I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Capital One
Interview
After the initial IQ test and HR phone interview, I had a behavioral interview and a case interview.
The Behavioral Interview:
They asked only 4 major questions...asked me to describe a certain situation and then pecked at it from all sides. Have your stories clear, and the situations should be "rich", in the sense that it should have shown your leadership, initiative, how you worked with people, issues that you faced and how you overcame these issues.
The Case Interview:
You run an oil refinery that can process 1 million barrels of crude oil per year, have certain fixed costs (debt repayment, salaries, maintenance, etc), and certain variable costs (cost of crude oil, transport). You have 3 products that you sell after refining the crude oil: a certain % goes into Gasoline (highest price), another part is Heating Oil (mid-price) and finally Asphalt (lowest price).
The first question is to calculate the total profit. Simple enough - list down all revenue and cost drivers in a table and do the math.
Next they asked how would I increase the profit...hit all the cost drivers and how you would bring down those costs, then talk about how you could change your production mix towards more of the higher-priced products.
The last question presented two more options - other varieties of crude coming to the market, and with different crude prices as well as different final product mix that you could make from the crude oil varieties. Essentially the lower priced crude could make less Gasoline, and the higher priced crude could make more Gasoline. Do the profit calculations in the form of a table (with all 3 crude varieties in the table), and finally decide which variety of crude gives the highest profit. In my case, the cheapest variety of crude oil gave the highest profit, but this may be different in your case.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you faced push-back and how did you deal with it. What if they still would not come across to your point of view...what would you do?
The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Capital One (McLean, VA) in Nov 2011
Interview
Skills Test= very easy : simple Maths, no preparation required.
Phone Interview= vey easy: general questions/ aspirations.
Full Day interview= difficult: 4 on a road interviews, two cases ( consulting type) and two behavioral. They can use two interviewers at a time. The seem very focus on Quant skills. Some interviewers were not clear enough. Overall I had a good time and believe it is not a difficult interview.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Capital One (Richmond, VA) in Jun 2011
Interview
Contacted through LinkedIn about the position. Passed the first round of skills/personality tests so I was asked to come to Richmond for more interviews which consisted of 2 business "case studies" and 2 behavioral interviews - each with 1 person. So I met with a total of 4 people. They ask you to stay for lunch, and during that time the 4 people you interviewed with, get together and make a decision; they have to come to a consensus. I nailed 3 out of 4 interviews and made 2 stupid mistakes on the last case study and I was told the next day because of that I didn't get the job. I was shocked. I made a careless mistake, and then 1 math mistake, but eventually came to the right answer in the end - I totally thought I was going to get the job.... even though they are very very vague as to exactly what job you are applying for. The entire process was pretty cryptic. The case studies were overall pretty simple, which of course makes you feel like even more of an idiot when you "fail". Recruiter was OK, but if he/she has no interest in talking to you after you are done with your interview day in Richmond - then you didn't get the job. They know pretty much immediately after you are done.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Credit card insurance case: calculate break-even claim rate where response rate = 2%, fee charged = 1% of monthly balance, and average balance = $1,000 per month.