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Had five rounds of interviews First interview with an alum on campus Video conference with VP in Mumbai Telecon with an analyst and an HR director in New York Interview with General Manager, Advantage Global Services in Mumbai Final interview with an analyst from UK office who was down to Mumbai for training My first round was a mixture of technical and personal questions such as: Why ISB Technical questions on independent study that I was doing (related to capital markets) Why equity research Questions on ELP project that I had done (Interest rate Value-at-risk) Some questions on my previous work experience In case of stock options, how would you determine to what extent the EPS of the company would be diluted? I didnt know this one though I said that you need to determine the number of options expected to be converted into shares. In case the economy is booming, which sector do you think will perform best I think u can answer whatever sector you think but need to give a logic behind that I personally said banking because that was the sector I had researched upon. The way I convinced him was to say that when an economy is booming, all sectors agriculture, industry and services are doing well and whatever is affected by fortunes of those will benefit. So banking seems to be the one which will be most benefited in terms of increase in credit offtake. At the end of the interview and after further shortlist, I was given feedback that I needed to show more enthusiasm towards this job. They look for people who are enthusiastic about this job and do not expect you to answer all technical questions Second round Largely technical though was expected to be behavioral Are you interested in capital markets Describe yourself in terms of professional and educational background that you have How would you value a stock How do you calculate WACC? What debt equity ratio do you use for WACC What do you think of CAPM as a model? Do you follow any sector since I mentioned banking, further questions were related to that How would you value a banking stock, what ratios would you look at Which banking stock would you recommend to buy and why What are the macro economic factors affecting stock valuation Again some questions on my independent study and ELP AGS is a new organization would you feel comfortable working in a new organization Where do you see yourself in three years time Next telecon with New York office was very general Tell us about yourself

Why do you want to do equity research Questions on an industry research project which I was doing for Hanover Square Partners, a private equity firm in New York my take on that was they were happy to know that I was working on industry research on an offshore basis which is similar to their AGS model questions were more on the coordination and communication flow Again trying to determine my comfort level on working in a new setup Tell us about a stressful situation at business and how you handled it Some questions on my work experience

Interview with General Manager, AGS Very general interview again asking all the above questions which were asked in New York telecon Final interview Largely technical Tell me about yourself education and work experience What is deferred taxation? Would you take the effect into account while valuing a company What are the ways you value a company/stock How would you determine the health of a company only from cash flow statement How would you find cash flows from profit and loss account what adjustments would you make Whether you would adjust growth capex only or also replacement capex in cash flows

2. The first 4 rounds were primarily fit and resume based questions (a few technical questions were asked in between based on projects, ELP and valuation). The last 2 interviews were in Mumbai. Interview # 1: Balaji Jayaraman (Institutional Securities Mgmt, Mumbai) approx 30 minutes. Interview # 2: Manish Pandit (Equity Analyst, NY) approx 30 minutes (videocon) Interview # 3: Sachin Kewalramani (Equity Analyst, NY) and Joel Wirchin (Global Associates Mgmt) approx 25 minutes (telecon) Interview # 4: Nicholas Farley (MD Firm Management) approx 20 minutes. Interview # 5: Leon Michaelidas (Equity Analyst, London) approx 40 minutes (qs below are fm this interview) 1. Why dont you walk me through your resume ? 2. Why equity research after 4 years in sales and marketing ? 3. What do you know about AGS and the role we are offering ? 4. How comfortable are you with accounting and financial analysis ? 5. Is equity research important ? Why ? 6. Tell me something about fundamental analysis and technical analysis (since I brought this up in the previous question). 7. What is the difference between buy-side and sell-side research ? 8. How do you calculate FCF ? Walk me through each step. What are the problems with DCF ? 9. What is the difference between WACC and APV ? (he also went a bit into CAPM, levering and unlevering betas etc). 10. Tell me something about comparable transactions and multiples analysis ? What are the problems with multiples analysis ? 11. What are the line items involved in calculating NOPAT ? 12. If a firm is expected to have increased earnings in future, what happens to the various ratios ? 13. What vested interest can an investment banker and an equity analyst have ? 14. How would you forecast depriciation for a firm ? 15. How would you forecast capital expenditures for a firm ? 16. How do you calculate ROCE ? What is its significance ? 17. How would you forecast revenues for Hewlett Packard peripherals (since that was related to my work-ex) ? What are the specific factors you would look out for ? 18. Do you know about financing and leasing ? 19. Why would you be ideally suited for a career with AGS in equities research ? It was not a stress interview though all questions were pertaining to ER, valuation and financial analysis. In some technical qs, he digged deeper into the topic. Tips and learnings:

(i) Be prepared for ANY kind of technical qs mostly on Corp Fin, Valuation and Accounting (the others had quite different questions than what I was asked). (ii) Know your resume in and out (both prior work-ex and any academic / fin-related projects that you may undertake). (iii) Tracking 2 / 3 stocks may not really give one any edge (I did not do it though it may be of help. For some interviewers, it could look like an oversell. However,it would be prudent to be prepared just in case one is asked this question.). Be sure to track a couple of sectors (be thorough with the sector that you came from) and the economy.