Online Application
This stage will take roughly 30 minutes to complete. J. P. Morgan requires you to submit your CV and cover letter as well as some personal information such as education and address.
Expect a 1-week wait before progressing to the next stage.
Virtual Interview
This stage is very short, lasting only 15 - 30 minutes. You will be required to read questions on a screen for 30 seconds and record your response within 2 minutes for a variety of questions.
Example task
Typically questions that are in this stage are: “Introduce yourself” and “Why did you apply to J. P. Morgan ?”.
How to respond for success
For the interview, J. P. Morgan uses AI to track your tone of voice, eye movement and hand gestures. Make sure you pretend that you are speaking to a person. This may be uncomfortable, but this stage of the process is designed to test your character and interaction. Keep eye contact with the camera, speak in a calm tone and be as engaging as possible.
Esther had her CV and cover letter pinned up on the wall behind her camera, to reference during the interview to make sure her answers were consistent and well linked.
Expect a 2-month wait before progressing to the next stage.
Assessment Centre
This stage comprises 3 separate sections and takes around 2 hours to complete. The first section is a Presentation which you have to prepare and deliver in front of interviewers. The second stage is a short interview, before moving on to the final stage which is another interview which is much more conversational.
Presentation
24 hours before this Assessment Centre, you will be emailed a task and a choice of what to present. In Esther’s case, this was presenting what she thought the “greatest invention of the past 100 years” was. This presentation will be 15 minutes long, followed by a series of questions asked by the interviewers.
Example task
Typical questions the interviewers could ask would be: “why did you choose this topic and what interested you to do it?” or “Have you done any presentations before?”.
How to respond for success
When presenting, you will be sharing with your screen. Make sure your voice is clear and that your slides are simple, not wordy and have visuals to aid the interviewers. Remember to ask questions at the end of the session, for example, “What would you say is the biggest challenge in your role on a day to day basis at the firm?”.
You will have 1 week to prepare a 15 minute presentation, on 1 of 2 topics; A person who you admire or greatest invention over the last 100 years, that you will send a day before. You will have a 15 minute break before the next step of the Assessment Centre.
Technical Interview
This stage will be a 25 minute interview which has a technical focus. You will be asked rapid fire questions every 1-2 minutes by an interviewer.
Example task
A typical question in this step would be: “If you had $10 million to invest in ETFs, what would you do?”. Expect more technical questions like describing what a “spreads” are, for example.
How to respond for success
It is important to note that Esther felt that she had failed after this stage. The interviewers who gave her the offer even mentioned that her performance was not great during this technical interview. Despite this she was still offered the role. Key takeaway: you do not need to be technical or have an in-depth understanding on trading and investments to receive an offer and show that J. P. Morgan is recruiting with a very broad mind.
Virtual Interview
The final stage of the J. P. Morgan application process is a 30 minute interview which consists of 10 questions, asked by 2 interviewers. The questions are based around soft skills and situational awareness.
Example task
Typical questions asked at this stage are: “Show me a time when you demonstrated teamwork” or “Describe a time when you made crucial mistakes that you learnt from”.
Expect a 3-day wait before progressing to the next stage.
Final Interview
This stage will only last for 10-20 minutes where an employee from J. P. Morgan will call you to ask some general questions. For Esther, a portfolio manager from the New York office called, asking questions about situations, strengths and weaknesses.
Example task
An example of a situational question would be: “Tell me a time when you dealt with a difficult team member”. Another question likely to be asked would be “Describe your strengths and weaknesses when working on a group project”.
How to respond for success
The phone interview is very conversational, chilled and relaxed. Make sure you ask questions back that interest you and you genuinely want the answers to, rather than just asking them to sound engaging. A useful one Esther would recommend would be “How does J. P. Morgan assess performance for Asset and Wealth Managers?” Expect a 1 month wait before progressing to the next stage.
