Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: Urban Legends (Successful Interviews)
Language: English
Country where Item is from: United States
Informant Data:Caroline Hsu is a senior at Dartmouth College and an Economics major. Caroline is from Middletown, New Jersey, where her father is an engineer and her mother is a nurse. Similar to many other seniors going into finance, she has done multiple corporate recruiting rounds and received internships in investment banking. After graduation, Caroline will most likely go into consulting. On campus, Caroline works as a Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Associate, an Undergraduate Advisor, and a sister in Kappa Delta.
Social Context: Given that aspiring Finance professionals are often looking for ways to ensure their success in Finance interviews, they often inquire about stories of successful interviews in order to discern what in particular made someone successful. The folklore in question is therefore shared among aspiring finance professionals, of both sexes, and those pursuing business degrees or with interests in pursuing a career in Business.
Cultural Context: It is often said that people skills are more determinative of one’s success than technical skills. This particular adage, if one can call it that, rings particularly true in fields of work such as Finance. And because we had this general sense, we wanted to inquire around so as to find definitive stories illustrating the principle in question. Towards this end, Joseph Wang interviewed Caroline Hsu in a quiet area in the library.
Item: Caroline Hsu notes having heard a story of a student interviewing for a position in Investment Banking who spoke with his interviewer about golf the entire interview, as opposed to something more substantive like Credit Default Swaps or Put Options. And because the student spoke about golf, found a commonality between he and the interviewer, and ultimately connected with the interviewer, he secured a very competitive position at an Investment Bank.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Relevant Portion: 7:40 — 8:22
Transcript of Associated File:
- Joseph Wang: What about more successful type of interviews.. Like what urban legends have you heard that led to a positive outcome ?
- Caroline Hsu: Umm… I think being confident..I mean.. I can’t speak to any particular story.. But being confident in general and preparing super hard and trying to connect.. .oh actually..so I think this goes along with what I said about.. ahh.. trying to connect on a personal level.. I heard one time my friend .. um.. is really good at golfing.. So he spent the entire time talking about golfing with his interviewer and he got the job.. I think that goes along with connecting on a personal level with your interviewer
Collector’s Name:
- Joseph Wang
Tags/Keywords:
- Verbal Folklore, Urban Legends, Successful Interviews