Janus/BBVA

Last night I received a case to complete for my application to Janus. I have to read a conference call transcript and complete a 15 year DCF model on a company. This is going to take a lot of work.

I also just applied to some positions at BBVA. They had an advertisement in the Thursday edition of Financial Times which stated that they are looking for entry level finance graduates for investment banking positions. Investment banking, and all the positions advertised in the Financial Times advertisement are strangely lacking from the BBVA website. We'll see if they send me any more information via email.

Janus Call Back

I got another call from the HR woman at Janus. I left an "excellent impression" on the Analysts I met. Next Thursday I will be receiving an email that contains a case that must be completed and returned by the following Monday. Hopefully someone on Vault.com has some information about these cases.

Janus Articles

Here are two articles from Morningstar about the difficulties Janus faced over the last 5 or so years.

Janus' Third Strike

Letter from Mark Whiston, CEO of Janus Capital Group

You may need to sign up for Morningstar.com to read these. It's free.

Janus Round 3, FMI Round 1

I got a call yesterday from the HR woman at Janus. She said that I had "left an excellent impression" on the Senior Director. I am psyched. So she set me up with a face to face interview at the Janus office here in Denver on Tuesday. I will be meeting with two guys from the group I would work in, so I can hopefully find out what the hell this job will be doing. I don't think I am ready to take a full-time job on top of being a full-time student, so I am going to see if I can make it a part-time job, if they really want me.

I finally heard back from FMI today and will be meeting with a Senior Associate in the Investment Banking Division. We'll see how it goes. This is for a paid internship, which is more appealing to me than the full-time Janus job.

Janus Phone Interview, Round 2

I just had my second phone interview with the Senior Director of Portfolio Analytics for Small to Mid-Cap funds. I think it went well. First, he went down my resume and asked specific questions about jobs on the resume. Next, he asked me about myself and how I got to where I am today, as well as where I want to go with my career. He asked me about any securities I follow. I talked to him about Chattem (CHTT), what I observed and where I thought it was going. He seemed rather unimpressed and wanted to know what kind of modeling I had done for the stock. I tried to spin something out of what I had done, but in the end I felt I had answered his question inadequately.

Then he asked me what questions I had and I kinda ripped into him and asked a ton of questions about the position and the firm. I don't know if this was good or bad.

He made the position sound like it is more of an IB type of analyst and said that there is little direction from the group for what this position will entail. He also made it sound like they would want me to start in January. I am a little uneasy about a full-time job on top of being a full-time student. I am sure I can make it work though. But hey, this is the first round of interviews I have had so I think that if this is as far as I get, I've done alright.

Janus Phone Interview, Round 1

This was the first phone interview for the position of Research Associate for Data Analysis.

Overall, this went very well. I spoke with a woman from HR who has an engineering background and has worked with the firm for only a few months. Below I have transcribed the questions which she asked me in the order which they were asked. Speaking to an HR person, I was very surprised to get finance and modeling questions. The first one threw me off guard. The rest of them I feel like I aced. I have another phone interview this afternoon with the Senior Director of Portfolio Analytics a certain fund. I was told to be prepared to discuss any investments which I follow.

1. Rate your Excel skills from 1-5.
   

2. What are your strengths?
   

3. What will be the biggest challenge in this job?

4. What salary would you expect?

5. In a model, how does Net Income show up on the Balance Sheet?
   

6. How would you project PP&E for a company?
   

7. In a model, what rate do you use to discount cash flows to the firm?

Applications, Rejections, and Responses

HSBC:
Talk about the most asinine application process that I have ever been through. This was insane. I can barely even decipher what all of the UK jargon is half the time. Why do they make you retype your entire resume, transcript, and life for their benefit? Why can't they just read my damn resume. Anyways, they are no longer hiring for their I-Bank.

BNP Paribas:
Applied to a few positions with them through Careerbuilder.com. These are pretty good analyst positions with reconciliation component. I have been reading about them on Vault.com and they appear to have a really good culture and be a good midsized bank in NYC.

JP Morgan Chase:
I have heard back on three applications I have submitted to them and been rejected each time. The first one was an analyst for their medical devices group. This I heard about from careerbuilder.com but all the others were through the JP Morgan career site.

Janus:
Here in Denver, Janus has 15 openings in its Data Analysis Department. I think they cleaned house recently for some reason or another. These openings are not listed on their site and I got the recommendation through a friend. Email them directly if you are interested.

Green Manning & Bunch:
I got rejected in my request for an internship by this small, 20 person investment firm here in Denver. Oh well.

CIBC World Markets:
Rejected me for the position of Junior High Yield Sales Associate. Damn Canadians.

Consolidated Investment Group:
I received a posting for this firm from a professor that I have had in the past. They want a Junior Investments Analyst. Their real estate group has a fair amount of visibility, but the investment group, which this job is part of, has literally none. Any information regarding this would be really appreciated.