1. Reflect upon a time you had a negative recruiting/ hiring experience.

What were the

signs the experience was not going well?
A company came on campus for recruitment process, the process had to be completed in
3 rounds which were Written test, Technical Round and HR Round. The test was
scheduled at 10 AM. It started at 3 pm. The test consisted of only 10 question which
could have been easily answered in 5 to 7 minutes but were were given time of 30
minutes almost everyone attempted all questions correctly. Still only few made it to the
next round. Everyone felt that the process was not at all transparent. Then in technical
round, started at 5 PM because the recruiters needed to have food. In the technical
round itself they interviewed only a number of people and rest were sent to their hostels.
I reached HR round and it went really well still not clear on what basis they rejected me as
well as some others who shared the same viewpoint as mine. During the technical
interview also, he was boasting about his company while behaving as he is doing some
favour by recruiting students from the campus. Though, neither the profile nor the
package was good.

2. What are the key decision points used by S G Cowen in making hiring decisions? What
is your evaluation of the process used by the firm?

The key decision points used by S G Cowen were as follows:

S G Cowen decided to recruit from B schools which ranked 10 to 25 to make sure
they are able to capture the brightest talents from these institutions.
S G Cowen included an informal session in its process to help candidates familiarize
themselves to the process and also to set expectations correctly.
S G Cowen made sure to finish its recruitment process during winters to give the
final selected candidates enough time to adjust and acclimatize to the work
environment.

The steps in the recruitment process of SG Cowen were,

Presentation in College
Informational Interview
On campus round
Super Saturday round

Evaluation of the process:

The firm ventures out of the top 10 schools to hire investment bankers as they
were getting medium quality students from those schools. But since they
started going to the next 15 schools, they are getting the top-level students
from there.
 They had a fixed cap on the number of candidates to be chosen from the first
round to the second round. This may result in the poor quality of the students
making it to second round if the talent pool is not good.

The informal interviews conducted at the start was a good initiative from the
firm as it will act as a ice breaker between the candidates and the company
over and above that company may also get the rough idea about the
intellectual level of the batch.

The grid sheet of the company was very well structured and was well in format
as it covered all the areas like personal as well as professional attitude of the
candidate. And because of this sheet all candidates were judged on the same
parameters and hence apple to apple comparison was possible.

3. What is your evaluation of the criteria used by this organization in making hiring
decisions?

Except the basic Technical Knowledge which is the most important part for the job I
would like to use these criteria in making hiring decisions:
A candidate must have
Integrity for the firm: A person must have loyalty and commitment for the firm
because these traits are hard to develop unlike technical and interpersonal
skills.
Another thing is Cultural fit. A candidate must be good culture fit only then he
would be able to perform his best and also provide the best environment to
others. In a way it brings synergy into the team.
Entrepreneurial and leadership quality: I would also keep in mind his ability to
lead, to lead the team and the ability to do things on his own.
With the technical knowledge, his ability to implement that knowledge and his
ability to be innovative and creative with that would also be a point to consider.

4. Which two candidates would you select if you were a member of the recruiting
committee?

The best 2 candidates would be: Natalya Godlewaska and Andy Sanchez.

Natalya is found best in technical skills viz accounting and finance and modelling. She has
a high commitment to the firm and she has demonstrated very good leadership skills.
Excluding other parameters, she has scored less in communication and some interpersonal
skills. Natalya may not be that much sharp in communicating verbally but she is the best in
technical skills (which matters more in financial world) and she could work upon her
communication skills to make it
better.
 Andy Sanchez has demonstrated very high entrepreneurial spirit also he is
enthusiastic and a has a social personality. He has below average school results but had an
excellent GMAT and SAT results. Andy has performed best in almost all the parameters of
testing but he needs a training in technical skills which can be improved gradually. This
would balance the new team as one is good on technical skills and other is good with soft
skills. Both candidates would bring diversity to the organization which would be beneficial
in long run.

Andy Sanchez Natalya Godlewaska

Rich Experience of running a business. Was Four years of work experience and
much successful in the same developed M&A software

Enthusiastic and personable type of person Highest GPA in finance proves good
technical skill
Very much interested in joining the firm Has even taught finance at Cornell

Was ready to leave his business for the firm Has a go-getter and a determined
attitude as per the interviewers
Had a low GPA, but his successful business Good possibility of interacting well with the
track record makes up for it clients

High SAT and GMAT scores Possesses good analytical skills