What is your most memorable interview question or experience?

Baltazar · Post by **Baltazar** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:59 am

He said

"very bad is the student that does not surpasses his master"

just kidding

Bachelier · Post by **Bachelier** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:57 am

Balt:

That quote is from Leonardo Da Vinci himself "It is a poor pupil that does not exceed his master."

Baltazar · Post by **Baltazar** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:08 pm

purbani · Post by **purbani** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:12 am

One of my crew came up with what I thought was the perfect explaination to explain volatility to a portfolio manager - The line not much wiggly.

silverside · Post by **silverside** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:37 am

ha

a few...

Interviewer: one of the classic questions (dice brainteaser)

me: standard answer down pat

I/v : "you've done this before haven't you"

me: "Yep"

I/v : swiftly moves on...

didnt want to say that before answering.. thought it would be a little cocky.

Interesting interview, was a good warmup...

c_lemp · Post by **c_lemp** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:32 pm

I had an interview for an internship at a technology focused hedge fund. The HF manager wanted someone to figure out why all of the cable providers had unexpectedly missed their subscriber targets. In the middle of the interview, after being brutally questioned on fundamentals of several companies:

HF Manager: "Now, for some reason all of the cable companies have missed their subscribers. I need someone who is willing to do the dirty work and call the head of every cable provider and do some statistics to figure this out."

Me: "Did you ever hear of the website 'sidereel.com'?"

HF Manager: 'blank stare'

Me: (To his assistant) "Which television shows do you like?"

Assistant: "Grey's Anatomy"

Me: (Go to his computer and bring up every episode of Grey's Anatomy without commercials) "Now, if you want some fundamental analysis, my roommate wanted to sign up for cable last night and I declined because I just go to this website."

HF Manager: "Oh shit."

ronin · Post by **ronin** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:32 am

Feedback after interviewing with a cr*p italian bank I had never heard of before or since:

"They thought you were excellent, but they are not calling you back. They think you are interviewing just because you are dissatisfied in your present job and not because you really, really want to work for bank xyz."

rowdyroddypiper · Post by **rowdyroddypiper** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:38 pm

This may not be as crap feedback as you think. I've had quite a few delicate geniuses plop down on the other side of the table and spend almost the whole interview fixated on how f'd up their current shop is. I'll politely try and steer to conversation back to the topic at hand which is namely "what are you going to do for me?" but if a couple of these attempts are unsuccessful, it's easier and more entertaining to just sit back and enjoy the gory details.

sammyzee · Post by **sammyzee** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:51 pm

On the topic of interview feedback. Something from an internship interview couple of years back...

HR lady: "The comments from your interviewers was very positive, and they think you are very strong technically. However, they didn't think you demonstrated sufficient teamworking skills."

Me: "Can you elaborate on that?"

HR lady: "Well in the notes I have here, it says that in the group exercise you only spoke six times, saying around thirty-five words in total. Which I guess wasn't good enough"

bobafett · Post by **bobafett** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:22 pm

What is the dice brainteaser?