Preparing for an Interview
with the D. E. Shaw GroupCONTENTS

What We’re Looking For........................................................................... 2Getting Ready for Your Interview......................................................... 3
What We Might Ask You............................................................................4
After an Interview...................................................................................... 7

At the D. E. Shaw group, we devote care and attention to identifying,recruiting, and supporting world-class talent.

We recognize that finding the right place for your next career step can betime consuming, if not all consuming. So that you can put your best footforward, we want to help you understand our firm, how you can contributeto its future, and how it can contribute to yours.
We hope you find the following information helpful as you prepare to meetwith us.

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WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
You don’t need priorfinance knowledge
or experience to be agreat candidate. We’relooking for people who:

•Uphold high standards: We want to understandhow you uphold high standards. What practices doyou follow to ensure you treat colleagues and peerswith respect and professionalism? How have you
handled ethical decision-making in the past?
•Analyze rigorously: We’re eager to hear what

you’ve learned from your experiences. What would
you do differently in retrospect? How could you
have improved an outcome? What questions would
you tackle next? We’re interested in the thinking
that guided your approach and how you assessed
the result.
•Communicate clearly and concisely: Details

and enthusiasm make for great answers, but only
if they make sense in the context of the questions
asked. Remember the essence of what you’re trying
to communicate. Pause and organize your thoughts
to structure your answers. Recap the problem youwere trying to solve before explaining how you
approached it.
•Thrive on collaboration: We often work ingroups, small and large, so we care about yourcontributions as a member of a team. How have youlearned from and shared your insights with others?
How have you tackled challenging projects withpeers? What role(s) do you most enjoy as part ofa group?
•Demonstrate intellectual curiosity: Whether

it’s your research, jobs or internships, past projects,
classes, extracurriculars, or something else
altogether, we want to hear about your passions,areas of expertise, and what motivates you.

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GETTING READY FOR YOUR INTERVIEW
We want to get toknow you—yourexperiences,interests, and, mostimportantly, how
you think about andapproach problems.
Before speaking
with us, consider
how you might:•Tell your story: Your experience is more than aseries of bullet points on a resume. What have been
your motivations, ambitions, and thinking at key
moments in your education or career? What drives
you? How has your approach to work evolved? We’realso curious to learn things beyond your resume,
like accomplishments outside of work or school, oradditional fields of interest.
•Dig deep into your experiences: Be prepared

to explore the details behind the jobs, activities,
and projects on your resume (without disclosing
anything confidential, of course). What were theirchallenges, and how did you learn from them? How
did you work with teammates to achieve your goals?
What was the thought process behind your work?
•Tip: One way tohelp effectively
communicate yourideas, experiences,and what interests
you about ourfirm is to practicetelling your story out
loud and verbally
responding topotential questions.
You can ask a friend,
career counselor,or recruiter to be
your audience, orjust use a mirror
or video camera.

Ask us questions: An interview is a two-way

street, and we encourage you to use the time tolearn more about us. Ask us questions that canhelp you make decisions about your next career
steps, assess how working with us might address
things you find important, and reveal the depth ofyour curiosity.

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WHAT WE MIGHT ASK YOU
We’re curious to see how you process new information and approach challenging
problems, not simply whether you arrive at a “correct” answer, know a particularmathematical technique, or are fluent in a specific programming language.
You can expect a range of questions on your past experiences (behavioral questions),
hypothetical situations you might come across in your work with us (situationalquestions), problems that demonstrate your capacity for analytical thinking(analytical questions), and in-depth prompts based on real-world examples (casestudies). These questions are meant to help us better understand your proficiency inskills relevant to the role you’re interviewing for.
Case studies are questions or prompts based on real-world situations that ask how
you might tackle a specific problem or challenge. A case study may include discussion
with an interviewer, a written response, or an exercise similar to work one might do in
the role. We use case studies to learn about how you process new information, weighwhich data are most important, assess the pros and cons of different approaches, andjustify and present your recommendations.
Interviews for trading and fundamental analyst roles do not assume pre-existing
technical or financial knowledge, but will assess your comfort applying statistical andlogical reasoning.
For technical roles, including those in quantitative analysis and software development,
you’ll be asked questions from different areas of mathematics and/or computerscience in addition to behavioral questions. These technical questions aim to evaluate
what techniques, concepts, or algorithms you use to pursue a solution, and how deeply
you understand their uses and limitations. Technical questions may cover probability,
mathematical statistics, algorithms, logical thinking, and/or programming.
Interviews for systems-focused roles may similarly seek to evaluate your computerscience and programming competencies or your subject matter expertise. These
interviews could include questions that assess your understanding of complex
computational processes and interactions within distributed systems, as well as youroperational problem-solving.
For non-technical roles, the majority of your interviews will consist of behavioral andsituational questions, and interviewers will follow up to get more detail. For certainroles, you may be asked analytical questions that encourage you to apply logicalreasoning in forming an answer.

4↑What We Might Ask You (Continued)

We’ve included a few examples of different question types in the table below.

Behavioral Questions
lHow has yourapproach to solving
a specific problem
evolved with moreexperience or new
information?

Situational Questions
llll

When have you
collaborated with ateam to achieve goals?
How have you
impacted the teams
you’ve worked on?
What were yourindividualcontributions?

lWhat would you do
if you were working
on a project andweren’t sure about
your next steps?
How would you
approach building
relationships if you
were new to a projector team?
Imagine that you needto make a decisionthat isn’t clear-cut.
How would you weighthe pros and cons?

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Case Study PromptsllCompany X is trying
to decide whether
to renovate its officespace or move to anew location. Whatfactors would you
consider to help makea recommendation?
What businesses
or industries doyou think will be
impacted byshifts in energy
production torenewable sources?

↑What We Might Ask You (Continued)

Having the following
in mind can be useful
as you respond tocase study prompts oranalytical questions:•

Do you understand the question? Before

diving in, make sure you know what you’re being
asked. If you’re not certain, feel free to ask forclarification (we do this routinely in our day-to-daywork). As you move forward with your response,check in with your interviewer to see if they’refollowing your thought process.
•How do you want to approach solving theproblem? As you organize your thoughts, consider
the structure you’d want to follow as you work.
Think about any follow-up questions you’d like to
ask your interviewer.

•Tip: Keep similar

principles in mind
when responding
to behavioral andsituational prompts—“show your work”
by accounting for any
assumptions you’remaking, and sharing
the information you’reusing (or that you’dseek) to inform yourapproach.

What are your assumptions? Be aware of any

assumptions you’re making, and share these withyour interviewer to help them follow your thinking.
•What potential solutions have youidentified? Be sure your potential solutions

directly address the problem. Do you have asystematic way to identify the best solution?
If so, how are you assessing the pros, cons, andtrade-offs of that solution relative to otherpossible approaches?
•How are your solutions supported? Asapplicable, check that your answer is supported
by your quantitative and/or qualitative analysis.
Are you providing a rationale for why a certain
solution is best? How would other information
change your assessment?
•What would your next steps be? Showing yourinterviewer that you can grasp the broader context
and can offer insights into the implications of youranalysis separates a great answer from a good one.
Can you think of additional risks and next steps?

6↑AFTER AN INTERVIEW
The typical stages of a successful hiring process include the following:
application review, phone interview and virtual interviews, references, and finally
an offer.

We don’t take shortcuts when it comes to recruiting and developing extraordinary
talent, so our hiring process might take several weeks. We’ll do our best to keep you
updated, but don’t hesitate to reach out to your recruiter if you have any questions.

For more information on our firm, please visit our website. Good luck withyour interview!

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