u/vandutchie

I've been keeping my family and relatives unaware that I have an AI agent (Folk) running my iMessage, basically answering people and giving them my availability based on my schedule. I've had it for about 3 months.

I play pickleball every Sunday, and when my sister sent me her official wedding invitation (also on a Sunday), it responded automatically to her saying I couldn’t go, and they had a back-and-forth where my sister said I (the bot) offended her.

Should I go to her wedding and explain everything or stay home?

(I just know everyone would be pissed if they found out I had an AI talk to them for 3 months.) Also, we're 6 siblings and I've never been that close to her.

Four stages, about three weeks start to finish.

Recorded video: Three recorded questions, 2 minutes each, plus a set of cognitive games after (actually quite fun tbh) Why Jefferies. Why banking and not consulting. Tell me about a time you failed, some basic questions.

First round: 30 minutes, 2-on-1, an analyst and an associate. The analyst asked pretty much everything. Like, walk me through your resume., walk me through the three statements and what a $10 increase in depreciation does to each.

There also was a question about enterprise value and equity value. Then I was asked: When would you use a DCF over comps and to rank the valuation methodologies from highest to lowest and tell me why.

Superday: Five interviews, 30 minutes each, 1-on-1, analyst up to MD.

Analyst round: standard technicals, unlevered vs levered free cash flow, WACC build, why you tax-affect the cost of debt. Associate round: paper walkthrough of a comps set. He gave me four companies in one sector and asked which should trade at a premium and why.

VP round: mostly deal talk. Name a Jefferies deal from the last year and tell me what you would have wanted to know as the buyer.

MD round 1: almost entirely conversational. Fifteen minutes on a coverage group I said I was interested in, then he asked what I would do if I did not get into banking at all.

MD round 2: hardest one. Why this sector, name a banker here whose work you have read, and what is your view on where deal volume goes over the next two quarters.

Also worth saying plainly: the analyst who walked me between rooms was part of the assessment. My VP referenced something I had said to her in the hallway.

Outcome: Offer call the next morning, about 20 hours after the last round.

Happy to answer anything below.

My brother used to work as a software engineer at Google, and part of his team was involved in looking into how candidates were getting around Google's interview monitoring systems (like with InterviewCoder and other tools).

He recently told me that the project was closed because of a lack of funding from their VP of engineering. The members are that team are currently getting moved to other internal teams (like design, payment, etc).

Of course, he told me to never say that info to anyone, especially not online but I've always been a bit of a rebel (and also he’ll never know).

But hey, don’t cheat kids… 😉😉

Seven stages if you count the Superday rounds separately. Posting mid process because every timeline I found online was two or three cycles old and none of it matched.

HireVue: Four questions, not the three every older writeup mentions. If you prep off an old template you will get caught out. Why Morgan Stanley, a time you worked under pressure, a time you disagreed with someone, then a short market question: tell us about a company you find interesting right now and why.

First round; One associate, twenty five minutes. Mostly resume and motivation.

We had three technicals at the end: Bridge me from enterprise value to equity value. What happens to free cash flow when working capital builds. Why two companies with identical EBITDA trade at different multiples.

Very very light compared to what came after.

Superday, round one (merger math): Accretion and dilution on an all stock deal. Then what happens to combined EPS if the target carries a large NOL, and how you would treat it in the model.

Superday, round two (LBO): Paper LBO, entry at 9 times, 5 times leverage, five year hold. Asked for the equity check first, then the IRR. Follow ups were how sources and uses balances, where transaction fees sit, and what happens to returns if the exit multiple compresses by one turn.

Superday, round three (accounting): Inventory writedown of 50, walk all three statements. Then why net income and cash flow diverge, and which one you would rather see growing. One curveball: how a capital lease shows up versus an operating lease.

Superday, round four (fit): Almost entirely behavioral. Why this group, why not a boutique, what you would do if a VP handed you conflicting instructions at 11pm.

Superday, round five (VP, valuation): Value a company with negative EBITDA. Then which comparable set you would defend and why, and how you would sanity check the output.

THE END.

For some interviews, Interviewers had prepped completely differently. Two knew my resume line by line. One clearly opened it as I sat down and asked me to walk through it cold.

Eleven days out. From what I can tell offers went out in two waves and I know people who heard in both. Anyone else still sitting on this one?