Cheating During Recruitment Process
Just caught up with a friend who is will be interning at MS/GS this upcoming summer. He told me an interesting story: During his superday, he had a fraternity brother (who is an associate at the firm) directly provide him with the question bank of technicals ahead of his interviews; dude ended up getting the offer.
No interest in exposing the guy as it isn't my business, but I'm curious how often this happens, particularly with the virtual format of recruiting. Anyone know of any stories/have their own experiences? Again, not coming from place of judgement, just curiosity.
Doesn't sound very ethical, but it definitely happens. It can be as simple as someone telling an interviewee to brush up on their knowledge of the stock market or LBOs a day before the interview.
I'm familiar with "tips" such as going over certain topics, but these were word for word questions given... Haven't seen that before
happens all the time dude. most people i know involved in campus recruiting provide a question bank PDF to superday candidates from their alma mater. not saying it's the right thing to do but definitely happens more than you think
Interesting! My friend was given 6 direct questions to study by his frat brother and was asked those exact 6. I was recruited via on campus recruiting and haven't heard of any such thing. Guess I wasn't special ;(
depends how close you are with the alumni that are part of the campus recruiting team
I’ve heard it’s pretty common, kind of the point of Greek life and eating clubs at prestigious institutions
I know someone who participated in a late wave interview for a group where his friends had already interviewed previously for the same year. His friends gave him the questions that they were asked and he was asked the same questions. Got to the next round and an alum at the bank asked him if he wanted to catch up before the superday. Got some helpful tips there about what to ask and other things (not questions directly) and ended up getting the only offer given in that wave.
Sure it's not ethical but who wouldn't do anything to edge out competition in such a tough process? As someone in greek life we definitely had test banks etc but at a core recruiting school I don't see why the sharing of interview questions would be a shock to anyone.
Can't speak to this myself as I didn't go to a target but generally being greek can lend itself to such opptys whether you think it's moral or not
Frat chads are the most annoying people on the street.
Fair. I'd argue the business "frat" folks are the most unbearable lol
I went to a top undergrad business school where it was very well known that the business frat kids had several unethical advantages. They had several past tests from different teachers for any class, an "easy A" class list, an older business frat member who was a former / current TA for a course and would provide personal tutoring (basically telling them what's on the exam), all seniors in the business frat telling every junior in the frat who was interested in the bank / consulting firm they had an offer from that they would get an interview (and this actually ended up happening), all former bus frat members working at the firms and coming to the recruiting events having private conversations and events with their business frat where they would ensure that anyone interested would get an interview at the very least, all junior and senior business frat members who were leaders of the most competitive clubs on campus getting anyone interested in the club from their frat in easily (thus, perpetuating the leadership of all the competitive clubs being bus frat members), and a whole lot more.
My senior year, there was actually an incident where the professors of a class had given an exam from a few years ago to students (thinking no one would have seen the exam) and there ended up being pretty substantial proof that all the business frat kids in the class did much better and got similar answers to one another because they all had access to the older exam and remembered the answers. Not really sure what ended up happening, but it's honestly shocking how unethical people can be in school and even for recruiting. At the same time, this just proves out the adage: "It's not what you know, it's who you know."
Might as well say you went to Berkeley lol
really? it’s shocking to you how neurotic, highly ambitious kids who generally are not religious and grow up in a system that rewards psychopathy and sociopathy amplify their unethical behavior after being put in a cohort with other neurotic, highly ambitious, nonreligious, psychopathic young adults?
This sort of thing happens a fair bit — it’s also why recruiting processes usually have a round, be it HireVue, superday, final, etc., where alums aren’t involved and or interviewers are given pretty free reign to ask whatever they want.
In my experience, the most common perpetrators are recent alums (or college seniors) from less prestigious schools with pipelines, e.g. finance clubs and business fraternities, into specific banks. They seem to have a sense of ‘duty’ to continue the recruiting success and (over)enjoy the gatekeeping aspect, even if it means taking some liberties with the spirit of undergrad recruitment.
(Looking at you, Western/Ivey)
Happens a lot. Heard stories this recruiting cycle of people failing numerical / verbal tests, calling up technical support to say system failure just to let somebody else do it. Even ended up getting an offer. This is for top BB.
Sounds like hairsplitting to me—just be good at your technical—if you know your technicals cold, it makes absolutely no difference who has any access to the interview questions ahead of time (you would be able to correctly answer all correctly; it's not like the technical questions require knowledge that's only available to aliens from outer space)
Standard operating procedure. This is how targets stay targets
This is such a strange discussion because you’re picturing a simple exam with a right answer. If the interviewer is worth a damn, having the questions in advance won’t help much.
I am generally judging the interviewee by the quality of their responses and their grasp of key concepts. I also like to probe with follow ups and random hypotheticals for this purpose. If all you’ve done is memorize a formula, I’ll be very unimpressed.
This is extremely easy shit. If you felt compelled to cheat, you’re likely too stupid to impress me in a technical interview anyway.
It happens all the time - that's why technicals aren't what seals the deal for you in an internship interview. Banks are much more focused on behavioral / situational / fit within their group. Technicals are only a check the box question - you can even get some wrong or not know the answer and get an offer. People spend too much time on technicals when they should be preparing airtight responses to your story, behaviroal / situational / fit within their group, learning what deals the group just did, and coming up with insightful questions to ask junior bankers and senior bankers (both should have separate questions)
I sent my case studies to prospects
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