Bank of America Securities Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I think they were looking for Analytical ability (more in terms of thought process of approaching a problem), good awareness of financial crisis and general gyaan and willingness to work in markets (i.e. how convincing my reasons were etc). I wasn‟t tested too much on derivatives and puzzles, but I believe a few others had lots of questions in this area.

I think the personals & financial crisis questions went very well, pretty decent with the puzzles too. Started a bit slowly on the problems, but was able to arrive at the solution quickly once I had the hang of the question.
Tips: I prepared pretty well for derivatives & financial crisis. Though my approach was not very quick for the former, this was not a problem because I was not hurried for these questions and they were also seeing how I was approaching the solution. I was well prepared with the personals section – very clear on why I wanted markets, not consulting etc and I think I gave them nearly 6 reasons for Why Deutsche 

Round: Technical Interview
Tips: For most banks, and for Deutsche especially, be prepared with personals at three levels (Tell me about yourself etc | Why markets, why not consult / IBD etc | Why Deutsche). I had done my homework by speaking to seniors in this respect and I think
Name
Ashish Viswanathan
Educational Qualification
B. Tech Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras
Workex
Shell Global Solutions (1 year)
Summers Company & Role
Deutsche Bank Global Markets, London Associate

Networth Fin Summers Guide 2010 6 | P a g e
my clarity of thought on these questions clinched it.

Round: Technical Interview
Tips: Make sure you understand what you are preparing in case of derivatives. Don‟t get caught up and confused by the math, learn the basics of why and how the derivatives work

Round: Technical Interview
Tips: Make sure you are well prepared with financial crisis / current affairs / bailout and efforts to fight the crisis. Have an opinion on issues like „Do you think it was right to not bail out Lehman?‟ etc and be prepared to defend your opinion

General Tips: Have some basic knowledge of the recent M&A deals and some basic knowledge of good companies to invest into.
Skill Tips: Intermediate knowledge of Corporate finance and ability to read balance sheet, Cash flow and P&L from annual reports. Basic ratio analysis. Good excel skills preferred.
Skills: Finance, Data Analysis, Excel skills
College Name: IIM Bangalore

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: details of the initial interview process?
• Group discussions
• Case study Analysis , presentations etc
• Assessment centre
• Management games etc
• Panel / one on one interview – First round was primarily a personal interview
with their CEO and the HR head. Interview centered around my resume, my
background and other personal questions.
• Telecon interviews – Final round was a telecom with most of the technical
team (about 5 of them) – which was primarily technical and about projects I
did.
• Video conferencing etc
Tips: On resume – brushing up on projects I have done; making sure past mistakes
are not repeated; and identifying primary focus areas where I can sell myself
better; in fact I modified the order of my projects in my resume a little bit to
put the equities project I have done at the very top.
• Communication skills
• Mock interview practice – 1-2 mock interviews; I had done enough already
for prior interviews
• Collecting information of company / role – researched company website; read
DSP’s market outlook report; and found out what types of funds they have.
• Technical / subject / functional preparations – read quite a bit on Portfolio
Management (from a book in lib – don’t remember the author’s name);
reviewed O&F fundaas and IA fundaas..
• PPT’s stage

College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)