How to Approach the Recruitment Process

Getting a job in an investment bank isn’t easy. On average, banks are thought to receive 60 applications per place. At some firms, the proportion is far higher. In the boom times UBS, for example, estimated that it got

95 applications for every offer made and Société Générale reckoned it received some 350,000 applications from which it ended up taking about 2,400 graduates. So how do they sift the candidates?

Hurdle 1: The application
form and the CV

“Around half of candidates will fall at this first screening stage,” says Sarah Crawford, head of graduate recruitment, EMEA, at Goldman Sachs. Where do people go wrong? Bad English is one failing. Poor spelling, grammar or punctuation can be a real stumbling block, warns the head of graduate recruitment at

another major US investment bank. Filling in multiple application forms and cutting

and pasting your responses from one to another is also perilous. Applicants have been known to get banks’ names wrong as they copy and paste. Every form you fill out will require effort and attention – banks want to know why you’re applying to them in particular, not why you want to apply to a competitor! For this reason, it’s best to focus your application on a small number of organisations instead of firing it off everywhere. Trendence, a research firm, says some of the most successful students only apply to three or four places.

Don’t expect every bank’s application process to be the same. If the focus is on the CV, make sure it’s easy to read and explains precisely how you can add value to an organisation. Use bullet points and don’t just list your work experience – say what you did and what you achieved.

Hurdle 2: The numeracy test

Banks increasingly use tests, which will normally be in English, to check if candidates are numerate. Some also use language tests to establish candidates’ ability to think logically in English. People applying to Barclays Capital are usually required to complete a timed numeracy and verbal reasoning test in the early stage of the

application process. “Sometimes students call us up and say their girlfriend rang in the middle of the test. But why was their phone on and why did they answer it? They do not realise how serious and time pressurised it is until they are 12 or 13 minutes in and by then it is too late,” says one recruitment head. Although you can’t revise for the psychometric tests, it will help if you’re familiar with the format. Your university careers office may be able to help with advance preparation. eFinancialCareers.com offers sample question numeracy tests on our Student Centre at www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/numericaltests. You’ll need to do fairly well in the psychometric tests to go on to the next stage. They typically eliminate 50-60% of applicants.

Hurdle 3: The interview

To describe this section as ‘the interview’ is probably wrong: most banks interview students a lot more than once. The majority usually conduct at least two rounds of interviews – a preliminary screening with a Human Resources professional, followed by a further more testing interview with line managers. Some banks, such as SocGen and Barclays Capital, use telephone interviews to screen candidates before meeting them face to face. At a first interview, banks want to ensure you’re committed to a career in banking and are a good ‘cultural fit’. “You are guaranteed to be asked some questions about your drive and motivation. We don’t want people who give textbook answers about being a team player. We’re looking for natural dialogue with real-life examples,” says another graduate recruitment head. subsequent rounds, banks will drill down

on your technical aptitude. Your interviewers are likely to ask questions that test your numerical, commercial and technical awareness. For example, applicants for fixed-income sales roles might be asked how bond prices respond to interest rate adjustments and why. Make sure you know exactly what the particular

job at that particular bank entails. And make sure you’re up to date with events surrounding the bank you’re applying to.

Hurdle 4: assessment centre

If you make it through hurdles 1-3, you may find yourself in an assessment centre. The idea here is to scrutinise candidates under conditions that approximate the job they’ll be doing. Not all banks use them – Goldman Sachs, for example, doesn’t – but plenty do. Assessment centres usually take place over a single day and include a further interview and numeracy test, plus more demanding forms of psychometric test, a group discussion and a presentation. On average, 12 candidates participate, but sometimes as many as 30 will be present. Typically, 25-50% of attendees get a job offer. Some banks will ask underperforming candidates to leave halfway through the day. As well as a second round of numeracy tests, be prepared to complete reasoning tests. Once you’ve made it through the tests and interviews, the most challenging part of the

assessment centre is probably the group discussion. Around six candidates are given a set amount of time to solve a problem together, and assessors observe how you interact in a team environment. If you’re quiet and shy, make sure you say something! And if you’re loud and overbearing, don’t talk over people or put others down. In the presentation, candidates are normally asked to analyse some data and use it to present a convincing argument on a particular point. Failings include not identifying the salient points, presenting a weak argument and changing your views when challenged. The content of assessment centres and presentations varies from bank to bank. At RBS, for example, one operations candidate was faced with a presentation on how the financial crisis has affected Asia, plus a group exercise based around a fictitious company looking at

which sporting events to sponsor. At J.P. Morgan, a finance candidate had to imagine he was an employee at a new bank that was having teething problems, and to make a presentation about how he would solve them.

For the group exercise, he was asked to look at where an IT support team should be based – Mumbai, Bournemouth or London – and how to fund certain projects.

Leonie Van Hofwegen, an Analyst in the Corporate

Risk Advisory Department at Barclays Capital, says "Talk to as many people in the industry as possible

to establish whether the job and bank match what you’re looking for. Be genuinely motivated and interested,

not overly eager."