when i switched shops it was about 2 weeks from initial contact (on a patio on thursday nights no less) to offer.
For my job on the sell side: quick phone screen with HR phone interview w/ director (1wk later) 3-4 hrs of interviews with 5 different MDs including the director (1wk later) offer from the director (3-4wks later)
My first “in” was in a mid/front office role (I guess) as the equity research editor, and I only had a couple rounds: met with previous editor briefly for fit questions and a quick test met with capital markets director for lunch - pretty laid back questioning, and then toured the trading floor and made the rounds of analysts. 1 week later I was hired. My “interview” for an internal transfer to an associate analyst position was a day spent with the MD, kind of just shadowing and listening. We clicked and I started as soon as I hired my replacement. My next firm was simple: I was brought on with my MD from the previous firm. I guess I’ve lucked out of having strenuous interviews, but right now I’m dealing with the backlash of that as I ramp up a new job search.
I got my first “front office” job out of undergrad in BB investment banking. I did my interview on-campus on Thursday afternoon, went up to the office to do interviews with four senior bankers and an associate on Saturday morning, and was notified about the offer that afternoon. Thus, my fastest was 3 days. However, recruiting for a job while you’re already working full-time, assuming it is for a competitive position, can take weeks or months. PE and hedge fund interviews are notorious for being incredibly protracted, but it’s always better to spend the time to make the right hiring choice than to hire someone too quickly and then have to let them go.
numi, you think i can speak with you privately about my career. I definitely would appreciate your feedback. frankarabia_28@hotmail.com
sure frank, happy to help. drop me an email at --> porcupines at gmaiI DOT com send me your questions and give me some context on your situation also please give me at least a few days to reply
I got my Front Office role in Equity Research (sell side) at a major bank in about 3.5 weeks (first interview to offer). This was right after I graduated
Buy Side analyst - 1 interview with 8 different ppl. I must have killed it because it was only supposed to be 5 of the senior analysts but the directors of research came in and talked to me for a decent amount of time. By the end of the day the sr. recruiter asked me if I wanted to move forward and I told him yes. I had an offer by the end of the week.
My experience was the same as Numi’s - fairly painless process, actually. However, one consulting firm I interviewed with actually forgot to give me my offer - my final interview was with 2 managers and apparently one went on vacation the next day. Each one thought that the other had followed up with me, and when I halfheartedly called to follow-up about 3 weeks later they realized their mistake…