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2009年4月9日

Back from Oliver Wyman 2nd Round Interview

Pheeeew~ Just got back from the second round interview so I'm still in English mode. Why not just try to type this in English then. Most of you may not know, I'm secretly back in Taiwan for the interview host by Oliver Wyman, an international consulting firm more focusing on financial services. I have very good impression for Oliver Wyman. You can tell they're a good company who value talents very much not only by the way they host their campus event, but also from every E-mail they've sent or phone call they've made. Candidates feel being respected.

The 1st round interview was held yesterday, at Sheraton Taipei. It was a group interview with about 10 people. Each candidate was asked to introduce themselves in a unique way which are not mentioned in their CV. As people trying to present the weird things they've done, the atmosphere was pretty relaxing. After that, the interviewer gave us a probability game, which may have two answers. Candidates arewere divided into groups by their answer and they had to discuss within group to find a way to convince the other group their answer is correct. After about 20 minutes discussion, each group presented. I think the purpose of this round is to examine the candidates' ability to present ideas well in English, also to see how the candidates work in a group. I don't really like group interview because everyone are being so aggresive and doesn't stop talking, but I'm glad my group worked pretty well as a team and everyone got some chance to talk. Fortunately, I was informed I made it to the 2nd round after I got home, which was 10:30 pm.

The 2nd round last only for an hour, starting from 1:30 this afternoon. I met two interviewers, 30 minutes each. They didn't ask anything in ny CV, but each threw like 2 to 3 cases to me. Their cases are not like those that I prepared and encountered before. They're mainly probability problems and can test on your prolem solving skiils because they seems really puzzling at first glance but can be really easy to solve by some methods. I don't think I've done well in this round. I got stuck sometimes and made some simple calculation wrong. I'm glad the interviewers nicely gave me some help and instructions in the middle so I finally could come up with the right answers. The 3rd round will be held in Singapore at the end of this month but I don't really have confidence to make it. I guess I'm not experienced enough doing case interviews and my brain didn't turn fast enough when facing these probability problems. If they gave me like strategic case, I probably can do much better.

In conclusion, English presentation and communication skills are so important. I think that's what they're testing on the 1st round. Speaking of case interviews, I guess I'll have to say "practice makes perfect". Wish me good luck! I wanna go to Singapore!