Hi all I need some advice with preparing for an interview with Bloomberg, for the Analytics and financial sales program. Any advice would be welcome, but I am specifically interested in what they mean by a competency based interview. I was also wondering if anybody knew where I could get some detailed info on Bloomberg’s market share and how its service offerings compare to that of Reuters? Tanks guys
maybe that yiddishicup NSteen can help you.
OK since making the post I have found some good info with regards to the competency based interview bit. As far as market share goes all the reports I have gotten my hands on says 30% for both Bloomberg and Thompson Reuters. Some of these reports are a couple of years apart though and I am not sure if market share has been stagnant. (Before and after the merger.) A good service comparison also eludes me. Though I have used both Bloomberg and Reuters, that was at my business school and we did not have proper terminals, only a web based and striped down version of both.
I had a similar interview with Reuters. In my interview, they asked to do an economic analysis of a geographic region and assess opportunity for growth. It was in a conference room with two MD and a teleconference with an MD in London. Know market share and growth opportunities with IBs and AM firms across different geographic regions…most important…present well!
Thanks guys Appreciate the feedback.
Not sure I’d be willing to jump through so many hoops for $25,000/year.
Are you interviewing in the US?
SMIRK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not sure I’d be willing to jump through so many > hoops for $25,000/year. Neither would I!
Mullyman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are you interviewing in the US? Nope the UK.
Find out anymore info on the interviewing process?
Mullyman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Find out anymore info on the interviewing process? Hey sorry for the long silence, but I wanted to finish the entire process before posting again and telling you all about it. So here goes. On Sat the 13th I was woken up by a phone call which I did not make in time. It went to voice mail, with a message from a really nice sounding lady from Bloomberg asking me to give her a ring. Still very groggy I called her back and instead of inviting me for an in interview, as I was expecting, she launched right into a telephone interview. Luckily the questions were pretty easy. About an hour later I got an invite to a recruitment event on Wednesday the 17th. Twenty of us attended the event, which included a tour, a q&a session and job shadowing, followed by an interview. All Bloomberg interviews are competency based (use the STAR method for all answers and you will be fine) and will, for this role, be conducted by two people of similar seniority, one from sales and one from analytics. This interview was relatively basic and focused on what I knew about the company and its products. During more open questions I discussed opportunities around the maemo operating system as well as the situation in Greece. Early the next morning I received an invite the next interview on Monday the 22nd. The interview followed a similar process, with the exception that all candidates came at separate times, so no indication of who made it through to that stage. The two people conducting the interview were a bit more senior and seemed to cover aspects of my CV that were skipped in the previous round. Questions again focused on Bloomberg’s products and services, while finance questions related to the impact of future Tory and Labour policies. I was also asked to sell the terminal to client considering using a specific competitor (not one of the big names). Lastly we discussed growth prospects and a potential regional marketing opportunity. By the next morning I received an invite for the final interview which was on Thursday the 27th. This was the big one as it was with the head of analytics for EMEA and a senior sales manager. It was also the shortest of all the interviews and the one in which the questions were the most challenging. That being said, I did really well since I had quite a few prepped answers ready and did not fall foul of any questions. Technical questions were on CDO’s and bonds, I also got a question on mobile technology and a scenario based sales question. On the last one I took a risk and rephrased the scenario to make it more challenging, which they loved, and then proceed to make the sale. I got the job offer 6 minutes after I walked out the front door. Just some general pointers, really know your own CV and prepare for questions relating to any part of it. This might seem like a no brainer but every interviewer had at least one left field question. For instance, I was asked to teach one interviewer the fundamentals of my hobby using just three points of interest. Also prepare at least 2 questions for each interviewer and don’t ask obvious stuff, rather ask pertinent but challenging questions, that reflects well. That being said, everyone likes to talk about themselves, so some personal questions might also score brownie points. I also had a chat with somebody in HR and found out that of the 20 who made it through to the requirement event, 4 finally got offers. And that concludes the longest post I have ever made on any forum and I have made it while I am at the pub!
Congratulations, but seriously, all that for $25K/year??
^^ lol such an a$$hole 
SMIRK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Congratulations, but seriously, all that for > $25K/year?? Is the pay really that bad? :o
Ask nsteen1987. He commands 46 analysts and still needs a Costco membership.
Hey Smirky, like I said in my first response, I would not have gone through all that for 25K. You can make more that that working in a pub, so no that is not what they offered me. Then again I don’t know if everyone starts on the same.
Kulkunstenaar Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hey Smirky, like I said in my first response, I > would not have gone through all that for 25K. You > can make more that that working in a pub, so no > that is not what they offered me. Then again I > don’t know if everyone starts on the same. I didn’t know you could bake in an AF salary increase into a statement. Just goes to show how versatile the AF salary multiplier is. Kulkkenwhatever, what %age did you increase? I really doubt a data entry company is willing to pay starting analysts more than 10% more than the original number you posted.
Hey Buppal, thank you so much for your post, I think you have finally explained the confusion. The position I now have, has noting to do with data entry. As for the 25K thing, Smirk mentioned it, I was merely trying to point out that it was significantly off target.
SMIRK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ask nsteen1987. He commands 46 analysts and still > needs a Costco membership. haha