First hand: Finance assessment centre, JPMorgan
When the big day arrived, I felt fairly relaxed - which was surprising as the state of the graduate employment market clearly made it my last chance of getting a job in an investment bank.
It started early. I arrived around 7.30am to meet the competition. The other candidates were all at UK universities, including Warwick, LSE, Dundee and Nottingham and had studied courses varying from BSc Accounting and Finance, to Business Economics, straight Economics and Actuarial Science.
An HR representative then listed the day's activities, which would run from 8am to 1pm.
Logic test
The assessment centre kicked off with a logic test, which was frankly mystifying. We were given a set of cards related to Air Miles. Most cards had a destination (e.g. London to Paris; London to Tokyo etc.), and specified the number of miles travelled and the number of air miles collected. Some had blanks for air miles or distance travelled and we were expected to fill them in.
I guess I must have an illogical brain as I had to guess most of the answers.
Presentation
Next up was the presentation. We were asked to imagine we were an employee at a new bank which was having teething problems after being recently formed through a merger.
We had 45 minutes to digest a long dossier with a lot of information, including emails, figures, annual reports and details of IT issues. Since the merger there had been difficulties aligning the billing systems of both banks and staff at the new bank had not integrated socially...Solve!
To make the 10 minute presentation a little more interesting, we were given flip-chart paper and marker pens to whip up some slides. I made the presentation to a senior manager for the EMEA region at the bank. When it finished I was subjected to another 10-15 minute Q&A session.
Some of her questions were specific to the presentation. For example, she wanted to know why I'd suggested the solutions I did. There were also a few predictable questions - 'What would you have done differently?" "How did you analyse all the information?" Describe your thought processes"
Group exercise
After the presentation, I checked my watch. It was only 11am - I wanted to weep! There was no time for this, however, as we quickly progressed to a group exercise.
While the presentation was only the assessor and I in a booth, the group exercise involved me in a room with five other candidates and five other assessors analysing our every move.
As with the presentation, we were given some information to digest. For example, we were asked to look at briefs on which city an IT support team should be based in - Mumbai, Bournemouth or London, and how to fund certain projects.
The group exercise is about reaching collective decisions in a 30 minute period. It's important to fight your case strongly, but not to be a roadblock to progress. Time is short and decisions need to be made quickly, so reaching a consensus is paramount. Act rationally and prioritise!
Final assessment
This was a much calmer affair. It was the final interview, but was really a debrief from the group exercise. We were asked questions like -
How did you think it went?
What was your most important contribution?
Do you feel the group worked well? What would you have done differently?
The second part of the interview was very similar if not a carbon copy of the first round interview questions:
Why JPMorgan?
What challenges does JPMorgan face over the next 5-10 years?
What specifically interests you in finance?
What surprised you about the bank?
That's all folks! That's me done for this application cycle.
Good luck to everyone applying for grad places and internships for 2009 because let's be honest you're going to need it!
