Interview Questions
What are some of your strengths?
"1. Detail-oriented The fall of my sophomore year I competed in the mergers and acquistions case competition on the on the potential acquistion of Genzyme by Sanofi in 2010, building out financial models, such as comparable companies, precedent transactions, and discounted cash flow analysis, are very sensitive to all the correct inputs, so it crucial to have attention to detail, when doing these types of projects 2. Learn quickly Talk about M&A the first time and how I had zero prior finance experince and was able to make it to the finals and present at Perry Capital in NYC 3. Determination/hardwork Talk about the DMP & ER and Calc 3 all in the same semester"
What are some of your weaknesses?
"1. Public Speaking Had some past troubles with public speaking, but trying to do as many case competitions as I can in order to get as much practice as possible and improve myself 2. Getting too caught up in small details, that may not have a material effect on the end result of the project, talk about M&A too caugh 3. Take on too much responsibility from my team: Talk about M&A and trying to do to much on my own"
5 take aways from ECB last meeting (March)
"Five takeawys from the meeting: 1. Three interest rate cuts: deposite rate to -.4 from -.3 and increase in bond buying to 80b from 60B 2. Availability to low-cost credit to businesses to boost ivnestment spending and hiring, cludes long term loans to banks, intended to be passed on to companies 3. Not shooting blanks, ECB was stung by perceived weakness and lack on conviction in December, which some saw the the governing concil was not fukll committed 4. But doubts remain, initial annoucements were postivie, but when Draghi spoke about limits on negative rates, the market and euro moved against him 5. The deflation threat, Draghi said that if e hadn't launced stimulus measures in 2014, proving that central banks still do good"
Standard framework of your answers
"S - Describe the SITUATION T - Describe the TASK A - Describe the ACTION R - Describe the RESULTS"
What was the most important thing you got out of your job last summer?
"Summer - always be aware of how things work, and never take anthing for granted, talk about how client performance was calculated using curent allocations Winter - talk about learning about portfolio allocation, and the ability to use technical analysis and excel solver"
Can you handle the grunt work?
"Yes, the M&A, not only did I have to do the models, but I also had to format the powerpoint and so on S - Outline M&A T - Had to do the powerpoint A - completing the work and showin great attention to detail R - Winning the competition"
What is your biggest fear?
I would have to say that my biggest fear is not being happy at what I'm doing long-term. I know that at the beginning of my career the hours will probably be long, but if I don't enjoy the work that I'm doing for 12 hours plus per day, then my life won't be enoyable and I will feel like I have wasted some of the best years of my life doing something that I didn't enjoy
Three most important traits according at a head of HR
1. Burning desire to learn 2. Great attitude and personality 3. Appetite for work
5 steps in hedge funds due diligence
1. Scope 2. Fund 3. Operations 4. Infrastructure 5. Compliance
US market performance over 5 day, 1 month, 3 month, YTD, 1 Year
5 Day: -.29 1 Month: 5.09 3 Month: -4.72 YTD: -5.56 1 Year: -11.55
China rates
A state-backed fund would resume margin lending-leverage stock purchases - at ever-lower interest rates, increasing Monday's volume 59% over Thursday The same strategy sent the market soaring 60% gain last year and followed by a almost 30% drop, the market is still down 40% from its June peak, margin lending came crashing down, by 62% took prohibitive measures to rein in the debt financing China stocks snpa seven-day winning streak, chinese authorities guided the yuan weaker in the morning, a move that aligned with the overnight depreciation of currencies tracked by China's central bank
Europe rates
ECB officials, signaled that the probably won't cut rates much below zero, but still leave the possibly on they might Markets intially rallied on the ECB's larger than expected stimilus, which included a a series of a rate cuts, additional bond purchases (increased in 20B to 60B a month) and ultracheap loans (four year loans that partially shiled from the damage of negatie interest rates), the rally faded as draghi indicated that the rates probably wouldn't fall any lower amid concerns about the impact on Europe's fragile banks The ECB has missed its inflation objective for three staright ears despite lanching its massive bond-purchase program a ear ago It look likes the ECB has failed, as market moves suggest, then it will be ahrder to convince banks to increase lending. Worse, falling shares and a stronger euor equal tightending financial conditions, offsetting some of the ECB's easing, offsetting the ECB's easing
What do you think is the msot important characteristic for this job?
I believe that having the willingness to learn is the most important characteristic for this job, because whatever knowlegde I have about finance, it represents only a small fraction of the knowlgede that the people at the firm possess. Thus through my academic courses and my outside involvement in case compettiion learning real world finance applications, has progress my career and also shown my appetitie to learn that would allow my to prosper at your firm
Discuss your mathemtatical and quantitiative skills relative to what a job in finance requires?
I have competed in numerous the finance competitions including the Mergers & Acquitions case competition, in which I learned how to do comparable companies analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, and precedent transactions analysis, all of which require a qunatitiative background and great attention to detail, because one small typo can have a profound impact on your output. Also I have taken numerous math classes such as calculus II, III, and linear algebra
Why are do you want to go into the buy-side, hedge fund, PE?
I want to work at a hedge fund because of the great opportunity that the industry has to offer. My past experinces have been in wealth management, more of a retail business, and I believe that work on the insututional side will offer a much more dynamic and interesting experince that revolves around the constantly changing markets. I believe the direct exposure to investment decisions is a unique opportunity to a hedge fund, which my past experince through both internships and case competitions have prepared me well for.
What motivates you?
I would say that my biggest motivating factor is the learning opportunity that this job/ a career in finance has to offer. Coming from a non-target, and knowing nothing about finance when arriving at school, I have worked hard learning as much as I possibly can learning about finance, and I believe that this job would be a continuation of my learning
What is the biggest obstacle or challenge you have faced and overcome in your life?
I would say that the biggest challenge that I have faced in my life was decided what major to choose before I decided what college to attend. Although you can change your major after you attend college, each college is better than somethings than they are at others. As a result I could have attended university of buffalo and more verstile college, but I decided that I wanted to go the school of management of Binghamton because I thought its proximity to NYC in my mind offered much more opportunity than staying in the Buffalo area
What are you looking for in this job?
I'm going into this industry as an unparalleled learning experince. Everyone I have spoken with in the industry tells me that you learn everything on the job. While my undergraduate studies prepared my for business, I know that most of the skills I need will be acquired on the job. I understand the hours and the workloadm and I want to work incredibly hard to gain real world experince, that isn't avialable in any other profession at this stage in my career. I know that these skills will prepare my for anything I want to do later in my career
What do you see yourself contributing to our firm in both the short-term and the long-term?
In the short term, I expect to be accomplish everything that I'm given quicly and correctly, while learning the as much about the firm and the business in my first few years/weeks as and in the long-term I would like to learn to lead and manage a team and to bring in new business
Describe a time when you took a leadership role in a team situation
M&A
Desrcive what you did when you or your group risked missing a deadline
M&A the first time had to work endlessly to get in DCF deliverable when I had never done a DCF before
Tell me about a time when you acted as a leader even when you were not in an official leaderhsip posistion
M&A- show your interviewer that you are able to recongnzie when you should be a leaderm ot when you are a member of a team that is overzealous and tries to take control of a sistuation
Scaramucci, % in top ten funds, how they choose managers, how activicts have change over the years. amd how the volcker rule has effect funds
Macroeconomic factors - residential mortgage 2009 what sector are u in? who are the best guys in that sector and why are they the best top 10 are 65% of assets. Structured credit in the mid 20s for skybridge "Two things he learned at harvard law 1. Avoid lawsuits at all costs 2. the corporate incometax has to be reformed every generation - problem without reform, the CEO is as interested in doging taxes, as making stuff" Barry rosenstein - is one manager that they invest in and who owned 1.3% walgreen's and the CEO gave him three board seats Skybridge is a thematic investor Volker rule forced banks out of the industry thus widening spreads and improving the hedge fund indstury because the spreads are now wider
Tell me about your biggest failure?
My biggest failure probably occurred during the Dean's Mentoring Program case competition. For a little background on the program, it is a program that pairs high potential underclassmen with successful upperclass mentors, which has a case competition embedded in the program. I didn't do as great of ob as I would have hoped selecting my team,a choice that made the competition signifigantly more difficult. The members on my team didn't share the same euthasim about the project that I did. I was able to mitigate this risk by taking more time in selecting my team for the mergers and acquistion case competition in the fall, ultimatley leading to our team's victory. That's one reason that I want to go into finance and specifically work for a hedge fund is that everyone on the team will share the same hard work ethic and euthisam about the job that I will show.
What serves as your biggest motivation?
My biggest motivation is earning the respect of my superiors and the peers that I work with. I have taken man different roles when working on teams at Binghamton University. When I was competed in the mergers & acquistions case competition this last fall, I was the team leader due to my past experince of the competition and my knowlegde of financial modeling compared to my peers. On the CFA research challenge team, I was the lone sophmore among four juniors on team so I worked very hard to earn the respect of the other team members and played more of a support role than that of a team leader
Describe your ideal work environment
My ideal work enviroment involves co-workers that are as passionate about the industry as I am, but I think more importantly one needs to enjoy working around his or her co-workers due to the countless hours spent per week on working with them. As a result, I would like to work with co-workers that communicate well, work hard, and trust each other, and then the team will get rewarded for its great performance
What would your last boss tell me about you?
My last boss would say that I'm a very hard worker, who always showed up ontime and went above and beyond on assignments. For example, when my boss asked me to calculate the technical score of roughly 100 ETFs using Dorsey Wright equity research. Not only did I calculate the scores, I also looked at the change in technical scores from the last period, to see which stocks were getting hotter. I also, ran a regression based on technical scores and the outerpfromance of the ETF reltative to the S&P 500 to discover if there was an correlation between the two. I discouvered that the correlation between the two was very small, and effectively negilible
Tell me about yourself?
My name is Eric Dohn and I'm a sophmore from Buffalo, NY majoring in finance and math from Binghamton University. I first got interest in finance when I took a few accounting classes in high school, and in one of them we participated in a stock market challenge type of competition. I ultimatley won, the competition which sparked my interest in the markets. I decided to attend Binghamton University School of Management, because of its affordability and its proximity to NYC, which is where I ultimately where I want to work after graduation. When I got heavily involved in the finance society, in which I particiapted in the mergers and acquistions case competition. This competition was a great learning experince, in which I learned valuable financial modeling skills such as comparable companies analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, and precedent transactions analysis. We presented in the finals in NYC at Perry Capital in NYC, leading me to inquire more about the financial services industry. This led me intern for Silver Spoon financial last summer, focusing mainly on measuring client's performance compared to appropriate benchmarks. This led me to pursue work at big instituation UBS, in which ETF allocation and selection. This experince led me to participate in the CFA Research Challenge, a single stock equity research competition in which we completed research on First Republic Bank, ultimatley moving on the national finals that will occur in April in Chicago. All of these experince has led me to where I am today, and why I would be a great fit for your firm
What is the number one thing your resume won't tell me that I should know?
My senior year of high school I was captain of the baseball team, a sport I loved to play, and stopped only a year ago. Being captain of the team was a great experince as the younger players really looked up, allowing my to imporve my communications skills between both the coach and other players, which is a very important skill to have in finance, as good communication is crucial
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
Personally, I believe that my great accomplishment is the balance that I have been able to achieve between keeping my grades up while particiapting heavily in extra-circular acitivities such as the mergers & acquistions case competition and the CFA Research challenge both of which are semester long case competitions, that require 10-20 hours a week, which have taught my finance specific skills as well as time management skills
Talk about 3 M&A deals
Sherman miller to buy vaslpar for $9.2B Nippon telegraph offered $3.5B Dell's perot system maimed at bolestering the comapnies Japanese presence NASDAQ said it would be the Internation Securities exhcange for $1.1B London stock exchange mergered with Deustche Boerrse, the combined company will be called UK TopCo, 45.6% will be held by LSE TransCanada has agreed to buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $10.2, the deal comes months after Obama blocked TransCanada's cross-border Keystone XL pipeline
Japan rates
Shorter term bonds have negative yields, and new negative-rate policy, when banks sell to the BOJ as part of quantitiative easing, they end up with case in a negative interest-bearing reserve account. Bank of Japan, achievements from three years of monetary easing are unwinding, corporate profits no longer inflated by a weak yen, are faltering. Tokyo's benchmark stock index remains 20% bleow its June 2015 peak, infaltion inlcuding eergy is stuck near zero, and some measures of inflation expetations are at their lowest sincne Mr. Kuroda took over in earl 2013 the BOJ's radical efforts to "reflate" Japan's economy with montary policy. And it bodies ill for other, such as ECB, that are struggling with the sort of stagnation that has afflicted Japan for two decades
What makes you special?
Something that differentiates me from some of the other candidates you may be interviewing is my dedication and work ethic. Becaise I'm from a non-target, your firm doesn't recruit on our campus. In order to get here, I had to email alumni all throught the industry and _______ (Dan barile) for your firm specifically. ________ Offered to get my an interview. I couldn't just drop my resume online or through on-campus recruiting because it I most likely wouldn't get an interview. I had to work hard to get here, and I'm sure if you hired me I would show the same level of dedication to this job
What makes you think you can put up with the stress, presure, and long hours of a career in finance?
Talk about Calc III, DMP, and Equity Reseach all in the same week
Describe a time when you worked as part of a team
Talk about M&A
What is the most intellectually challenging thing you have done?
Talk about M&A 3 scenario modeling, or CFA correlation, between change in asset sensitivity related to outperformance over the regional banking index (KRE)
Desrcribe what you did ina group where someone wasn't contributing?
Talk about M&A the first time, had team meeting and explained how an increase in his performance could help boost the team product and thus his personal repuation
Describe how you have dealt with conflict in a team situation
Talk about debate with coach gasz about over using players arm's and not givign them an opportune time to warm up before going in the game
How would your friends describe you?
Talk about hard-working and like to get work done efficiently so we can get have a good time hanging out together
How did you get interested in finance
Talk about stock market challenge I did in high school, and the voltitliy strategy that I used
What is one concern you have about a career?
Talk about why you are sure you can handle the challenge. Go back to freshman year M&A and talk about how I was only a freshman competing against upperclassmen, and how I had no finance experince, or experince with financial modeling and we were tasked with giving a recommendation to a Roche on the potential acquistion of Genentech. My thirst to learn led me to learn financial modeling and other qualitative factors behind an acquistion, leading our team to the finals in NYC, presenting a Perry Capital
What feedback did you receive from last/job?
The feedback I received from my last job was to be less inquisitive, because due to the current market conditions at the time of my internship over the winter, my boss was extremely busy due to the intergration from Morgan Stanely to UBS and the current market correction that caused him to spend a signifigant amount of time on the phone. As a result, he didn't really have much time to field my questions, and I had to resort to other methods such as asking some of my other associates
What's the single most impressive experince that is on your resume?
The most impressive experince on my resume was my is being a national semi-finalist in the CFA research challenge in which was held in Chicago. This competition was a 20+ week long equity research competition on a regional bank, First Republic Bank. Our team pitched a hold recommendation throught in the first two rounds, and then switched over to a sell recommendation in the upcoming finals. On the team I completed analysis on wealth management brand rankings, as well as FRC asset sensitivity compared to their compeitors, showing that the market prices them as more asset sensitivity than their peers, by looking a how FRC responds to hawkish FOMC statements, compared to the regional banking index (KRE)
What is one word that describes you best?
The one word that I describes me best is the word "driven", because I'm a very motivated and driven person as shown by my past experinces in finance case competitions. For example, during my freshman year I competed in the mergers & acquistions case competition my freshman year. I came into the competition and didn't know anything about finance, but I wsa driven and had the motivation to work very hard, to learn financial modeling and putting together a powerpoint, ultimately going to the finals In NYC presenting at Perry Capital.
Coming out of this interview, what are three things about you that I should take with me?
The three biggest things that you should take out of this interview are, number one I'm extremely hard working and will bust my tail every day on the job; Number 2, I would emphazie the fact that I'm a team player and a great communicator, and lastly I this firm is my number one choice and I would be excied to work here every day.
Can ethical requirements in a firm be too high?
This is a tough debate and as only a college student I feel that I'm by no menas qualified to give the answer. With what occurred during the financial crisis, there was definetely insufficient regulation, and thus higher ethical standards may have provided some protection and lessened the meltdown. On the other side of the argument, if the firm is too ethical and heavily regulates itself then it may miss out on potential profits. Having high ethical standards is a necessity to survive as many firms will lower standards have previously gone out of business
What do you expect to do day-to-day as an analyst?
This would defintely depend on what group I would be placed in for the intership role. If I were on the investments team, I would be supporting the investment analysts and the portfolio managers with research and idea generations.
Why do you think you will be an good analyst?
To be a successful analyst you have to be well rounded. There is no single quality that makes a good anaylst, but I believe that the eagerness to learn, detail orienation, and being a strong team player are all qualities that I possess, that would make me a good analyst
US rates
U.S dollar edges higher against Euro, Yen, euro was down .2% at $1.1245, the dollar was up .4% at 111.94 Yen Ivnestors pounded the dollar last week, after the federal reserve reined in its forecast for entering a rate increase in 2016 Stocks climbed as treasury yield declined, officlas npow expect the fed funds to rise to .875% at year-end implaying just 2 interest rate increase Federal-funds futures, used by investors and traders to plae bets on central-bank policy, 12% rise at April's meeting after the fed meeting comapred to 26% before, June went from 52-38, and december 69-82
How hard do you work to achieve your goals?
When intensely working on projects and in competition, I only take into account what I have to do to win, as long as its in the rules. Thus for the mergers and acquistions case competition our team had to work 30 plus hours per week ontop of our school work in order to ensure the victor. This met many nights working from 10-4am and then getting up at 8am the next day. This proved to be worthwhile as our team ultimately took home first place