Spring Weeks 2012 Thread

Yes, it's not ALL luck, but a huge aspect of it is.

Taking BoAML - how do they pick between 10 Oxford/Cambridge/LSE students? A*AA, studying Economics (and Management). One internship each at a decent place.

That's luck my friend.

Ok, sure, if they all have that and nothing else perhaps true. There are loads of things that could distinguish them though. Grades for a start, some are likely to have 3 or 4 rather than 1 A* at A level, and they'll have different GCSE's as well. Then there's the issue of what else they have done. Some will have had leadership positions at school (head boy, school prefect etc.) or will have completely national awards like D of E. Some might have gone on courses abroad, won trading competitions, or will already be in positions of responsibility within university societies.
Sure BoAML then only has all these things on paper to look through, and who is better is perhaps somewhat subjective, but there's still a multitude of things to make each candidate unique (and if they're not unique then the application clearly goes straight in the bin).
Most banks interview however, and normally two rounds. Ask a student why they want to be a banker, you'll get a big range of quality in answer. Then ask them to do 28x29 in their head and you've got a decent way to differentiate who is actually better at maths. Ask a few more questions, see whether the first was a fluke, and also find out if their communication skills are up to scratch. After the whole process you have a range of students, with a big range of achievements and grades, and all who have given different impressions at interview regarding each of the specific skills that are being tested.
Sure, one candidate might take a few seconds longer to do the maths problem on a different day, but his communication skills will be the same and his achievements the same as well.
I have spent a lot of time building up what I think is a decent CV which contains a fair few achievements that I hope differentiate me from the competition. As it stands I have 2 offers, a number of interviews, and no rejections. Personally, I don't think that's luck.

I agree with you that different people have different achievements, but I think if you were to score the CVs on some criteria then you would find that there is a significant number of CVs with the same score. Choosing from this set would arguably be completely random - hence luck if you are chosen for an interview. I do think after the interview stage luck doesn't really play that big a part.

Interesting 10 minutes, full of highs and lows. Firstly email from Jane Street asking for code samples and then a rejection from Barcap. Ah well...

Ok, sure, if they all have that and nothing else perhaps true. There are loads of things that could distinguish them though. Grades for a start, some are likely to have 3 or 4 rather than 1 A* at A level, and they'll have different GCSE's as well. Then there's the issue of what else they have done. Some will have had leadership positions at school (head boy, school prefect etc.) or will have completely national awards like D of E. Some might have gone on courses abroad, won trading competitions, or will already be in positions of responsibility within university societies.
Sure BoAML then only has all these things on paper to look through, and who is better is perhaps somewhat subjective, but there's still a multitude of things to make each candidate unique (and if they're not unique then the application clearly goes straight in the bin).
Most banks interview however, and normally two rounds. Ask a student why they want to be a banker, you'll get a big range of quality in answer. Then ask them to do 28x29 in their head and you've got a decent way to differentiate who is actually better at maths. Ask a few more questions, see whether the first was a fluke, and also find out if their communication skills are up to scratch. After the whole process you have a range of students, with a big range of achievements and grades, and all who have given different impressions at interview regarding each of the specific skills that are being tested.
Sure, one candidate might take a few seconds longer to do the maths problem on a different day, but his communication skills will be the same and his achievements the same as well.
I have spent a lot of time building up what I think is a decent CV which contains a fair few achievements that I hope differentiate me from the competition. As it stands I have 2 offers, a number of interviews, and no rejections. Personally, I don't think that's luck.

Did they ask for OCaml samples, or just anything?

OCaml, but I'm more of a Haskell man when it comes to functional languages. To be fair though my best stuff is in OO languages like Java so that's what I sent her in the end. You applied as well?

I just hope my interviewer isn't a fat slob and actually works out. Could talk for days about lifting, would be nice if I could get into some more "personal" things.

Also, I thought people said BoAML don't interview or anything?

Ok, sure, if they all have that and nothing else perhaps true. There are loads of things that could distinguish them though. Grades for a start, some are likely to have 3 or 4 rather than 1 A* at A level, and they'll have different GCSE's as well. Then there's the issue of what else they have done. Some will have had leadership positions at school (head boy, school prefect etc.) or will have completely national awards like D of E. Some might have gone on courses abroad, won trading competitions, or will already be in positions of responsibility within university societies.
Sure BoAML then only has all these things on paper to look through, and who is better is perhaps somewhat subjective, but there's still a multitude of things to make each candidate unique (and if they're not unique then the application clearly goes straight in the bin).
Most banks interview however, and normally two rounds. Ask a student why they want to be a banker, you'll get a big range of quality in answer. Then ask them to do 28x29 in their head and you've got a decent way to differentiate who is actually better at maths. Ask a few more questions, see whether the first was a fluke, and also find out if their communication skills are up to scratch. After the whole process you have a range of students, with a big range of achievements and grades, and all who have given different impressions at interview regarding each of the specific skills that are being tested.
Sure, one candidate might take a few seconds longer to do the maths problem on a different day, but his communication skills will be the same and his achievements the same as well.
I have spent a lot of time building up what I think is a decent CV which contains a fair few achievements that I hope differentiate me from the competition. As it stands I have 2 offers, a number of interviews, and no rejections. Personally, I don't think that's luck.

just curious, but have you learnt tricks to solve mental arithmetic?

No, I've only ever done stuff in OO languages (Java and Obj-C).

I just know Jane Street are big on their OCaml but also that a lot of schools don't teach it so was wondering how they assess ability in it.

Yeah OCaml was the preference. In hindsight if I'd been less busy I would have worked at creating some kind of basic coding in OCaml. On my CV I didn't say I know how to use it so I guess they are just hoping programming languages are transferable!

What Obj C stuff have you done? Any cheeky iOS apps on the AppStore by the name of Miml?

Lol, no. I tried a couple iOS apps but didn't get very far. Did buy a one year developer licence and it expires soon, but I might renew it in the summer and see if I can make something properly. As I haven't had any actual teaching my code is very messy, and although one of the apps I made did actually work, it wouldn't have been approved by the Apple Store anyway.

Anyone else who did the AC at MS today?

Hey, for the UBS Horizons email, did u get an automated response from UBS saying that they will get back to you as soon as possible?

x

x

something you know?
or just said that?

cause i got that same message like 2 days ago