New York TA

NOTE: Interviews for Chicago and NYC were at the same time and the weekend followed an identical structure and we were together most of the time. However, you only interviewed with people in the office you were applying to. Basically, Chicago = technical, NYC = fit.

Started with an on-campus recruiting interview, 1-on-1 with one of the analysts in the office I was applying to. Asked a few technical questions but mostly was fit-based, standard "walk me through your resume" type things. Was flown out to Chicago for Super Saturday.

Friday consisted of company tours, and a presentation/Q&A with Don Wilson, a group trading simulation (which I'll describe below), a musical-chairs style steakhouse dinner (employees would rotate around the room after each course to give the interviewees an opportunity to talk to more people from the firm), and a Whirlyball outing with young analysts. Saturday consisted of 4 back-to-back 2-on-1 interviews that were mostly fit with a splash of technicals (NOTE: I was interviewing for NEW YORK which is a much smaller office (30 employees at the time) so the interviews were much more heavily based on fit. If you interview for Chicago, prepare to get destroyed by math problems and brainteasers. I thought some of the questions I got were tough but nothing compared to Chicago which was ALL technical and no fit). After a lunch break there was a group teambuilding exercise. They said they would follow up within a week but it took them 3 weeks to respond to me (at the end of each week I sent an email asking where they were in the process and they would ask for another week to get back. This happened several times, but I think it was because they were waiting on someone else to accept the offer before giving it to me) and I didn't receive an offer.

Trading game
In a small conference room around a table, we were trading on the expected value of 6 cards; after each card was revealed the analysts would ask for (and give) options and futures quotes (need a bid AND ask). From there everyone had a pad of paper and trading happened floor-style where anyone could announce or ask for quotes and trade with the other interviewees and analysts in the room. The analysts would mostly observe but issue bad quotes occasionally to see if we would notice good trading opportunities and arbitrage. Be vocal during the game and make sure you're on your feet, it's an incredibly fast-paced situation and it's easy to lose track while you run numbers through your head. Issue quotes as much as you can, but be conservative with them. If you issue too good a quote just to try to get someone to trade with you the analysts will notice and take the opposite side, and destroy you.

One other piece of advice for the weekend: You are being evaluated CONSTANTLY, even when they say they aren't.