Called in sick today to entertain myself of the possibility.. wouldn't you if it was THE GS? Heading there in a few hours for final round (exp. professional, not internship) to get grilled for 6+ hours. Excited, nervous and anxious. Not sure what to expect exactly but nonetheless thankful for the opportunity. (might be going against the church of EMG here, but I'm not ivy-league). Will post updates later. ET is not much of a job/interview board so I'm not sure if this is the appropriate thread; move if necessary.
Process was brutal and confusing. Was told that feedback regarding Thursday will be given on Monday and was notified that other departments were interested in speaking with me. Confusing because if you're unable to answer a unrelated brainteaser in the way they want the answer... they pretty much assume you don't know anything. Which I found to be very weird and unreasonable. Felt like I was defending myself the entire time and not even sure why I had to do that. Go figure.
They are just doing there job, they cannot help but fall into almost the proverbial prison/guard teacher/student gatekeeper/outsider you get the picture dynamic, otherwise nice people try real hard to bust people`s balls - this is where it helps if your good looking or have a great communication/personality style to help deflect some of this negative energy. Hopefully you kept your cool, and it wasn`t as bad as you self critically thought, or the other candidates lost their cool more - hard to do when it is happening to you in live rounds but I have said some pretty stupid stuff in interviews and still landed the job.
I kept my cool, hopefully I'll have detailed feedback on Monday. I'll find out if decision was purely based on the brainteasers. (which I answered correctly, but not the way they wanted the answer, and which were the only questions I was asked). It's a developer role and I was asked 0 questions regarding programming.
you already took a technical test right? What were the brain teasers, my guess is that they were either looking for something specific creativity wise, or they were just complete idiots who were just doing the interview cliche of asking those type of questions. How would you go about counting......grains of sand...etc?
That's the part I am confused about. I didn't even get a technical test/anything that would test my coding aptitude. I had unrelated brainteasers during the technical portion. And I was very honest and said "You know, I don't remember all the details off the top of my head, but I know where to look to find the answer." And they started dissecting that statement and asked me "well how do you know what the best practices of programming are if you don't remember all the details" and started to basically dismiss my knowledge/ability to code from that statement and how I answered the brainteasers. -- while at the same time never asking me any question about programming. Whats up with that? had the nerve to say to me "you should play around with java/c++ and do side projects on your own time" -- while never asking me any questions about OOP. I've been programming on a consulting basis for HFs, prop, family office and large independents over the last 5+ years. From simple time-series based TA systems to scalable ULLDMA MM mass-quoting software. And here are two dudes, one looking like hes right out of college and another fresh off the boat from india telling me I don't know how to code. bt #1: have a random list of numbers, 1 to 100 in random order, I take 1 number out, how would you find the number I took out. bt #2: How much would you be willing to pay to play a game where you when you roll the dice you get paid w/e number you picked. - I said $3.5 because it's the expected value - then asks me what I mean by expected value.
Unfortunately, you cannot point out the absurdities involved in the interview process, as that won`t help your situation: Those were pretty easy questions to come up with semi-defensible answers (but here is the catch, almost any answer will be picked apart) so I would come up with an answer, hope it blew them away just with my thinking/analysis methodology. When they picked it apart I would tactfully reply why I chose such strategy, or if their arguments made some valid points (I would say something like - that is an interesting way to look at the problem - yada, yada very much a willing team guy approach who will take input from others. [Those two questions are basic problem solving - how does this person think questions meant to judge your ability to problem solve in completing projects in my opinion - actually not so far out to the level of absurdity that some of these can get - they probably came out of a book] Then I would steer the conversation to the actual job description and the skills they need for the position which you probably have memorized, and why you are an excellent fit for the position. You should be able to tell exactly what they need from the pre-interview process, and you give that to them in spades. These guys are not experienced interviewers (you need to subtly lead the interview for them) so they get to where they need to be going with the process in order to find the best candidate. Interviews are a tricky process though (just seeing capable people who I worked with) really make bad hiring choices based upon personality more than substance - so communication, social skills, and being able to deftly maneuver around potential awkwardness in the interview process - not to mention personality are really valuable skills in landing the job. Maybe these guys were weak on the technical specs of your job, so they went in with the assumption that every candidate had the qualifications down pat, and they needed to just find that extra special talent. But unless you have another round just for your direct boss/team members who will ask the technical questions - I would have either brought someone in to ask these questions or if knowledgeable would have been asking questions related to the skills I needed for the projects to be performed for the position. But there are a lot of "complete idiots" in highly branded firms and companies these days from mid-level management on up - it is unbelievable how some incompetent people are really good at networking, forming beneficial alliances and get promoted despite being total failures in almost every demonstrable metric. The peter principle at work - style over substance - just remember that Blankenfein (sp) has at least two of his relations working at GS that ought to tell you everything you need to know about the firm. I would pay to hear their ( blank relatives) answers to those two questions. Did they really not know what expected value was or were they asking how were you using expected value to come to an answer - the problem is it`s self-explanatory if you know what expected value means - maybe it was a level? If these two guys really didn`t know what expected value was - you just have to laugh, and now you have an interview story.
Looks to me they were looking to your problem solving approach in a practical way. For instance b1) apparently you could have sum up all the numbers and compared it to the sum of the first 100 numbers , a substraction would give you the number taken out. Best you take some time off, and then when emotions are down, you take the time to reflect on their questions, etc... who knows if you can apply again.