Markets: S&T

The hiring process as DB is pretty straightforward, at least from what friends at other firms tell me. I can pretty much say networking helped me quite a lot.

I was studying abroad at LSE and took the opportunity of being in London to attend alumni reunion events. There I met many alumni from my university back in the States who are in banking in London. They were very helpful but the one that stood out the most was the guy at DB. He basically directed me on what to do, reviewed my resume, arranged meetings/mock interviews between me and about 5 DB employees, mostly associates and VPs. I had been reading economic journals and newspapers such as WSJ, The Economist, etc., for long. I am personally interested in what is happening in the markets as an end in itself. So during it came as a plus for me. I just intensified my reading... being current about what was happening in the markets really helped quite a lot. I knew quite a lot about the eurozone crisis and in almost all 4 interviews I had (2 phases) the eurozone crisis kept coming up.

The first interview I had was the most intense for me. It was the first ever interview I have had in my life for a job. At first I was nervous, but knowing I was well prepared, and knowing that the guys who were interviewing me were just dudes like myself and had been in my shoes, I was more relaxed. Most importantly, when I stepped into the room, I become very confident. I was well dressed, and I looked into their eyes when answering a question. To be clear, I didn't know everything. But I sort of made my interviewers talk about what I knew. For instance the interview veered into talking about China's presence in Africa (I am from Cameroon)...

So they asked me the regular questions that every interviewee should be prepared for... walk me through your resume, why DB, why banking, etc. competency based questions.

Oh, I forgot to mention that before going for the first round of interview, I had to apply online, take a psychometric test. And I was retested at the assessment center. The test at the assessment center was considerably more difficult and I didn't finish... I am a math major and other applicants complained as well. Nonetheless, I was told it was deliberately made difficult.

OK, back to the interview. I am sure I impressed the two guys interview me not because I knew so much, but because I was confident talking about the things I knew. What I didn't know, I told them I didn't, but I was willing to learn if I get an offer.

That same evening I got a call I had made it to the second round.

The following week I went for the second round. I had three separate interviews with three different MDs. They all asked me about the eurozone crisis. What is important though is that I tried to connect with them. The first interview was basically a chat., but I got asked some competency based questions: what do my friends admire in me? Why should I get an offer instead of some other person, etc. The second and third one were more serious: bonds and eurozone crisis.

About 4 hours later, I got a call from the first MD who interviewed me. She told me I had got the offer even before the recruitment called to inform me.

This is not the best, but what I have done is given a haphazard picture of how my first job application was like.