J.P. Morgan-Assessment Day

gob

Hi all,

I have been invited to an assessment day with J.P.Morgan next Tuesday and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me. The position I am interviewing for is a European Equities Quantitative Analyst.

The woman I spoke to from HR said the day would be laid out as follows:

• Registration
• Problem solving exercises (exam)
• Group exercises
• Lunch (mingling!)
• Individual interview

I am currently studying for the M.Sc. in financial math in DCU but am a bit worried about the interviews as I come from an engineering background so my knowledge of financial theory is quite basic. I have been trying to do some background reading but with part-time work and the work load of the course this has proved difficult.

Any tips/hints/insider info. would be much appreciated.

Thanks

gob

Bump....

Anyone have any experience with any type of assessment centre???

Bellies

Some of the assessments that I've experienced are as follows:

I had one with a large mutli national whereby I was put in a situation. I'm flying over in the Artic with 6 others. We experience some difficulty where we have to make a crash landing near a iron ore field.

Eventually the plane crashes and we must select 15 items from a list of which we must prioritise for 1 being very important and 15 being the least.
From my memory these would be:

A shaving kit
Matches
Water purification tables (No need as you can melt the snow for water!)
Snow Boots
60m of rope
Book (large)
Large water proof blanket
Compass (Rank last as magnetic attraction from the iron field near by will mess up the readings)


Read the instructions very carefully if you get a topic like this. Why???

Well, firstly they expect you to stay where you are or try move and look for help. Answer they look for is STAY put!

Build a shelter
Light a fire and keep it alight with the book.
Melt the snow and use as drinking water
Use razor kit to attract attention via the mirror.
etc..


Have a look at the SHL website and they have exact samples for each major company.

Hope it helps!

TonyRomo

gob wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been invited to an assessment day with J.P.Morgan next Tuesday and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me. The position I am interviewing for is a European Equities Quantitative Analyst.

The woman I spoke to from HR said the day would be laid out as follows:

• Registration
• Problem solving exercises (exam)
• Group exercises
• Lunch (mingling!)
• Individual interview

I am currently studying for the M.Sc. in financial math in DCU but am a bit worried about the interviews as I come from an engineering background so my knowledge of financial theory is quite basic. I have been trying to do some background reading but with part-time work and the work load of the course this has proved difficult.

Any tips/hints/insider info. would be much appreciated.

Thanks

• Registration
• Problem solving exercises (exam)

These are actually quite - more so than the SHL online tests you to get in. I ended up cheating off the guys around me who i thought were smarter than me (you have a few minutes with your group and you figure out who the braniacs are ) You do the tests alone for 20 mins. HR lady comes in after. No comprehension tests. Just the maths ones with the tables and statistics.

• Group exercises

You will be given a small project.

Key points to do well.
1/ Dont be that guy who bosses people. they hate that.
2/ Make sure you get intelligent input in. Dont just say something for the sake of it.

You'll be nice and relaxed for the individual assesment by this stage

• Lunch (mingling!)
• Individual interview

3 30 mins interviews

1/ this is just pure problem solving.

they'll ask you without a pen and paper to work out things as fast as posible things like 48 x52.

The trick with all these things is to see how'll you think. they ask you for the answer. Then to explain how you did it.

for these the best way is 48x50....2x48.....+ them. do them all this way

Then they'll ask you somethinglike how many females die of smoking in england. Before going in look up the populations of ireland, britain, and england...and also how many houses are there.

This is how you phrase your answers. Speak out loud..

there are rougly. 40m people in england
20m females
1 in 8 people smoke (just a guess)....20/8

One i got was. 1000 small cubes. Dimen 10x10x10. all the outer cubes are painted. How many dont have paint on.

Explain your process. look up a bunch of these before hand. I got asked 10 riddles (maths problems) and heard them all before. Just hollywooded for a while.


2/ Commercial awareness.

Article read recently.
if you had a million £'s what would you invest in.
JP morgans share price

etc.

3/ CV talking about yourself. just go online and make sure you can answer all those type of questions.

Weaknesses, a time you lead a team and guided them to something. crap like that

1/2/3 might not be given in that order.

Just research well and you'll be fine. gl.
...etc

TonyRomo

it did get posted. lol

Welease

Tests aside, when running assessment days there are a few others things that I keep an eye out for...

(and it worth remembering with group tests, I in general don't really care about the final result from the team, what's important is how they got to that result - teamwork, communication etc.)

For group tests/assessment
- Make sure you are seen as a positive contributor to the team.
- Be assertive (get your point across.. concisely)
- Do not get overly dominant (don't smother other people, make sure the quiet ones are brought into the conversation).
- Do not get into personal power struggles with other members, that will be seen negatively. You will both end up looking bad.
- Be seen to facilitate the productivity of the team.
- Be seen to be organised and methodical.

Over lunch
- Mingle.. Dont stand in the corner stuffing your face.
- Be seen talking to people
- Use the time to find out some more information from your hosts, engage them in conversation.


There are very few positions nowadays that allow you to work in complete isolation. These tests and assessments give the prospective employer a good insight into how you work with others and your communication etc. skills. Use that time to demonstrate those abilities.. There is 0 downtime during the day, you are being observed.

Best of luck

Oh and don't try to BS them If you don't know the answer to a question then say so, but then answer it to the best of your knowledge. Maybe it's a personal thing for me, but it irritates the hell out of me, when someone starts waffling on about something is blatently obvious they know nothing about.

razorblunt

I don't think anyone above has mentioned this but know the market, not inside out, but who the movers and shakers are, what the current trends are etc etc.