I have applied for a position in trading in a major bulge bracket. I have gone through 3 rounds with the various trading heads and I am having a final round next week with HR. Can anyone familiar with the industry advise me if this is the norm? I always thought HR will be the 1st round. Can I assume its just a formality interview or does HR have a major say in the recruitment process for bulge brackets? Thanks

formal offcourse... unless there are some thing lag...

Actually, HR as a first interview is normally a bad sign, and is pretty rare in banking these days.Most firms have HR perform "due dillgence" on new employees. They try make sure you're not obviously corrupt or beset by critical personality defects. A common form of question is to ask about some ethical dilemma you have faced.They ask about gaps between jobs, and reason for leaving and choosing those jobs.They often ask why you want to do banking.With a couple of the HRs we've worked closely with, they pitch the deal the bank is offering to make it attractive to you.The banks get a bit sad if they've gone to all the effort of sifting through many candidates, lots of staff time in interviewing, only for them to go elsewhere.They also answer questions about your contract, but very rarely negotiate it.Every so often we work with an entry level candidate who has a less than perfect credit rating.Banks these days routinely do credit checks, since they provide a lump of data cheaply.So as long as you haven't done anything too terribly bad, this may be the time to bring it up.

QuoteOriginally posted by: IRPPCI have applied for a position in trading in a major bulge bracket. I have gone through 3 rounds with the various trading heads and I am having a final round next week with HR. Can anyone familiar with the industry advise me if this is the norm? I always thought HR will be the 1st round. Can I assume its just a formality interview or does HR have a major say in the recruitment process for bulge brackets? ThanksYes, that's the norm. They are the gatekeepers and if they say no, it's a no. So be very careful what you say and make sure you don't keep digging yourself a hole. I definitely did a thread about this last year, so if you search the forum, you'll find it. Good luck!

There's stuff in the Guide about this, search under "drugs", "mother", and "bed".

i think usually by the time you get to see hr, you basically have nothing more to gain but everything to lose.... in probability, the business have said they want to hire you & you're almost there...but you can still blow yourself up spectacularly if you're not very careful.

QuoteOriginally posted by: spiceYes, that's the norm. They are the gatekeepers and if they say no, it's a no. So be very careful what you say and make sure you don't keep digging yourself a hole. I definitely did a thread about this last year, so if you search the forum, you'll find it. Good luck!Also a word of warning. HR people are usually nice people that will smile and have you keep talking once you've started digging yourself in a hole. Most non-HR people will subtlely react in a way that gives you a signal that you should stop digging, but HR people will cheerfully have you keep talking about the reasons why you shouldn't have the job.

2Fish is 100% on the money.The part in the guide about hiding drugs under your mother's bed is nearly real, changed just enough to protect the guilty.Before I was a pimp (and therefore not under confessional seal), we were looking to hire a trading assistant. The applicant had decent enough grades and didn't seem especially stupid.All was going well until they were asked about one exam which was just awful.When asked why, they chatted about the fact that it was their last exam, so had been so drunk the night before that they couldn't see the exam paper.And one from my own life:Long, long ago, I realised that although the job paid well, it was a crap dead end.So I applied somewhere else, and when the HR asked me why I was looking, I told her."we've got to supply with interesting work or you just leave ?" she asked.Couldn't even think of a bullshit answer so I agreed.Didn't get the job, which I now know would have been even worse.

Just think of them as the gestapo. Don't volunteer any information and keep to the party line.

I had a first (and only) interview with HR last week at one consultancy company. The interview should have been also with the head of department, so I had a lot of questions prepared about the team, business, etc. Unfortunately, the head couldn't make it, so it was an interview only with HR. It was very short (about 20 mins), few questions about my CV, about the company, I didn't really have any question for HR, those few technical about the team and business, she couldn't answer. Today, the headhunter called me that that's it, ... HR thought that I was overconfident, probably not a team player, and wouldn't fit the company culture.WTF? I have really no clue what did I do wrong. Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

You probably didn't do anything wrong, although HR at IBs is professional these days, with smaller outfits the variance is higher.The HR person will bad mouth you to management, and frankly they have show you such discourtesy and lack of professionalism that you probably had a lucky escape.Thus there is nothing you can do that's useful to you.If you like you can write to the manager you were meant to see, and express "surprise" and "disappointment" gently.Probably won't work, but maybe some revenge.

QuoteIf you like you can write to the manager you were meant to see, and express "surprise" and "disappointment" gently.Probably won't work, but maybe some revenge.I was thinking of writing to HR herself, and ask politely how did she come to those conclusions about me so that I could change the way I present myself. Cause I'm really clueless ...

Sounds like you have exactly the right attitude.