Research Interview - Excel Testing

Thanks for ruining this thread eh people?
Anyways, for anyone who wants to offer constructive advice…
Ive made it to round 2 interviews with the head of research. Any clue what im in for now?
 
Did someone say Wharton Resume File(r)? Can you send me 3 copies? I’ll thank you after you send it.
 
128nigel Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Thanks for ruining this thread eh people?
>
> Anyways, for anyone who wants to offer
> constructive advice…
>
> Ive made it to round 2 interviews with the head of
> research. Any clue what im in for now?
should be mostly behavioral, but they’ll want to make sure that your longer term goals (i.e. developing a career on the sell-side and having the opportunity to work with people that are, either rightfully are wrongfully, considered to be “experts” in their sector) are aligned with the company’s. also, you should come prepared with at least several insightful questions to ask – good questions would revolve around broader-scale issues related to their research division, the state of equity research in general, how the bank plans to further differentiate its research going forward, trying to understand what current challenges the department faces and how it plans to overcome that in the next couple years, etc…
the whole point is that the more senior your interviewer is, the more likely they’ll be asking you stuff about the “big picture”…so don’t sweat the small stuff but do make sure you have a good understanding of why you want to do equity research, why you want the associate role, what the current equity research environment is like, and why you want to work in research because of/in spite of (most likely the latter) what’s been happening to sell-side research in recent years
 
When I was interviewing with Head of Research, he asked me to pitch him with a stock suggestion. So be ready for that - and trust me, they know every stock’s stories there are out there (even more so since you’re in Canada)
 
Thanks Numi and Alayle, good stuff.
The analysts ive met with so far have emphasized that there is a lot of writing involved in being an associate. So im assuming this will be tested at some point.
Does anyone have any insight into this? So far im just going over all the daily research updates I can find from various brokerages. Is this enough? perhaps there is a more effective exercise for improving writing skills to a level that would be useful to an analyst.
 
there’s definitely a lot of writing an an associate and you might be given an earnings transcript or press release and write a note on it…looking at daily research summaries is one way to see how it’s done; otherwise you can also look at the research notes that your potential boss has written. however, senior people like MD’s and department heads are really going to assess your fit and broader scale issues – they’re much more about just trying to figure out what type of person you are and what drives you, rather than focusing on mechanical things like writing and modeling (whose basics can be taught assuming you’re at least a somewhat intelligent person)
 
Numi is right, even if it sounds stupid, you will learn to write again if you get the job. Writing research reports and memos to your GF are totally different, but both need to get the point across.
It also depends of the analyst you’d be working with. Some of them like to write 20-pages reports every couple of days, while others get one out every couple of weeks. Basically, the analyst will make your life heaven or hell.
 
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