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Interview with Jupiter Asset management -- how could I have answered better?

Interview with Jupiter Asset management -- how could I have answered better?
I got interviewed by the head of the Fixed Income team and a recruiter. Questions asked:

Where do you see yourself in terms of your career?-- I said I wanted to go into this industry because I liked investing, which I found out after doing an insight at an asset management firm M and G, in which I learned how to trade by playing a trading game and networked with employees, which made me realise that invest management was the right fit for my skills. I also said I developed my interest

Why do you like investing? I like investing because I think it is a good way to improve people's finances so that they could earn returns on their hard-earned savings and have the financial means to do so.

Talk about trading strategies...-- I told them honestly I did not have any do they asked:

Talk me through the last time you had to buy a large purchase-- here I talked about how planned a holiday, talking about how I found the flights, the hotels, the food and the travel

Why do you want to work in fixed income assets rather than equity?-- I said because fixed income was less risky and less volatile

Why work for Jupiter? -- I said I liked the way they treated their employees and the company culture there

Then came the competency questions:

Tell me about a time when you communicated in a group: I talked about communication within a peer group and to management to finish organising a big careers event and also how in presentations at university I take the lead and delegate tasks on a group chat to deliver on time

Tell me your role in a friendship group and what 3 words your friends would use to describe you-- I talked about how I take an active role in deciding what my friends should do without being tyrannical and said I take the initiative about what we should do-- my friends would describe as 'adventurous but also reliable and responsible'

Tell me about a time when you made a mistake and what you did to correct it-- I talked about missing a deadline at uni and then asking my tutor for an extension instead of rushing my work on one day and ending up with poor work

Which one are you better at teamwork or individual work-- I said I was better at teamwork...

Reply 1

shadowdweller

Volunteer Section Leader

@ABCDEF99 as you have quite a few answers there, I'm just going to pick out a couple at a time -

Why work for Jupiter? -- I said I liked the way they treated their employees and the company culture there

What in particular did you like about the company culture? How does this line up to your own personal culture/values?

Which one are you better at teamwork or individual work-- I said I was better at teamwork...

Why are you better at teamwork? Do you still feel you are good at individual work?

Reply 2

maachu_pichuu

You should always link up equities to fixed income using future cash flows. I always go back to birds and bush analogy from buffett, with fixed income (which is rubbish at current interest rates), you know the cash flows. With equities you do not. You are giving cash up today at the risk free rate for higher future cash flows, which may or may not materialise in equities.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, you need to ask yourself, how many are in the bush or if the bush even exists (tech bubble 1999), the lower interest rates go, the more attractive equities are to fixed income. This is how I would answer such a question.

Reply 3

maachu_pichuu

You also should have told the head of fixed income, with interest rates so low, there is no reason to be in anything other than stocks. If inflation doesn't show up and interest rates remain rock bottom, the returns will be generated in stocks. The only fixed income securities worth looking at are those on the junk side, which can yield above 8% if held to maturity on top of capital gains.

I wonder how the fixed income guy is feeling, since his department has barely managed to return above inflation with super cheap money in the market. Though as interest rates rise, credit will tighten and we will have a corporate debt crisis from companies which have too much leverage.