GUEST COMMENT: How to survive an interview with The Business
If you're a university student applying for a job in an investment bank, initial encounters with your chosen organisations are likely to be with teams of professional graduate recruiters.
After meeting with an army of graduate recruiters, the more foolish among you may come to think they're what banking's all about, and to adjust your demeanour accordingly. Don't. Graduate recruiters are the gatekeepers. Ingratiate yourself to them in order to get past stage one. Once you've done that, your success will be determined by The Business.
The Business are the people who make money for an investment bank. They are the salespeople, the traders, the structurers, the M&A bankers, and the capital markets professionals. Unlike graduate recruiters, their core jobs don't involve spending hours quizzing inexperienced youths on why they're so sure that they're the next Andrew Hall or Bruce Wasserstein.
As a result, you probably won't come across a real member of The Businesss until you're quite advanced in the interview process; you may not meet one until an assessment day.
Remember that they have better things to do
When you do, the first thing to bear in mind is that he or she does probably not want to be there. The member of The Business sitting opposite you will have been bullied, blackmailed and chased around the office in order to secure his/her presence. In all likelihood, the original invitee will have delegated the invitation to sideways or downwards until it reached someone without a decent excuse for getting out of it. This is who you will meet. Even so, they will likely have plenty of other things they should be getting on with.
If you're aware of this, you can do something about it. Be aware that talking to The Business is not like talking to graduate recruiters. A graduate recruiter is likely, if not certain, to test you on some basic questions regarding economics and/or the markets (Eg. the relationship between oil prices and stock markets). The Business will not. This will be partly because The Business don't care about your academic or rote-learned view of the international markets. It will also be partly because The Business won't have prepared any questions because they were hoping to avoid this interview entirely.
Be ENGAGING
Instead, an interview with The Business is likely to kick-off with a question about your studies. This should be a subject upon which you're an expert and have lots of interesting things to say. Do not make the speech about how you've always wanted to be an investment banker. We've heard that too many times and it basically amounts to, "I want to earn lots of money."
After divulging some interesting information on yourself, try to turn the interview into a two-way conversation by asking a question. You could even ask the same question that the person from The Business has just asked you. Interacting with The Business is partly about massaging your interviewer's ego. Bankers are not known for their unwillingness to talk about themselves; ask them what their job involves. Do not ask how much they earned last year or what they think will happen to bonuses if the FSA turns truly ferocious.
By listening and reacting to the answers that are given to you, you can draw parallels with your thoughts, interests and feelings. You can also convey the impression of genuine interest in the organisation and the overworked banker sitting opposite.
Be memorable
Getting on with The Business is all about making an impression (preferably favourable) in the mind of someone who's focused on other things. That way it will be more likely that they will at least remember you when it comes to filling in the feedback forms forced upon them by graduate recruiters at the end of the session.
