Students’ Speak: Knowledge of current economic scenario helped me crack JP Morgan’s GD round, says IIM-S alumnus

By: Kuljeet Singh

During my campus placement, the Indian Rupee had depreciated to record low as compared to US Dollar and so, my JP Morgan’s Group Discussion (GD) topic was related to that current happening.

I started by explaining how the decrease in US Federal Rate has compelled various investors to move away from India towards US that has contributed to this sharp fall in Rupee. Then, I tried to explain how this depreciation will help Indian exporters but will be a nightmare for Indian importers as it will make the import from other countries expensive. Then, in my third and final chance, I tried to analyse various steps taken by the Indian Government to contain this fall, including the opening of a special window to exchange Rupees to Dollar at a fixed rate to increase the supply of dollars in the market.

In another parallel GD panel, they were asked to discuss the failure of IL&FS (non-banking finance company). They started by pointing out the evasive and irresponsible behaviour of various rating agencies while giving credit ratings to IL&FS. This NBFC had defaulted on its bond coupon payment despite being given AAA rating by rating agencies. And so, its rating had fallen from AAA to D in a single day. Then, they also discussed the responsibility of top management to increase transparency to the investors. As IL&FS played a major role in the financing of various infrastructure projects, so, the impact of the failure of such significant NBFC was also discussed. At last, various steps that can be taken by the government to prevent systemic risk were analyzed.

After clearing the GD, I was called for a Personal Interview round. It was taken by the vice president of Valuation Control Group of JPMC. It began with basic questions about bonds like how yield changes corresponding to interest rate, how the valuation of the bond is done and how arbitrage can happen in bond valuation. Then, he moved towards Market risk and asked about VAR and how it is calculated for different portfolios. Then, he started asking about Options like how its valuation is done, Black Scholes Merton model and a lot about Option Greeks. Then he asked about Swaps and how its valuation is done. Overall, the interviewer was primarily interested in the valuation of various derivative instruments.

After clearing this round, the HR round happened. Very few basic questions regarding my interests and hobbies were asked.

About the Author:

Kuljeet Singh is an alumnus of IIM Shillong. He completed his MBA with a specialisation in Finance in 2019. At present, he works with JP Morgan and Chase as a Senior Analyst.