2 stage interview, phone from USA and 1:1 at London office. Phone interview was great, would have to take a call from Portland USA, (note: they are 8 hours behind so expect a call 4pm GMT onwards), they ask when would be a good time to arrange the telephone interview and would expect a call back from them 2-3 days later. Phone interview: round 30-40mins. nice people and make you feel comfortable, ask 4/5 questions, competency based, but expect US terminology at times, like "the Investment Associate role is like a QUARTER-BACK".
1) Why Fisher Investments / What Attracted you to Fisher Investments?
2) Why are you levying your current position?
3)Generic review over your experience and CV,
4) In the LAST YEAR, describe a time where you improved a process which helped the team or department.
5) In the LAST YEAR describe where you received critical feedback and how you dealt with receiving critical feedback.
Please read the company website and know what they do. my question was to the interviewer "Is the Investment Associate role being created due to expansion of Fisher Investments or simply replacing an existing individual and reprising that role" in which i received a large praise for a good question.
At the end of the telephone interview the guy was really impressed and even skipped a 2nd telephone interview stage and advised that my experience and what was discussed today was fantastic and would like to offer me an on-site interview in London, he then proceeded in asking salary expectations and said if we could agree something over the phone then we can proceed with a on-site interview.
I asked if you he don't minding advising roughly in a bracket range, what are the current employees of the team on? interviewer said £25k to £31k, with a yearly discretionary bonus which he could not disclose. I replied that I would like to be considered for £31k, with the amount of experience i possess, he said that would be difficult, i then insisted £29-£30k in which he said we can arrange something of that range, and we can discuss it further when I arrive for the on-site interview.
ended the call by asking when is the likelihood of hearing back, he advised by end of the week. please keep phone on as they will CALL instead of emailing, i never received the call due to phone issues, i then chased by email in which i was told that they did call me but couldn't get through, which was true as my iPhone 6 arrived was in a transition of going onto a new phone, but they never left a voicemail/email saying when the on-site interview is. AFTER chasing, they chose the date but i had to arrange a time. Only then i received a confirmation email of time/date/place when the 1:1 interview is.
1:1 Interview:
Please prepare to be criticised by a person in a non-manegerial position to a personal level and put up with rude attitude and be spoken to like a liar. The 1:1 was by far the worst interview i attended, and i have been to a few unsuccessful interviews such as JPM, Goldman Sachs and Barclays and they never treat there interviewees with a shred of arrogance.
I done my research of this interviewer online and found out he was the senior investment associate, when i was advised i would be speaking to the line manager or department head, this person was the next role up but not managerial instead 'assisting' the Private Client Directors on interviews as per online research, basically pretending to be a big shot when not.
He was very critical of my 2:2 degree in Marketing, which i agree wasn't the best result i hoped for but i had great 3 years work experience in investment management since i left university, which showed my passion and enthusisasm to be within a finance environment than my chosen degree.
He then proceeded to act very suspicious in how i landed a Analyst role at leading private bank from my chosen degree and simply gave the vibe that i was lying or exaggerated my role then, i fully explained what the role entailed and said it started off as temp position with 6 temps, in which 3 were offered permanent poisons which included me.
after review of my CV, he criticised that the gaps involved in my cv due to the height go the recession but not exceeding 5 months on 2 occasions i wasted time and should've been qualified by now, i explained i didn't have the funds to support such qualifications as i was living alone.
the interview lasted 26 minutes in total, didn't talk anything about salary expectations, was complacent when i asked my questions to him which was several, came across as if i was totally irrelevant the moment the interview began, i think they decided who to take on before i could have chance to conduct a full interview.