Tag Archives: interview

Murex interview – What NOT to do

During my time at Murex, I had to recruit quite a few people and I faced different profiles, so have a read, smile and relax. For an interview you need to be prepared and at your best. So here are some pitfalls you can easily dodge.

Murex Interview – The Test

There is a test! Yes, it’s best to revisit your finance/programming/math lessons so everything is fresh and handy in your mind. You have 1 hour to do your best.

I think I have to give the golden crown to one candidate (to whom I already told there was a test): he came in, sat in the room and I left him to work on his test. 10 minutes later, he came out, handed me back the test (nothing written on it, not even his name, perfect to give to the next candidate). “I don’t think I’m suited for this role”. At least he was honest.

Second place goes to someone we ended recruiting because that person is actually really good. But when asked to give a simple definition, there was actually a fair bit of writing. 1 page! In small characters when 1 sentence could have sufficed. Know that we discuss with you the answers you give and we can easily tell if you understand or not

Last place goes to the bullshitter. Answers were very generic and could not make much sense out of them. When asking him for more details, he told us that he did not believe that it was so important to know things in details, you can always talk your way out. Well, he managed to talk his way out of the interview.

Murex interview – Presentation

Job interview is a two way street, you discover the company and people who are looking to recruit BUT they also discover you and who you are.

Once we had this candidate who was just looking at the table, did not even look at one of us once. And his answers were short when not single worded. Not matter what we tried to get him to relax, we failed miserably and we could not get him to open up. As many Murex roles are customer facing, being comfortable talking to people is important!

When you present yourself, it’s important to explain why Murex is of interest to you and especially on the longer run. Some people (yes it happened more than once) were upfront enough to mention that they were looking at Murex just as a stepping stone in their career. Definitely not a smart move!

Murex interview – The good surprises

But sometimes you get good surprises. The feeling (usually straight away) that you found a gem, someone that would fit perfectly the bill. And the interview/test will effectively confirm it.
I often pondered if it was simply the first impression that decided how an interview would go but I do believe that the Murex test makes things actually fairer. Someone with very good presentation but lacking knowledge would effectively be at a disadvantage after the test. Someone not so good at presenting can gain some confidence and feel more on familiar ground thanks to the test.
After that if you’re not good at presenting and don’t know much, maybe it’s better not to take the interview!

 

Scoring a job with Murex

In the continuation of the previous post, here are details as to how the interview process works and what is expected of you.

The level required by candidates is actually very high, this ensures people who can learn quickly but also it builds a company spirit where you are surrounded by very good people. This is very motivating.

For graduates (or non senior positions), one of the first things that happens during the recruitment is a knowledge test. Depending on the type of job you’re applying for, the test might vary. Without detailing what the tests can be about, the idea is to test what you should know (maths, financial questions if you studied finance, programming if applicable, etc…) but also how do you think and if you have the good reflexes when faced with a problem.

So for more junior people, revise what you have studied and also try to understand what Murex is about (this website and Murex website will be good sources of information).

If you manage to get a job, you will receive trainings from Murex about basics (what’s a rate curve, what are the different type of options, what are accounting entries, etc…) the idea is to ensure that even if you are not working in a particular domain, you have a basic knowledge as to what it is. The trainings then move to specificities of Murex and how the software works, the internal processes, etc…

While the training takes 6 weeks to 2 months, Murex tends to consider that the investment in someone starts to pay off after 18 months, once you build confidence and knowledge. There will be lots of things for you to do prior to that but you’ll be well assisted to insure you learn as quickly as possible.

As 18 months is a significant amount of time, it is important for Murex to recruit the right people, hence the focus put on the recruitment process.

For more senior positions, this is of course on an ad hoc basis given how well your skills are transferable.

More questions, feel free to comment or go to the forums and I’ll try to answer them