JPMorgan Chase Interview Questions & Reviews in London, UK Area

Interviewed Nov 2009 in City of London, England (United Kingdom) (took 4 weeks)

Interviewed for the graduate programme for a trading position in the investment banking division. I was a recent grad with a phd in computer science. There were 3 one-on-one interviews with respectively a sales/trader, a currency trader, and a VP. Additionally we sat for a quantitative test.

All three interviewers were very nice and professional. One, working in sales, asked general questions about my understanding of economics, asking to choose an article I had read and liked, from a financial publication, and to explain what it said and why I liked it. I chose an article on macroeconomics from the FT about the effects on the EU economy of that growing US trade deficit, explaining the theses and argument put forth in it.
Further, he asked, if I could choose any job, from president to astronaut, what would it be ?

The second interviewer, the trader, asked questions about financial instruments and my understanding of probability, random variables etc.

The last, the VP, asked som basic economics/math questions, asking me to do interest rate calculations. As i was able to answer they progressed in difficulty to the outright tricky.

The quantitative test consisted of very basic math calculations (high-school level), but it was done without a calculator, using just pencil and paper. I think by design there were far mor than anyone would be able to answer, so it really measured how fast we were at doing basic math. Although we didn't get the result I definitely didn't do well on that, as I hadn't been doing math for a long time when attending, and I think i completed the fewest number of questions compared to the other 8 candidates. Had I known I should definitely have prepared for this to get my math skills back in shape.

The interviewers and how they acted definitely made me want the job more, and I got the impression that it was a nice company to work for. The interview was held at a rented office, so it was a bit dissapointing not getting to see the actual offices---I guess that's reserved for those making it beyond the first round :-)

The paid my plane ticket from my home country to UK, as well as the hotel.