My personal experience for overseas placement
First of all, a brief background of who I am. My name is Nikita Kothari, a qualified Company Secretary and have bagged Financial Risk Management Certificate from GARP. With a year of experience in MAS and FI team of Alliance Bernstein (AXA India), currently I am working with Credit Risk Assurance Team of KPMG, London.
In order to get an interview scheduled I applied in following manner from India only:
Made a list of the Companies that I intended to work with eg Big 4, HSBC, CITI, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, S&P Global, Northern Trust, Credit Suisse, etc.
Visited their career's portal on their respective location's (country) website.
Checked for vacancies that suited my work experience and job role I was expecting.
I believe this is the only way. You can also get vacancy updates through LinkedIn Premium Package. However, once the vacancy is known, apply from it from the website directly.
Key pointers
First and foremost, Patience. This is the most important thing while applying overseas.
Do not get intimidated by the time it takes to crack a perfect job.
Be prepared for the longer timeline’s recruiters take to respond as they must follow various formalities.
Keep applying is the second key. Apply to multiple job roles, multiple locations and multiple CompaniesBeware of frauds with the placement agencies. Most that works is applying directly on the portals. There is no concept of placement agents at least in the location I applied (London, UK). Often, we fall prey to silver lined captions of agencies. Try and avoid.
Preparing for the interview
General
Prepare a proper introduction for yourself. Just don’t spell out your CV as they already know it.
Read the Job description carefully and prepare accordingly.
Proper research of the company in which you are applying will mark a difference above others.
Market yourself as to why you are important for the role and how will you add value or make a difference.
Also focus on why you have chosen this role and what interests/fascinates you.
Technical Round
The technical round is expected to last for one hour and interviewers are not just keen in theoretical knowledge but also test how we would practically apply it.
We need to be thorough with all the basic concepts and its application.
Expect that you will be grilled a lot on technical grounds.
You will also be given case study to solve.
Don’t be surprised, if a logical and mathematical riddle that may come. The interviewers are just trying to check your approach and confidence.
Refer Appendix A for the areas around which questions were asked to me for reference.
Soft skills
The interviewers would present various hypothetical / experience-based scenarios and ask how would you approach.
Be an active listener. Try to understand on which skillset is the question based and respond accordingly. For eg conflicting views, ethics, etc.
STAR technique is all that helps to answer these questions
Situation – Explain the situation in one statement
Task – What was you task in given situation
Action – Explain the action that you did
Results – Tell the results of your actions
Using STAR technique gives your responses a proper structure and you will hit the bulls eye.
Illustrative list of question that I had prepared is attached for reference.
When given an opportunity to ask any question, ensure that you do not miss it. Asking relevant questions to interviewers showcases your interest in joining the firm.
All the best!