BlackRock’s HireVue is standard for everyone each year, regardless of division you are applying to. The two questions are were: - Why are you applying to BlackRock? - Tell us something unique about yourself that we cannot gather from your resume (hobby, interest, achievement, etc.) 1st Round Interview: Two 30-minute interviews with people from the Trading & Securities team. It was entirely personality, teamwork and values-based, with no finance-related questions at all. Each question was prefaced with a short couple of sentences about BlackRock’s values, and I was told to keep these in mind when answering the question. Some of the questions that were asked: - You join a new team and think you have identified ways to speed up their existing processes, how do you proceed to bring this up to the team? - A client has a problem with some of the work that you or your team has carried out for them. How do you approach resolving the issue? - A client (or a colleague) has a problem with some of the work you have done, and it is due to a fundamental lack of knowledge in the area. How do you proceed? - You join a new team and realise that people are not communicating well with each other. How do you improve this situation? What might you implement to help? How do you convince people of the benefits of teamwork and collaboration? It was useful to know BlackRock’s values, even though they were mentioned prior to each question, so these could be included in the answers, however generally answering with a reasonable approach was sufficient. In particular, highlighting how to overcome communication issues, or communicate effectively, was important. 2nd Round Interview: Another two 30-minute interviews. My first interview was cut short, but the interviewer asked me to describe an interesting project I’ve worked on and a difficult decision I’ve had to make. The second interview was with a senior trader, who asked the following questions: - Name a time you’ve worked in a group with people you didn’t have much in common with, what did you learn and what was the outcome? (It was useful to mention how I will/have applied what I learned in team working experiences going forwards) - Name a time you’ve worked in a team and what you did to ensure you worked efficiently together? - What is one blanket theme affecting the financial markets right now? What is driving this? - How might macro investing models make decisions, and could you expand a bit on what they might do? - How could you use quantitative techniques in investing? (The interviewer followed up with asking about techniques for Fixed Income assets only, ignoring equities which I started answering for) Programming skills were also discussed, and how important it is to have these skills as a trader now, so I would definitely recommend having some coding-related skills or project to talk about in the interviewer. It was emphasised how important it is to learn from others, and how no matter how senior you are, everyone at BlackRock is very keen to help out where you need it, or are curious. Both interviewers gave the impression of a very collaborative culture, which was very positive. They can take many months from the HireVue to being invited to a 1st round interview, however being invited to the 2nd round happened within roughly a week of the 1st round being completed. The offer decision took an additional 2-3 weeks from the final interview, so not the quickest with responses. Overall, I think it was a fair interview process, with an appropriate difficulty of questions, and a good company in terms of values, hiring process and collaborative culture.

The psychometric tests were “Numerical reasoning” and “inductive-logical (clx) reasoning”. I found it incredibly useful to practise the second one on psychometric test prep sites, as an hour or two of practise can lead to a very good score, as you start to recognise patterns. The initial video interview (through Sonru) had the following questions: * What are your passions outside finance that might help you succeed in your business area at UBS? * What has been your biggest achievement? Describe how you got there, the outcome and how it made you feel * Describe a situation where things did not go as planned. How did you react to recover from that situation? * Can you think of a situation where innovation was required of you to solve a task? What did you do? * What differentiates a good trader from a bad one? * What is the next big industry or product of the future that you would like to invest in if you had the money? How much and why? * Tell us about a recent current affairs story you have found interesting and why. * You now have 2 minutes to add any further comments you may have. After this, I was invited to the assessment centre, which consisted of 2x 30-minute interviews: one commercial (with a trader) and one competency (with two HR representatives). Competency interview questions: * Name a time you’ve led a team * Name a time you’ve let someone down * What would you do if someone admitted they cheated on a test? The “what would you do if someone cheated” question was important, as they linked it back to UBS’s values of integrity after I answered. They wanted to hear an answer where you would do the right thing, and tell the relevant person about this cheating. They gave an example of if someone cheated on one of the psychometric tests, and said that it is unjustifiable to give someone a second change once they have shown they lack integrity. I would recommend brushing up on UBS’s values before this interview, to ensure that your responses align with their values. Commercial interview questions: * Describe a recent news event that has affected the markets. What impact did it have and why? * Pitch one area of investment opportunity (with a specific company), and why have you chosen this? * What could the government or central bank do to ease the current European energy/gas price crisis? My tips for this interview would be to be very up-to-date with current financial news, key theme and macroeconomic drivers, and also to prepare the investment opportunity pitch beforehand. Knowing an industry, with its key drivers, regulatory changes, key market players and where the company you choose sits within this market is crucial. In my opinion, choosing a more niche industry works well, as the interviewer is less likely to know the industry in-depth, and thus you are less likely to get lots of questions or be pressed on your idea. I did this, and I think the interviewer found it both memorable and interesting, since it was new to them. Also knowing the risks and disadvantages of this industry or company is vital, to show you know it well enough. All interviewers were very friendly, and the markets-based questions in the second interview were quite open-ended, so it was easy to talk about the things that you are stronger with. The culture seemed good, especially as the second interviewer had a conversation about how large organisations can support their employees mental health, and asked for my opinions on how this could be improved.