Hi guys,
This is just a review for anyone who is interested in what interviews involve and for people who are thinking of applying for internships next year.
I had my first ever internship interview yesterday at Goldman Sachs (GS) in London. I went down to London on Wenesday evening and had my first mishap - i accidentally booked the Travelodge room for 8th March not 8th Feb, DUH! They had rooms left but i had to beg. Second mishap was that the room was right next to Kings Cross station and i kept waking up in the night to "the next train to Streatham will depart at 6.10am." I made it out of my room to the tube and turned up to my interview an hour early so ended up in Starbucks with a mug of tea.
When i got to the building i was surprised that there was no indication that GS even inhabited the place - it was bizarre. There were a few blokes with Unilever badges to hand out who said i was in the right place. I sat down with some other candidates. Surprisingly not one of them was from Oxbridge. I've been told that GS dont like the stereotypical arrogant egotistical Oxbridge applicant and it proved to be the case here. They guys i spoke to were very friendly and there was a bit of banter which is what you need to offset interview nerves.
Next came a verbal and numerical test. It wasnt extremely challenging but as i havent done maths since GCSE, i probably found it harder than the average maths related degree student. I came back to the 'waiting room', which was basically like the inside of a designer fashion store and there were no urinals in the toilet!? They packed me off straight away to my interview which was with a sharp member of the Private Wealth Management Division. He was obviously highly intelligent and although he made me feel at ease, he didnt have a natural sense of friendliness/open personality. He had my CV in front of him and wrote notes through the interview.
Ok, questions. I was asked:
Can you give me a situation where things havent gone as expected in team environment?
Can you tell me what exactly you did at x and y when you did work experience?
How have you coped with diagreement in a team/leadership situation?
Can you tell me how many hairdressers there are in Joebloggs Town? (test of analytical ability in addressing the problem rather than asking you to get the answer right)
Why are you interested in applying for PWM?
There was some general conversation on the portfolio i manage for a relative.
Overall, there wasnt a lot of time to go more in depth about me and i got the impression that my interviewer thought i had rehearsed my answers. I asked quite a few questions about the firm and the environment there, which is what you are expected to do as it shows interest. Time was then up and i left feeling ok about how things had gone, but worried that i may have scored lowly on the numerical test and hadnt quite gone about answering the analytical question right. I noted that my interviewer gave me a very soppy handshake. Fair enough you dont want to crush people, but he came across to me as not being very sincere. Just a thought.
I was slightly ticked off that my accomodation expenses werent refunded but the experience was really good. As my train didnt leave till 9pm, i spent 3 hours on my todd in the Leicester Square Odeon wathcing Munich. It cost me £11.50 and that was off-peak! £11.50 i tell you!! - the dirty, cheating, robbing bas*****!