My Interview Experience!

Recently, I had a phone interview with one of the top financial firms in New York. It’s a Summer Analyst Program for freshmen and sophomores. I applied for this position at the beginning of February on the company’s website.

Let me just start by saying, I did not expect an interview, but out of the blue during spring break, I received an email from the interviewer to set up a time.  This was one of the first things that I did right after spring break. Since the interviewer was in the EST zone, my interview was early in the morning at 8:00 a.m. and it lasted about 30 minutes.

No matter how “prepared” you are for interviews there are always going to be some surprise questions.  The interviewer started by explaining the internship position and then I got a chance to explain my leadership positions, volunteer opportunities, and hobbies. Basically, what I do when I am not in a class. Then the interviewer asked specific questions about resumes and experiences.

Afterward, the interviewer asked some behavioral questions. For example, tell me a time when you worked on a group project and not everyone was participating. What did you do? Next came the technical and thinking questions: You are playing a game, in which you roll a fair, 6-sided die. If you roll x, you get x dollars. How much would you pay for this game?

I was able to answer most of the interview questions but there was one question where I did not know exactly what the answer was and I started freaking out. Soon, I calmed myself and I explained the topic but did not answer the exact question. I did not know how to handle the situation but learned from my mistakes.

In the end, the interviewer gave me some time to ask any questions and explained what the next process it. Within a week I received an email from the company saying that I was not moving to the next round of interviews.

After, getting the email I was definitely disappointed, but I emailed my interviewer to ask about my interview and other details about the program. It would have been a great opportunity if I had gotten an offer but at the same time this was a great learning experience and I am definitely looking forward to applying for this internship position again next year.