Online Application

In this stage I had to submit my CV, with a Cover Letter being optional (I personally didn't do one). There were also a few questions surrounding your interests in the role and why you want to work in the banking industry in general. The initial online application took me around 1-2 hours to complete.

How to respond for success

Showing a deep interest in technology is a must have for this application. Try to include some experience of working on technical projects, either at uni or extracurricularly. Also, it is important to differentiate yourself from the crowd and showing off my previous leadership positions and times i'd shown initiative did the trick for me! Bank of America looks particularly highly at leadership positions in societies - so if you don't have one yet, I would strongly recommend looking at trying to work towards one!

Expect around a 1 week wait before progressing to the next stage.

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Video Interview

Here you have to answer 5 pre-recorded questions. For each one, you have 30 seconds to prepare an answer then up to 3 minutes to answer. They are almost all general competency and "tell me about a time" type questions. The way I prepared for this is by having a question bank of around 10 questions like this, and finding answers for each of them.

Example task

None of these questions were about Bank of America- although there was one about the technology industry as a whole that was something along the lines of, "Tell me what current development in Technology you find the most interesting" - For this, I would recommend reading something to do relating to the division you apply to: in my case Cybersecurity.

The general competency questions were basic - but the one I struggled with slightly was, "Tell me about a time you acted with honesty and integrity", as it is not a situation you think about typically, so I would really recommend practicing this before. I also had questions asking me about when I had acted in an 'innovative manner', when I had 'demonstrated leadership' and a time I 'went out of my comfort zone'.

How to respond for success

Speak confidently and fluently. Try to smile and seem enthusiastic. Wear a suit/smart clothes (shirt and tie generally for banks). What's most important is that you have stories of situations you can tell confidently and can answer multiple questions. So for example I had a story that I knew could answer questions about leadership and public speaking - and knew the story really well so I was able to mould it for their exact phrasing in the 30 seconds before the time started. You can make up a question bank by just googling "competency questions" and creating a Google Doc with the questions and your answers. Its really hard to come up with a new scenario in 30 seconds so make sure you have them prepared from before.

Expect up to a 1 month wait before progressing to the next stage.

Assessment Centre

The assessment centre started in the morning and took around 2h 30m in total with a 30m break in between. It was structured in the following way:

• Competency based interview - 30 mins
• Give a presentation about a technical project you did + Q&A - 30 mins
• 30 minute break
• Technical Interview - 1h hour

Example task

Following the previous list the sections were structured as follows:

In the competency based interview, expect typical competency questions; "tell me about a time you led a team". This differs from the video Interview as the interviewer will dig deeper into your stories and ask follow up questions at times.

The presentation was around 10-15mins long. You had to create a Powerpoint for it too. It had to be related to something technical you did so in my case I talked about a university project. The interviewers will also ask quite a few questions of differing difficulty so make sure you know the project very well.

The technical Interview in my case was about Cybersecurity. In this interview I got more general questions such as "What do you think are the most common types of attacks that occur in banks". I also had a slightly longer situational question which asked me "You are in charge of the Cybersecurity of a Eastern European hospital - what measures do you recommend to ensure its safety from ransomware", and for this it was good to have technical responses such as - ensure back up data, teach security procedures, have up to date OSs.

How to respond for success

My advice is: wear a suit, speak with confidence, know your technicals and be well prepared. But, the main point I will give is that the 3rd part was the most difficult, because it's with someone from the same division your applying to so that means they are looking for someone they would like to work with on projects etc. This means you should seem competent and trustworthy, but also ensure you build a rapport with them.

Expect up to a 2 week wait before receiving an offer.