Structured Finance Interview -HELP!

[TinFoil Hatter]

I have a phone interview TOMORROW for an associate position within a large and well-known insurance companies Investment Management division. Specifically, the position is not directly front-office, but more mid-office in a structured finance risk/oversight role and assists with operations surrounding their multi-multi billion dollar ABS, CMBS, RMBS and structured product/derivative portfolio.

I have an ivy bachelors (2003 grad) with a varied background that includes some corpo fin @ a Fortune 50 diversified healthcare manufacturer, equity derivatives sales @ a top-tier ibank and trading/portfolio management at a micro hedge fund. The micro fund i currently work at is shuttering in a few months (founder converting to mutual fund management. i don't want to go along for the ride) and given the tough job market (very tough!) I feel fortunate to get a chance to join a large investment management operation, even if it isn't front office. I see it as a stepping stone to a front office structuring/analyst role within strucfin/credit/etc. I made the mistake of NOT pursuing my CFA over the past 5 years due to the combination of large bonus checks and youthful ignorance. I have however decided to pursue and complete it by 2013.

I'm not worried about the technical/hard questions. I'm really worried about the soft/feeler questions. These are what will determine selection from amongst a group of well-qualified candidates. They're going to ask me questions like Why this firm (large insurance company with huge investment portfolio)? Why structured finance? What experience/value do you have to lend to CMBS/RMBS/ABS oversight and analysis?

Any advice on how to answer these questions without sounding like I am desparately licking the brown off my interviewers backside? The phone interviewer will be the woman who is running the group, so not some recruiter. Already passed that initial hurdle.

I don't want to become unemployed or risk any gap in my employment, as I know it becaomes much harder to find a job then. But I also need to say the right things, and not "i need a job, this is a great company, blah blah"

Any structured finance nuggets of wisdom to be lent my way? I'm well aware of the current illiquid and precarious (nonexistant?) nature of securitization in the ABS markets. But large holders of these investments still have t manage their portfolio risk.

Any advice is welcome. I have had a subscription to the Journal of Structured Finance for the past few years and contemplated drawing alot of talking points from that that material. Is that too much? Feel like I will blow this interview if I sound like every other chump trying to get a decent job with a well-known company in a respectable field...

 

[Uncle Max]

Well, if you know elements of Structured Finance it will be much easier for you to do well on this interview.

You were subscribed to the Journal of Structured Finance and learned some thing. Explain why did you do so, how interested you were etc

If you have hard time to explain your motivation, tell something like: when market collapsed, I was very interested to learn the causes that's why I learned .... and ...... which helped my employer to achieve ......

 

[bob]

Actually, the market for new deals is better--and worse--than you think. There was a large national conference in Florida a few weeks ago, and what struck me in the press coverage coming out of it was that analysts were willing to be so candid. One S&P analyst was quoted as saying he couldn't believe the deals--he openly called them "crap"--that were being done again. Other quotes I saw from Blackrock analysts were similarly pessimistic.

So risk in this space is a very important thing. I'd be curious to know what insurance companies are doing. I know from the modeling side that once you get beyond agency RMBS the pickings are pretty slim in terms of providers who actually know what they're doing. The world is balkanized, so for example you might find one provider who rules the CMBS market, but they do essentially nothing else so you have to go elsewhere for other types of deals you hold. Furthermore, the emphasis is heavily on US issuance because there's a comparative wealth of data there, but once you go into Europe or Asia you end up doing a lot of guessing. There is a very heavy emphasis generally among the providers on deal-by-deal analysis, but portfolio analytics in this area--what you need for risk--are not strong, from what I've seen.