Goldman Interview

[CGiuliano]

GS interview in the am. The position is technology analyst. Any words of wisdom?

Oh, and why Goldman????

 

[GoIllini]

GS interview in the am. The position is technology analyst. Any words of wisdom?

Oh, and why Goldman????

Pay close attention to the interviews- figure out if they're passionate about what they do.

Focus on data structures and algorithms. If you can get that down, you've got the core competencies required for a strong developer.

 

[GoIllini]

Let us know how it went.

 

[CGiuliano]

So, there were two rounds. The first round went ok,.. I'd give it probably a 7.67/10. They asked me like 5 brain teasers, to write a simple program in MATLAB, then to convert it to C. This was all fine, up until they started asking me really specific software questions. I'm not a software engineer. Everyone else was.

So, the second round was more of your typical "Where do you see yourself in 5 years" type of interview. The guy was really informal and let me talk about projects that I'm working on and such. Then he said some of the following. I don't know exactly how to take this, as this is my second interview ever:

Beginning:
"I was the one who picked your resume. It was definitely different than our other candidates... I could really see you working as a quantitative analyst" (the position I was interviewing for was primarily application developer/systems engineer)
"Do you know what quantitative analysis is" (Golden question!)

Middle:
"Yeah, my girlfriend has the same last name as you.. [continued banter about the similarity to a certain politician]"
"Your from town X? I'm from town Y! Not many people know about our area.."

End
"What sets you apart" (last question; flawless answer)
"Ok, I'm going to go ahead and recommend you to our quantitative analysis department."

The last statement is the killer. What does this mean? Thats not the exact position I was interviewing for, but his body language was all saying 'your in.' Also, could the first guy talk him out of it?????? Isight anyone?

 

[GoIllini]

The last statement is the killer. What does this mean? Thats not the exact position I was interviewing for, but his body language was all saying 'your in.' Also, could the first guy talk him out of it?????? Isight anyone?

It means you've probably just become a competitive candidate for a quant position at Goldman. Congrats- that's quite an honor. I hear (second-hand) that most people who make it to quant interviews at GS either have a lot of prior industry experience or have PhDs in Math or Physics and are extremely well published. You've got some serious competition, but it sounds like they think you're in the same league as those guys.

The guy obviously liked you, so I don't know what that last statement means for your current position. Maybe you've got an in with technology or maybe you don't. The healthiest thing to do right now is head out and grab a few drinks (assuming that's something you sometimes do), celebrate the fact that you're a serious candidate for a QUANT position at GOLDMAN SACHS, and try not to obsess over an offer too much. Assuming you land the job, it's hard to get more creme-de-la-creme than that.

 

[CGiuliano]

Thanks, that makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Just to be clear, I'm an undergraduate junior, and the position is a 6 month (paid/full-time) co-operative, in which:

"89% of students who are selected and complete this co-op, receive full-time job offers at Goldman in their respective departments upon graduation."

One big downside is that I would have to delay graduation by a semester. Which probably seems petty, but with requirements and fall/spring offering issues, it really would be annoying. Don't get me wrong though, given the opportunity, I plan to accept.

And yes, I'll head out for a few drinks every once in a while.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

Dude...so instead of turning you into an IT drone, they make you a quant.

That's BAD?

I'd be jumping up and down!

Congrats!

 

[DanM]

I don't think he implied it was a bad thing. He seems pretty pumped - as he should be.

Congrats, dude.

 

[CGiuliano]

I'm gonna hold off on breaking out the champagne, at least for a day. But, thanks everyone for the support! :tiphat:

 

[Stefan Zota]

I'm gonna hold off on breaking out the champagne, at least for a day. But, thanks everyone for the support! :tiphat:

First of all, it sounds like you did well in the interview. Congratulations.
This comes from one of those IT drones at GS.

Anyway, it is wrong to over-analyze an opinion or statement from an interview. From my experience and other cases, decisions are not taken so easily.

Also, if the position was in Technology, then it matters little if one interviewer sees you suitable in another area. He can recommend you, but unless he has a close link with a quant oriented team (e.g. Strats, High-Freq, Alg Trading), it means very little.

Furthermore, "quant" is a buzzword often used, it doesn't mean that you are working directly in quantitative finance. Some areas consider quant as pure analytics or metrics. They can report on trade volume or other metrics.
Do you know the business area/desk they are refering?

In the set of interviews with the other department, you should try to understand as much as possible what they do.

 

[CGiuliano]

There was a 6 person team of Goldman Sachs interviewers on campus. They were all in the technology department and, from what I picked up, they were looking mainly to fill these positions:

Application Developer
Infrastructure Engineer/Systems Professional

The second interviewer I spoke with was a vice president and his business card says Financial Systems Technology. He was saying that when ever a client purchased equity, the information came to him and he made a commission on each purchase, so it was a volume type job. I forget the exact name of his department though.

I would not have thought much of the whole "recommendation" thing, but one of the first things he told me was that he personally choose my resume, because he thought I fit the role of "quantitative analyst" (whatever that means). Immediately after he referred to the curriculum I had chosen: 2-3 math classes every semester, 1-2 computer science classes a semester and 1 economics/finance class per semester. Little did he know, this was no accident.

I left the interview feeling pretty confident, but I don't want to get my hopes up because of this whole department-to-depertment murkiness.