I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Columbia Threadneedle Investments (New York, NY) in Sep 2015
Interview
Phone interview first followed by meeting with the trading team.
Meetings with a trader, senior trader, managing trader, and head trader.
Everyone was helpful and nice except the managing trader.
Managing trader seems to want you to commit to being only a trader underneath him for at least 5 years. Everyone else mentions how progressive the company is and how you can really advance your career and he is the only one who just doesn't like change. He admitted that they had passed on the best candidate because he "wasn't a team player willing to commit to staying on this team for the long term".
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Are you going to want to be the equity trader here for the long term?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Columbia Threadneedle Investments (New York, NY) in Sep 2015
Interview
Nice. Phone interview and then interviews with 4 people. The phone interview HR person was really very helpful and knew how to talk about the job and the company and everything.
Met with a trader (the guy being promoted to analyst who would be training his replacement), the senior trader, the managing trader, and the head trader for the entire company. Everyone was very nice and (for the most part) seems competent.
When I mentioned that I was an out of town candidate everyone asked questions about Ohio and thanked me for coming into the interview. Then after the interview the head trader for the entire company actually offered to pay traveling costs for this trip.
All in all this seems like a great company where you can really shine.
Additional notes:
One guy really sucked though. He barely interviewed me and asked almost no questions (he was the "Managing Equity Trader"). He seems like he's just looking for someone who won't leave his group before he retires. Unfortunately that guy seems like he's the only one making the decision at this company. Why the 3 people were even involved when their opinions did not matter is beyond me.
Just pretend you will still be the trader under him until he retires. That's really all he's interested in. Honestly he asked no real questions (the managing trader). He was upset that the person under him was promoted to an Equity Analyst and he just wants a friend until he retires.
Junior Equity Trader applicants have rated the interview process at Columbia Threadneedle Investments with 3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 100% positive. To compare, the company-average is 62.1% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Junior Equity Trader roles take an average of 16 days to get hired, when considering 2 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Columbia Threadneedle Investments overall takes an average of 19 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Columbia Threadneedle Investments as a Junior Equity Trader according to 2 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 50%
Group panel interview: 25%
One on one interview: 25%
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