Blog Post #2: The Rigorous Interview Process of J.P. Morgan

(Association -- experience)

While my expertise lies primarily in the industry of Hotel Management, I worked in the Human Resources Department of a hotel, so I am always paying attention to the recruitment and selection processes across various companies.

I came across an article that enlists almost every possible question J.P. Morgan is likely to ask during an interview, and it caught my eye because I always have been pondering why their interview processes are so extensive and rigorous. Upon analyzing the list of questions, I can see how such few individuals get selected for this particular company, aside from the fact that it is one of the, if not the, most competitive firms in the finance industry.

The article breaks the types of questions in the process into a few segments: brainteasers, fit questions, general questions about the company, market questions, investment banking questions, and technology questions.

The section that caught my eye the most was the brain teasers, and I am going to give you a few examples of those types of questions that were listed on the article. The ones that stood out to me were: "How many trees are in central park," "How many times does a ball get hit in the average game of tennis," "How many plans land in Gatwick each day," and "What is the probability that a pregnant woman has a baby boy." The rest of the questions in this section were challenging, but I could certainly see why they would be asked, and they were questions pertaining to fractions, square roots, and other various analytical questions. But the four that I listed are questions that I can't wrap my head around.

Being a college student going through the interview processes, it is difficult to indicate how you are supposed to prepare for this company's interview because the questions are so far-fetched. But from a Human Resources perspective, I don't think the recruiter is actually looking for an answer and they don't expect you to know how many trees are in central park (etc_, but rather, they want to see how you will react. The recruiter throws in these types of questions to see if you will panic as well as to see how you are going to react in a challenging situation, and while there is scientifically a right answer they are simply testing you to make sure you have the ability to think on your feet.

The other questions are based on previous experiences, your research on the company, along with basic market questions that you should know the answers to, so you can prepare easily for those. But when it comes down to those brain teasers, there is no way to prepare and you have to just think on your feet and not show the recruiter that you don't have the answer.

Everyone who applies for a job at J.P. Morgan has previous financial work experience, a 4.0 GPA, and can answer any question pertaining to stocks and the market. But not everybody has the ability to think on their feet to come up with creative solutions to questions you don't have the answers to, and in the real world, you may not have the resources you need and cannot always prepare for situations.

What sets you aside from everyone else applying for the same position is how you answer, not what you answer.

https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/222184/j-p-morgan-interview-questions