Stress Interviews

AlexD

Does anyone know anything about stress interviews? i.e. when the interviewer puts you under alot of pressure by hard questions, being rude or sarcastic etc?

topper75

Yeah but it's usually a cushy number afterwards once you get in so don't worry.

justfortherecor

Its quite a common tactic when interviewing for trading desks.

My friend went for a position on the grad training programme with a large MNC bank. It was quite a quantitative position obviously so during the interview his interviewer asked him to derive the Black-Scholes option pricing formula on the refill pad on the desk. While my friend was doing this, the interviewer then proceded to ask him questions about the current market and other random questions.

Quite a stressful interview, but I suppose it shows which candidates can deal with that sort of pressure and would be most suited to a desk position.

DaSchmo

Yeah and another variation on the stress theme is the case interviews you have to do for management consulting jobs, having been through the consulting milkround this year I have to say it's pretty daunting at ,although you get used to doing them after a few goes, but they do try their best to pick your thinking apart and ask you difficult questions to check your capacity to deal with pressure and think on your feet.