Investment banking recruiters want to seriously test their junior recruits during the interview process. More often than not, this involves the infamous ‘brain-teasers’, but these are gradually being phased out in favour of a combination of competency-based and a new style of ‘situational’ interviewing.
This doesn’t mean that some silly questions are not being asked. This, according to a variety of sources, are the strange interview questions being asked to juniors across various investment banking divisions this year.
- What is your opinion about Adolf Hitler?
- What should Lloyd Blankfein be worried about?
- If I offered you a job at Goldman Sachs or £1m, which would it be and why?
- Tell me an interesting story.
- You studied chemistry at university. So, are you just going into banking for the money?
- You are the Minister for Transport in the UK and need to change the traffic from the lefthand side of the road to the right. How do you go about this?
- You have to work long hours, but you we also expect you to study for the CFA exams. The work consumes your life. You will have no social life. How does this make you feel?
- How did you prepare for this interview?
- Why do Volvo cars account for fewer fatalities than other brands?
- A car is driving quickly down the road. In the middle of this road is a man, standing stationary. The streetlights are not working and a battery problem means that the lights in the car aren’t working either. The car manages to avoid the man. How?
- How many windows are there in this building?
- It’s 3.20pm. What’s the angle of the second hand and the hour hand on the clock?