Online Application
Jefferies requires personal information and your CV. Jefferies also asks you to write a paragraph about why you want to join the specific division you chose. You can apply for up to 2 divisions.
How to respond for success
Jefferies likes to see students that are involved with as many projects as possible, show leadership skills and that they work well in a team. If you can get involved in any form of investment fund, or finance-related society, this will put you in a good position going forward. Students are not expected to know everything about finance at spring week level, so the firm looks for students that have a willingness to learn and a track record of getting stuck into new things. You DO NOT need to come from a finance or economics degree to be successful! So many other degrees have useful transferable skills that Jefferies are keen to attract so if you don’t come from the ‘traditional’ background, please do not be put off.
Expect a 1-2 week wait before progressing to the next stage.
Psychometric Tests
For this stage, you will be asked to reply to a set of questions that are presented in the text on the screen. You will have 30 seconds to read and think about the question and 3 minutes to record your answer. This in total took around 70 minutes to complete.
Numerical reasoning
It is important to know, this is not a maths test. It’s a test of your ability to work with numbers quickly, efficiently and accurately. You will receive a collection of financial-related documents and you will be asked to find the relevant data. Sometimes this means finding data straight from the documents, sometimes this means finding a collection of data and then doing a simple calculation. You should know how to add, subtract, divide, multiple and calculate percentages. Again, this is not a finance test. The data given is very clearly laid out so no in-depth knowledge of finance is required, although it may be helpful to know the differences between balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, projections, market share etc. This will mean you can work your way through the sheets more efficiently.
Verbal reasoning
This is one of Josh’s favourite psychometric tests! They don’t come up all that often, but usually you find yourself reading about all sorts from designer fashion to London Real Estate. You will go through a handful of different written extracts, written very much like research reports or news articles. You will then have about 4 or 5 questions about what you have read. This can be extracting quotes from the report, but it can also mean drawing conclusions from the data. Once you’ve answered the 4 or 5 questions about the first extract, a new written extract appears and the process continues for about 12 questions. In Josh’s opinion, it is the time constraint that is most frustrating. Some of the articles are quite long and having to remember all the details can be tricky. Some advice would be to make notes when you read it the first time, and read out loud if it makes things easier, Josh definitely finds he can remember things easier that way. Some more advice would be to take your time on the first question of each extract. The following questions will be about the same extract so if you take your time reading it properly the first time, you will save time on future questions.
Somewhere in one of your extracts, it is common to find they interviewed a focus group. For example: “We spoke to a group of mothers who have children aged between 1 and 3, and they all recommend blended carrots as the best food”. You might then get a question asking ‘what do parents of 5-year-olds think the best food is?’ The answer is “We do not have sufficient information”, the reason being is because they interviewed parents of 1 to 3 years old. This is quite a common curveball question.
Take your time (within reason). You often get downgraded if you answer questions wrong so you might be better off getting 10/10 and taking your time, rather than 11/15 and rushing. Also, see how many questions there are and calculate the time per question, that will give you a good idea of time management throughout the test.
Expect a 2-3 week wait before progressing to the next stage.
Phone Interview
The telephone interview lasts for half an hour, and you will be asked about yourself and your inspiration to work in finance, especially at Jefferies. For Josh, he was interviewed by an Analyst from Equity Capital Markets (Investment Banking Division), they spent most of the time discussing his travelling experiences before university. They discussed travel stories and then linked them back to financial careers. They then spoke about his engagement with the university’s investment fund and how that will help him”.
Example task
One of Josh’s questions was: “What do you do to keep up with financial news?” Another one: “How would you go about finding the perfect stock to invest in?” Another one: “Why are you interested in investment banking?”
How to respond for success
The phone interview is very relaxed. Everyone at Jefferies is lovely and keen to learn more about you (otherwise they wouldn’t be helping with recruitment!) Have some stock answers planned out and go with the flow. Always try to link your answer back to financial services. Don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer some questions. If Josh is asked to describe how he thinks a process works, he will often follow up with “how accurate was that? What’s your perspective on this process, given your role within the team?” It sounds silly but when you are relaxed and smiling on the phone, the interviewer can definitely tell, and that’s a good thing! The interviewer is probably interviewing lots of students so make sure you stand out for being extra positive and chatty.
