rakato
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| Total Posts: 154 |
| Joined: Oct 2006 |
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| "Memorable" can mean hardest, weirdest, funniest, etc... I interviewed for a trading job years ago and the interviewer asked a series of logic questions and made me bet on each question with the cash I had in my wallet. Apparently he had been doing this (and taking the cash from interviewees) for some time. |
The Feynman Problem-Solving Algorithm:
(1) write down the problem;
(2) think very hard;
(3) write down the answer. |
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mj
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| Total Posts: 917 |
| Joined: Jun 2004 |
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the correct response to this at the end should surely have been if you don't give me the job, i'll sue
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I think I'll be bringing loaded dice with me to any interviews, if I'm looking for a job in the future.
I don't think I've had anything to match this. Perhaps the strangest experience I had was the time when I spent half of the interview explaining to the interviewers some windsurfing maneuver. |
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This is hardly qualified as a strangest-ish, etc. to usual standards, but it was my very first interview question (not even for a job, I was looking for an internship, 3 years ago). I had known nothing about this kind of question, so when I heard it, I was like "WTPh ?".
The question was: "How can you explain to your grandmother the standard deviation ?". After a few attemps, I then learned from the interviewer (I recently checked, he is now some head guy at Goldie Stix) that my grandma must be better at maths than his :-) ! |
A rock - me - a hard place |
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Nonius
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| Founding MemberNonius Unbound |
| Total Posts: 10185 |
| Joined: Mar 2004 |
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after I screwed up on a question about pricing the fair market value of the counterparty risk on a swap that knocks out if the Argentinian Peso drops below a certain threshold....
Elephant Man: So, Nonius, what, exactly DO you do? |
No more Mr. Nice Guy.  |
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sammyzee
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| Total Posts: 77 |
| Joined: Jan 2008 |
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something one of my friends got at one of his interviews...
interviewer: so you read any finance books?
friend: well i'm about halfway through w*****t
interviewer: sorry, i meant have you read any real finance books?
[i have no opinion of the book, having never read it, but having flicked through some old posts here, thought some of you guys may find it funny :P ] |
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I had my most memorable question (and answer) when I was making a pitch of my strategy to a well known (should I say legendary?) trader. Mine was a market neutral strategy and he asked me "Typically when do the longs perform well ?". Without second thoughts I said "well when the markets go up". He laughed out loud. |
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pj
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| Total Posts: 2031 |
| Joined: Jun 2004 |
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"Could You write down a Monte Carlo formula?"
(Some crappy body leasing company.)
The most memorable interview was when I have spent
2 hours explaining the guys from *** what the correlation matrix is about
(They had not a fuking clue), and was told that my maths skillz
were Ok, but my C++ were bad (not a bloody peep during
the whole interview). Somehow, being fresh from
intensive C++ formation I felt offended. |
«Да чего там описывать, планировать! Жизнь всё равно богаче».
(Саня Радченко about specification writing)
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Bachelier
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| Transparent Doppelgänger |
| Total Posts: 665 |
| Joined: Dec 2005 |
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I’ll even say who.
I interviewed with Pierre-Emmanuel Julliard, head of structured products at AXA IM.
“So, walk me through the copula method of these” [hands me some crap]
[I look at it for 30 seconds, start spewing some nonsense]
“What you just said…is wrong.” [Blows smoke in my face].
But the truly most memorable interview I had wasn’t the interview, it was the rejection letter.
“We ultimately decided to hire someone with more financial modelling skills, and therefore hired an equity analyst from a competitor.”
I latter found out who she hired.
And wrote back:
“Dear Elizar: Thank you for your letter of the 28th, and congratulations on hiring Mr. HXVB de MMM-Stttt. I can assure you of his skills, as I was his Professor for Corporate Valuation where I taught him financial modelling.
Cc: Her BOSS”
She was fired latter for unrelated reasons.
Last we heard of her she was working in a women’s clothing store in London. |
Traders are obsessed with size and defining size in clever graphic ways. Knowing the “size” is everything. “What kind of size you looking at?” “Can you fit in 200?” “Sizola size, like seven-figure size.” Of course, the obsession with size spills over to penis and breast size without hesitation. |
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Maggette
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| Total Posts: 590 |
| Joined: Jun 2007 |
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ROFL ....Bachelier, you made my day.....What did your former student say about that story? |
Ich kam hierher und sah dich und deine Leute lächeln,
und sagte mir: Maggette, scheiss auf den small talk,
lass lieber deine Fäuste sprechen...
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Baltazar
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| Total Posts: 1455 |
| Joined: Jul 2004 |
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He said
"very bad is the student that does not surpasses his master"
just kidding |
Qui fait le malin tombe dans le ravin |
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Bachelier
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| Transparent Doppelgänger |
| Total Posts: 665 |
| Joined: Dec 2005 |
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Balt:
That quote is from Leonardo Da Vinci himself "It is a poor pupil that does not exceed his master." |
Traders are obsessed with size and defining size in clever graphic ways. Knowing the “size” is everything. “What kind of size you looking at?” “Can you fit in 200?” “Sizola size, like seven-figure size.” Of course, the obsession with size spills over to penis and breast size without hesitation. |
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Baltazar
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| Total Posts: 1455 |
| Joined: Jul 2004 |
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| :) |
Qui fait le malin tombe dans le ravin |
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purbani
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| Total Posts: 31 |
| Joined: Apr 2005 |
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| One of my crew came up with what I thought was the perfect explaination to explain volatility to a portfolio manager - The line not much wiggly. |
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ha
a few...
Interviewer: one of the classic questions (dice brainteaser)
me: standard answer down pat
I/v : "you've done this before haven't you"
me: "Yep"
I/v : swiftly moves on...
didnt want to say that before answering.. thought it would be a little cocky.
Interesting interview, was a good warmup... |
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c_lemp
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| Total Posts: 6 |
| Joined: Jan 2007 |
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I had an interview for an internship at a technology focused hedge fund. The HF manager wanted someone to figure out why all of the cable providers had unexpectedly missed their subscriber targets. In the middle of the interview, after being brutally questioned on fundamentals of several companies:
HF Manager: "Now, for some reason all of the cable companies have missed their subscribers. I need someone who is willing to do the dirty work and call the head of every cable provider and do some statistics to figure this out."
Me: "Did you ever hear of the website 'sidereel.com'?"
HF Manager: 'blank stare'
Me: (To his assistant) "Which television shows do you like?"
Assistant: "Grey's Anatomy"
Me: (Go to his computer and bring up every episode of Grey's Anatomy without commercials) "Now, if you want some fundamental analysis, my roommate wanted to sign up for cable last night and I declined because I just go to this website."
HF Manager: "Oh shit." |
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ronin
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| Total Posts: 9 |
| Joined: May 2006 |
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Feedback after interviewing with a cr*p italian bank I had never heard of before or since:
"They thought you were excellent, but they are not calling you back. They think you are interviewing just because you are dissatisfied in your present job and not because you really, really want to work for bank xyz."
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'economics is very useful as a form of employment for economists' |
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| This may not be as crap feedback as you think. I've had quite a few delicate geniuses plop down on the other side of the table and spend almost the whole interview fixated on how f'd up their current shop is. I'll politely try and steer to conversation back to the topic at hand which is namely "what are you going to do for me?" but if a couple of these attempts are unsuccessful, it's easier and more entertaining to just sit back and enjoy the gory details. |
Tell me is there anything so sure? Rapacity, tenacity, capacity for more. |
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sammyzee
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| Total Posts: 77 |
| Joined: Jan 2008 |
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On the topic of interview feedback. Something from an internship interview couple of years back...
HR lady: "The comments from your interviewers was very positive, and they think you are very strong technically. However, they didn't think you demonstrated sufficient teamworking skills."
Me: "Can you elaborate on that?"
HR lady: "Well in the notes I have here, it says that in the group exercise you only spoke six times, saying around thirty-five words in total. Which I guess wasn't good enough" |
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bobafett
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| Total Posts: 5 |
| Joined: Feb 2008 |
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| What is the dice brainteaser? |
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Beavis
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| The Excommunicated |
| Total Posts: 910 |
| Joined: Apr 2004 |
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well I've heard this one at least twice:
You and I play a game. We each have 1 die. I win if i roll a 4. You win if you roll a 5. If I go first, what is the probability that I win? |
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Corey
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| Total Posts: 162 |
| Joined: Feb 2008 |
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At the risk of embarrassing myself with a terribly poor answer, here is my solution...
For the first iteration...
P(I win) = P(Roll 4) = 1/6
P(You Can Roll) = !P(Roll 4) = 5/6
P(You win) = P(you can roll) ^ P(Roll 5) = !P(Roll 4) ^ P(Roll 5) = 5/36
P(2nd Iteration) = P(you can roll) ^ !P(Roll 5) = !P(Roll 4) * !P(Roll 5) = 25/36
Second iteration...
P(I Win #2) = P(2nd Iteration) ^ P(Roll 4)
P(You Can Roll #2) = P(2nd Iteration) ^ !P(Roll 4)
P(You Win) = P(You Can Roll #2) ^ P(Roll 5)
P(3rd Iteration) = P(You Can Roll #2) ^ !P(Roll 5)
etc ...
So we get ...
P(You Can Roll #n) = P(Nth Iteration) ^ !P(Roll 4)
P(Nth Iteration) = P(You Can Roll #(n-1)) ^ !P(Roll 5)
P(I Win #n) = P(Nth Iteration) ^ P(Roll 4)
= P(You Can Roll #(n-1)) ^ !P(Roll 5) ^ P(Roll 4)
= P((n-1)th Iteration) ^ !P(Roll 4) ^ !P(Roll 5) ^ P(Roll 4)
= P(You Can Roll #(n-2)) ^ !P(Roll 5) ^ !P(Roll 4) ^ !P(Roll 5) ^ P(Roll 4)
...
P(I Win #n) = ((!P(Roll 4) ^ !P(Roll 5))^(n-1)) ^ P(Roll 4)
= (25/36)^(n-1) * 1/6
Is your probability of winning the nth round...
I think? Maybe? Someone help?
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"Then there was the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches."
W. I. E. Gates |
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proton
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| Total Posts: 9 |
| Joined: Mar 2007 |
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My guess:
Cum. probability of win after infinite rolls = 1 / (6-25/36)
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Embarrassing if wrong as well:
I tested both solutions - result for n=1 < 0.5 => can't be?! Why does it matter if it goes to infinity? Every new round the probability repeats itself - doesn't it??
So my solutions without fancy formulas
P(I win) = 1/6
P (I definitely lose) = 5/6 * 1/6 = 5/36
1/6 + 5/36 = 11/36
So that this solution = 1 multiply by 36/11
P(I win before Player 2) 1/6 * 36/11 = 6/11 (>.5 so may be right)
At an AC with limited time and no paper to write on I would be pretty screwed even if it's correct :-( |
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You and I play a game. We each have 1 die. I win if i roll a 4. You win if you roll a 5. If I go first, what is the probability that I win?
I think you are over thinking this everyone. No where does it speak about repeated rolls or a series of turns. It doesn't say you roll until you win or anything like that.
The simple answer would be 1/6. Just my thought. |
Tell me is there anything so sure? Rapacity, tenacity, capacity for more. |
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