Screwed up interview

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

I had an interview today with a bank. I met with three people in different positions. I really did well in the first two interviews and things went smoothly and I'd say that I really impressed the interviewers.
The third round went sour real fast. In between the interview I lost my voice and I had to cough a couple of times to clear my throat and I sort of lost my train of thought for a second and it took me awhile to regain compusure. Then the interviewer asked me about my previous experience and saw a bunch of languages listed on the bottom and he said... so it says over here you've used C++ and Java. I made two seperate sections on the resume (clearly noting so) to list the stuff I used at work and the stuff I've used at college/as a hobby. I mentioned that to him and he said well its listed on your resume but don't worry I'm not going to tech you or anything. Before I could respond he asked me some basic questions like what the difference between C++ and Java is and their advantages. I answered them well enough.
Then he told me that he worked with fixed-equity trading and asked me if I knewwhat that was. I thought of it for a second since I knew what equity was but I decided against talking through the answer. He then proceeded to use highly technical terms like bears, bulls, asian, half, full to explain what he did... basically lingo that was way over my head. I prepared well for this interview and did go over the basics of banking... but I never encountered that division on the company website... I guess I should have really looked into corporate banking.

So what say you ATOT... am I screwed out of this job?

Cliffs:
1. Went for interview. Interviewed with 3 people
2. First two went well
3. Third one went really downhill when he asked my about Fixed-Equity trading.. no clue what that was. He proceeded to use all this investment banking lingo that I had no clue about.
4. Should have prepared that stuff better
5. ???
6. Am I screwed or PROFIT????

 

[etalns]

What sort of degree do you have?

 

[tfinch2]

Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

 

[minendo]

A lot of interviewers do things like that to throw off the candidate and see how they react. If you seemed interested and asked questions regarding his spiel you should be fine. Just follow the proper post-interview processes and wish for the best.

 

[CocoGdog]

At least you didn't show up late or cancelled an appointment. That was my poison.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

lol.. no I didn't (j/k).
Of course I did. However, I think he thought I was padding the resume and I never got a chance to respond 🙁.
As soon as he finished that answer about fixed-equity trading there was a knock on the door and he said thats it 🙁.
He seemed really tired as well and was clearly agitated even telling me that he had 8 interviews today multiple times.

Guess I'll have to clear it up with my follow up letter.

 

[Baked]

When in doubt, wipe it out. You missed your chance man.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: minendo
A lot of interviewers do things like that to throw off the candidate and see how they react. If you seemed interested and asked questions regarding his spiel you should be fine. Just follow the proper post-interview processes and wish for the best.

Never got a chance to follow up After he interviewed me, he told me thats it.
Now if it was a technical question I could have squirmed my way to the answer as I've done multiple times before but I had no idea where to start over here.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Qosis
What sort of degree do you have?

Bachelor's in Computer Science. What was even more intimidating was that I was the only one in the interview group who had an undergrad degree.. the rest were grad students 🙁

 

[Zenmervolt]

You consider "bull" and "bear" to be "highly technical" terms when talking about the market? For your sake I hope your degree isn't in Finance.

ZV

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
You consider "bull" and "bear" to be "highly technical" terms when talking about the market? For your sake I hope your degree isn't in Finance.

ZV

Computer Science. Ok, I agree bull and bear wasn't that technical. But there was a bunch of other stuff like half-dips(?) and stuff that I can't recall. I just wish I had the chance to question him.. I would have liked to clarify that stuff better.

 

[theknight571]

What type of position was it for?

For a technical position, I wouldn't say your SOL... Its easier to teach a techie the banking side than it is the otherway around. (or at least that's what it seems where I work)

Interviewing is not fun... and if you were indeed #9 on the day he probably lost interest ages ago, and just lost his "cool".

My $0.02

- TK

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: theknight571
What type of position was it for?

For a technical position, I wouldn't say your SOL... Its easier to teach a techie the banking side than it is the otherway around. (or at least that's what it seems where I work)

Interviewing is not fun... and if you were indeed #9 on the day he probably lost interest ages ago, and just lost his "cool".

My $0.02

- TK

Application Development. AFAIK, each interviewer has a right to veto which sucks because IMO this guy is likely not to have good things to say about me.

 

[Mermaidman]

Even if you don't get an offer, the interview is a learning experience. Just don't accumulate too many "learning experiences." 😉

My worst interview was the fault of a recruiter. I went for what I thought was a lowly consultant position. After a while, I realized they were interviewing for a project director! I felt quite foolish . . .

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
Even if you don't get an offer, the interview is a learning experience. Just don't accumulate too many "learning experiences." 😉

My worst interview was the fault of a recruiter. I went for what I thought was a lowly consultant position. After a while, I realized they were interviewing for a project director! I felt quite foolish . . .

Accumulated 2 not including this one so far 🙁

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: tfinch2
Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

lol.. no I didn't (j/k).
Of course I did. However, I think he thought I was padding the resume and I never got a chance to respond 🙁.
As soon as he finished that answer about fixed-equity trading there was a knock on the door and he said thats it 🙁.
He seemed really tired as well and was clearly agitated even telling me that he had 8 interviews today multiple times.

Guess I'll have to clear it up with my follow up letter.

It was Deutsche bank, right?

I'm nearly positive they either asked you about fixed income trading or equity trading, not fixed equity trading 😉

The term "fixed equity" is an oxymoron btw

 

[Fraggable]

I wouldn't say you bombed it, I'd say you still have a good chance at it if the position doesn't require you to understand the things he asked you about. Wasn't there at least 2 people interviewing you at once? I thought that was normal interviewing procedure.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: tfinch2
Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

lol.. no I didn't (j/k).
Of course I did. However, I think he thought I was padding the resume and I never got a chance to respond 🙁.
As soon as he finished that answer about fixed-equity trading there was a knock on the door and he said thats it 🙁.
He seemed really tired as well and was clearly agitated even telling me that he had 8 interviews today multiple times.

Guess I'll have to clear it up with my follow up letter.

It was Deutsche bank, right?

I'm nearly positive they either asked you about fixed income trading or equity trading, not fixed equity trading 😉

The term "fixed equity" is an oxymoron btw

lol.. he was probally tring to see if I would catch it. How did you know BTW?

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I wouldn't say you bombed it, I'd say you still have a good chance at it if the position doesn't require you to understand the things he asked you about. Wasn't there at least 2 people interviewing you at once? I thought that was normal interviewing procedure.

There were supposed to be but they changed the plans for some reason.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: tfinch2
Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

lol.. no I didn't (j/k).
Of course I did. However, I think he thought I was padding the resume and I never got a chance to respond 🙁.
As soon as he finished that answer about fixed-equity trading there was a knock on the door and he said thats it 🙁.
He seemed really tired as well and was clearly agitated even telling me that he had 8 interviews today multiple times.

Guess I'll have to clear it up with my follow up letter.

It was Deutsche bank, right?

I'm nearly positive they either asked you about fixed income trading or equity trading, not fixed equity trading 😉

The term "fixed equity" is an oxymoron btw

lol.. he was probally tring to see if I would catch it. How did you know BTW?

I interned at goldman this summer ... 🙂
Plus my roommate was doing ibanking at DB, so I figured that's where you were going when you asked for subway directions the other day.

 

[etalns]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: tfinch2
Did you tell him the difference between c++ and java?

lol.. no I didn't (j/k).
Of course I did. However, I think he thought I was padding the resume and I never got a chance to respond 🙁.
As soon as he finished that answer about fixed-equity trading there was a knock on the door and he said thats it 🙁.
He seemed really tired as well and was clearly agitated even telling me that he had 8 interviews today multiple times.

Guess I'll have to clear it up with my follow up letter.

It was Deutsche bank, right?

I'm nearly positive they either asked you about fixed income trading or equity trading, not fixed equity trading 😉

The term "fixed equity" is an oxymoron btw

lol.. he was probally tring to see if I would catch it. How did you know BTW?

I interned at goldman this summer ... 🙂
Plus my roommate was doing ibanking at DB, so I figured that's where you were going when you asked for subway directions the other day.

What sort of degree does your friend have?

 

[FoBoT]

you might be ok, wait and see what they say, don't freak out

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
You consider "bull" and "bear" to be "highly technical" terms when talking about the market? For your sake I hope your degree isn't in Finance.

ZV

I'm more concerned that he considers "asian" to be highly technical. 😉

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
You consider "bull" and "bear" to be "highly technical" terms when talking about the market? For your sake I hope your degree isn't in Finance.

ZV

I'm more concerned that he considers "asian" to be highly technical. 😉

lol..In context of trading, I had no idea what he was talking about. He wasn't talking about markets either... he was talking about factors he used to determine whether to buy/sell or something.

On second thought, I probally didn't hear it right.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

lol..In context of trading, I had no idea what he was talking about. He wasn't talking about markets either... he was talking about factors he used to determine whether to buy/sell or something.

On second thought, I probally didn't hear it right.

I'm just giving you a hard time. I know what you mean, the terms that really were "technical" are the ones you probably can't even remember because they meant nothing to you.