My Interview Experience with Goldman Sachs — Technology Analyst
I am SUPER grateful that I was able to get an offer from my dream company amongst the pandemic. 2020 was full of uncertainties and stressful recruitment but despite that, I made through it and so can you!
During my first year of college, I hadn’t even heard of Goldman Sachs. I was first introduced to this Wall Street Firm through an informational webinar in my 3rd year of college. I was amazed by the culture, values, and people at GS. Since then, I did A LOT of research on the company itself and the employment opportunities that they offer. I even connected with some brilliant employees and recruiters and my conversations with them made me realize that GS is where I see myself working upon graduation.
No doubt that the recruitment process is extremely competitive, but I applied for the New Analyst position anyway in August 2020 because I know that they go through every application. I didn’t really have any ‘hope’ of moving to the next stages because I had no internal referral nor an internship experience with them.
To my surprise, they sent me a HackerRank Challenge after 2–3 weeks of my application!! I was nervous at first, but I completed the challenge and actually found it really fun. Then I started waiting for the HireVue, which is basically an interview with pre-recorded questions. WEEKS went by and there was no update from GS. I had made peace with the fact that I am not going to get it. But, guess what? I got the HireVue!! Such interviews always made me so anxious because there’s no actual person talking to you. However, I did some more company research, practiced behavioral questions, and went over my resume before taking the HireVue. This was around the end of September.
During this time whenever I opened LinkedIn and saw posts like ‘I am excited to announce that…’ or ‘I got an offer from my dream company…’, it just made me really worried and I thought if I ever will be able to land my dream job? So many uncertainties and doubts.
At the end of October, a Goldman recruiter emailed me saying that they want to schedule an interview!…..WHAT? HOW? I couldn’t believe that I had made it to the final rounds?!?! I was overwhelmed especially because it was scheduled in less than a week from that email. I had a very short amount of time to prepare but I did a few things that helped me with the interview which I am sharing below:
- Instead of leetcoding haphazardly, I started with brushing up my coding concepts and basic data structures
- Then I practiced coding from the GS tagged questions on Leetcode
- I also looked up the most common technical interview questions from the Blind 75 List
- I practiced the common behavioral questions like ‘Tell me about yourself..’
The Super Day consisted of 2 back-to-back interviews with Goldman’s Engineers. Both interviews were a mix of technical concepts, coding, and behavioral questions. There were some things that I knew and some things that I didn’t but the interviewers were super nice so the whole process wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. Although it was just 2 hours in total, I felt super drained after it.
My imposter syndrome kicked in after the interview and I knew that I wasn’t getting the offer. 5 days later I got a call from Goldman Sachs and the recruiter told me that I GOT THE OFFER. My heart was beating so fast I could hear it and I was literally jumping in excitement and surprise. I had done it! I made it through!!
I will be joining the Dallas office as a Technology Analyst upon my graduation in May 2021. As an international student, a POC, and a female in the US, I totally understand how challenging recruiting can be for people with marginalized backgrounds. This is the reason why I shared my experience with the world and I want to help you achieve your dreams as well. Feel free to comment below or contact me on LinkedIn with any questions you have.
