Citigroup, capital markets origination (graduate)

1st round interview:

I was asked a lot of generic competency questions, and there was an additional numerical test., in the same style as the online test. Plus...

Question

What are on the financial headlines nowadays? Give me a few examples

Answer

I mentioned a few examples of what I'd read in the FT, Google finance, or BBC finance.

Question

Which one of the following banks made a loss, which one made a profit: Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, RBS.

The assessment centre:

The Group exercise:

A certain amount of money was available, and each candidate (there were 5 of us) was given a proposal on how to invest the money.

The group had to select the proposal(s) that best suited the requirements of the case study. Some people naturally had to give up their proposals, but midway through the exercise new information started coming in, such as "OK, now there has been a sudden change due

to blah blah and therefore your budget has decreased by 50,000" and "a client moved the appointment ahead so instead of 20 minutes remaining now you have 10 minutes remaining" etc. The point is, be prepared for unexpected turns and twists throughout the group

exercise. Also, do not rush too much or talk too much.

The case study

The case study involved an approx 10 or 15 page booklet giving information on a coffee company that wanted to invest in one of five countries. Of course, none of the five countries are 100% perfect - they all have pros and cons. Your task is to read through the booklet,

capture the data and analyse it to come to a conclusion and recommend

one of the countries to the coffee company to invest.

The booklet contained information on the companies, including market data, rainfall, type and amount of coffee produced (there are 2 types of coffee stated in the case study), profit margins for each type of coffee, the current customer trends, market price of the coffee etc.

I believe it was 45 minutes long, but I may be wrong.

Within that given time, the candidate has to do two things.

1) Prepare a transparency slide for a 10 to 15min long presentation

on the case study that the student will have to make later on during

the day.

2) Prepare a report on the matter (which I would assume has to summarise the

pros and cons of all options), show your analysis and then say which country you chose to recommend and why.

For the presentation part, I would also recommend making the transparency slide fairly structured, and also not talking too much, pausing for effect etc. I have been told I talk too much. At the end of the presentation, the interviewer will ask questions that will put

you under pressure, to see if you will be able to defend your recommendation with evidence from the case study.

So I would recommend to bring a highlighter and coloured pens to make notes during the case study.

4 one-on-one interviews with high ranking employees such as directors

Question

Which sub-division of the CMO desk do you think you are more

suitable for/do you prefer? (I got asked this question by all 4 interviewers, so I suggest candidates to look into the sub-divisions within the CMO desk and have an idea as to where they may wanna work or where they'd fit in better. I did not do this, and believe to have

lost out because of it.)

Question

Tell me about your placement year.

(I would use the STAR -situation, task, action, result) approach and keep it short. I have been told I talked too much in the feedback...

Instead of going into too much detail, focus on what competencies/skills/abilities you have used and/or developed as a result, and perhaps, if you have time, how you can use those at Citi to deliver success.

Question

Who do you think Citi is in direct competition with?

Question

Why and how is Citi in competition with that bank?

(I said HSBC but a better answer would be Bank of America and HSBC.)

Question

Why Citi?

Question

Why Capital Markets Origination?

These questions were provided to us by a candidate claiming to have interviewed at the institution named above. We cannot guarantee that these were the actual questions asked.