Genre and Sub Genre: Verbal Folklore, Horror Stories
Language: English
Country where Item is from: United States
Informant Data: This informant is a Dartmouth ’18 from Boston, Massachusetts majoring in Economics. On campus, he is a member of the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program. After college, the informant is mainly interested in investment banking at a bulge bracket bank or boutique firm. The informant wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the folklore being shared, so his name has been redacted.
Social Context: This folklore was collected during an in-person interview in Baker-Berry library. The informant participated in the Summer 2016 corporate recruiting cycle.
Cultural Context: Phone interviews are commonly used as a screening or personality interview that precedes an in-person, more technical round. Most firms operate this way and so most students expect this format. However, some firms do ask technical questions during the first round phone interview. If not prepared to answer technical questions, students can get flustered and nervous during an interview, and try to seek a peer’s help. In this particular instance, the informant was asked to walk the interviewer through a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. This is a common investment banking technical interview question.
Item: During a phone interview, a recruiter asked the informant a technical question about how to conduct a DCF. The informant was surprised that he was asked this and was unsure what the correct answer was. Still keen on that particular internship, the student decided to ask a friend to tell him the answer while he was on the phone. However, the interviewer overheard the informant’s friend giving the applicant answers. The interviewer asked the informant who was speaking in the background, and the informant got flustered and ended the phone call prematurely.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): Interview audio was not recorded.
Transcript of Interview: “I was interviewing for a small i-banking firm, and it was just a phone interview so I wasn’t expecting any technical questions. Usually they reserve those for the second round when they interview you in-person. Every phone interview I’ve had other than this one was just general about my resume and background, but this guy decided to ask me to walk him through a DCF. It was an earlier interview in the term, so I hadn’t already prepared solid answers to the technical questions. I happened to be sitting near a friend who was also recruiting for i-banking, so I asked him to tell me the answer. Unfortunately, the interviewer heard him speaking and asked me who was talking; I didn’t know what to say, I got super nervous and just abruptly hung up after saying I had another urgent call I had to take.”
Informant’s Comments: N/A
Collector’s Comments: N/A
Collector’s Name: Sachin Vadodaria
Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Corporate Recruiting, Horror Stories