UBS is a Switzerland-based investment bank that has a large presence in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is considered a systemically important financial institution (SIFI), due to controlling assets worth nearly $2 trillion USD, whose failure may severely impact the world economy. It also has the distinction of having over half of the world’s billionaires as banking clients.
The financial importance of UBS makes working at the Swiss bank a highly coveted job in the world of finance. Additionally, UBS provides employees with a comfortable benefits package and high compensation. Some of the benefits of working at UBS include:
Health, dental, life, and vision insurance
100% work-from-home policy for eligible employees
401k matching
20 weeks paid childcare leave
15-20+ days paid vacation per year (US)
Competitive salary
UBS is one the most prestigious investment banks in finance. And they have a gruelling hiring process that involves multiple assessment tests, multiple interviews, and on-site testing before they will extend an offer to an applicant.
What Is the Recruitment Process at UBS?
As mentioned previously, the hiring process at UBS is difficult. UBS mainly hires for the financial side of their business and the technology side of the business. The hiring process does vary slightly between the two in that technology applicants have to take different assessments and will face different interview questions.
Online Application
The first step in the hiring process is to apply online for the position. UBS is a global company, so it is possible to apply for positions all over the world if you have the qualifications. UBS guides applicants through the application process. Applicants should expect to answer questions about their experience, qualifications, and education. UBS will also require applicants to upload a cover letter and resume.
UBS will run the application through some automated checks to ensure the applicant meets the minimum requirements for the job. If the applicant meets the requirements, then they will advance to the next phase of the hiring process.
UBS Assessment Tests
The hiring process is the most difficult phase of the hiring process as most applicants do not pass all the assessment and psychometric tests. These tests are hard and UBS has high standards for what they consider passing the test.
Here are some of the assessment tests you can expect to take when applying for a position at UBS:
Numerical Reasoning Test – UBS is a bank, so all applicants must take a numerical reasoning test. The applicant’s ability to use mathematical concepts to solve problems and interpret data from a variety of data sources will be tested. This test will also include some basic financial analysis questions. It is important to note that the math in this section is high school-level math and all questions have multiple-choice answers. The questions themselves should not be too challenging for UBS applicants. However, the test is timed and applicants must work quickly to ensure that you can answer all questions before time expires.
UBS Cultural Appraiser – The cultural appraiser is a situational judgment test. Each question will present a hypothetical workplace scenario and ask: – How would you respond? (multiple choice) – Rank the responses from best to worst. Like all the tests at UBS, this test is timed, so applicants must think quickly. The answers should align with the corporate culture of UBS. Applicants that have answers that do not align with UBS corporate culture may be removed from the hiring process. If not removed, then UBS may ask similar questions to better understand the applicant’s judgment skills in the later interview stages. It is strongly recommended to read about the corporate culture and values at UBS before taking the Cultural Appraiser psychometric test.
Verbal Reasoning Test – Those applying for jobs in the finance departments of UBS usually have to take a verbal reasoning test. This test closely resembles the SAT reading comprehension section – a paragraph or two of information is provided and the applicant must answer questions about the paragraph. This may include facts from the paragraph(s) or to mark whether certain sentences are true or false based on the information provided. The material in the paragraphs may or may not relate to banking. This test is not a technical test, though. It strictly tests if you can comprehend the facts in a given paragraph.
Logical Reasoning Test – The logical reasoning test involves detecting patterns in the orientation, transformation, or shape of 2D and 3D shapes and then selecting the correct logical continuation of the pattern. This test starts out easy, but the patterns become increasingly difficult as the test progresses. This test is also timed with an average of 50 seconds to answer each question, which adds to the stress of this test. It is recommended to practice logical reasoning tests before taking the UBS logical reasoning test to train your brain to recognize very obscure and abstract patterns in 2D and 3D shapes.
HackerRank Coding Assessment – UBS uses HackerRank coding assessments for all software engineering positions. You should expect Java and SQL questions on the HackerRank assessment, but it does depend on the team you will join at UBS.
Video or Phone Interview
Those that pass the assessments will move on to the video or phone interview stage of the hiring process. This interview is normally done with an HR representative and the questions will focus on the applicant’s resume and previous work experience. The interviewer will want to hear about examples of your prior work, so applicant’s should have some stories and experiences ready to share.
Applicants are encouraged to use the STAR method (Situation, task, action, response) when answering questions in this stage of the interview.
Assessment Center (Finance)
Applicants in the financial departments will usually go through an assessment centre at the UBS main office in their country. The candidates will be monitored by the senior managers and HR representatives throughout the assessment centre, so it is recommended to align with the values of UBS at all stages of the assessment centre.
The assessment centre will consist of a few different stages listed below:
Group Exercises – The group exercises stage of the assessment centre will have candidates broken off into small groups and tasked with creating and presenting a proposal. The proposal itself is important and UBS employees will observe the candidates during the process. They want to see candidates that show leadership, work well on teams, contribute to the team’s project, do not have an overbearing or bossy leadership style, and take into consideration the input of other team members
Presentation – UBS will give you information and ask you to create and give a presentation about the information to a panel of managers and other employees. They are looking for good public speaking skills and the ability to condense the given information into a concise, informative presentation. Candidates should expect to field questions from the panel about the presentation, so it is a good idea to thoroughly understand the given information.
Final Interview – The assessment centre will conclude with an interview with members of the senior management team and managers from the team the candidate will join at UBS. This interview may have some technical questions, but it has a tendency to focus on behavioural questions. It also serves as a way for management to see if they would like to work with the candidate on a day-to-day basis.
Final Interview (Technology)
Those applying for software engineering jobs and other technology-related jobs will not have an assessment centre. Instead, they will have one or more final interviews. Candidates should expect technical questions during this interview as well as behavioural questions. The technical questions tend to focus on abstract concepts rather than writing out actual code. Though some interviewers may ask candidates to write pseudo code as part of their answer.
This interview is conducted by senior engineering management and other management engineers and can take anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour. The time depends on how many technical questions the interviewers ask the candidate.
Common Interview Questions at UBS
The interview questions at UBS vary depending on the position and the interviewer, but there are some questions asked in all interviews. Here are some common questions that interviewers at UBS like to ask:
Why investment banking? UBS interviewers like to ask this question to those applying for investment banking jobs. The interviewer wants to see a response about loving the challenge, working in a high-pressure industry, or working together on a team to accomplish a goal. The interviewer does not want to hear an answer about the high salary that investment bankers make. They know people go into the industry for the money, but it’s not a good look to say that in the interview.
Why UBS? The interviewer wants to hear a response unique to UBS. A good rule for this question is if you can replace the name of the company with another one and the answer still makes sense, then it is not a good answer. This means you should do some research into what makes UBS unique and include that in your answer on why you want to work at UBS. This could be the bank’s SIFI status, the global impact of the bank, or any other reason unique to UBS.
Give an example of when you failed at a task. Failure happens to everyone, and the interviewer knows this. They want to see an answer that shows you can handle failure in a positive manner and, most importantly, learn from your failure to lessen the chances of it happening again. It is also a good idea to mention failures that were not catastrophic failures. Mentioning a catastrophic failure could work if placed in the right context, but it is better to stick to smaller failures to not scare the interviewer.
Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years? UBS wants to hire employees that have a long-term future at the company. And this is your time to show you have done research into the bank by mentioning senior positions you aspire to or interesting parts of the business you would like to join. You should not mention that you see yourself in private equity in 5 years. It’s common for investment bankers to make the jump to private equity, but it is not a good idea to tell UBS you plan on using them as a steppingstone to private equity.
How to Prepare for UBS’ Assessment Tests?
The assessment tests at UBS are challenging. The questions are difficult and the time limits are low. This makes for a situation where many applicants run into time trouble near the end of the assessment. This makes sense given that finance is a fast-paced industry. It can make preparing for the assessment tests difficult, though. Anyway, the best way to prepare for the assessment tests at UBS is to take timed practice tests. Timing the practice tests is important because UBS uses timed practice tests. It is even better to time individual questions in order to see the ones that take up more time and work on lowering the time for those types of questions. It is also important to take practice tests that have answer explanations. You should review the explanations for any questions you answered incorrectly to understand how not to make the mistake again.
