Northern Trust Business Analyst Interview Questions
& Process

It was a really unprofessional and intimidating interview. They hadn't even looked at my resume beforehand, and the whole process felt very disorganized. I had to chase them myself to find out I didn't get the job, which really put me off. I felt like they were looking down on me because I'm a recent graduate and they almost made me commit to wanting the job and not wasting their training time. Hopefully, it's just this one office and not a company-wide thing.

An HR person will reach out first for a screening. If they like your profile, your info goes to the hiring team for an interview. This is a pretty standard process. They seem to be looking for standard things like programming, tech, and software understanding. They might not reply super fast, but it's on a rolling basis.

The interview process involved a panel phone interview followed by an in-person interview. The role was for a fixed income accounting/IT process business analyst, focusing on whether a new TPG software package correctly accounted for process flows. The panel included the project manager and a financial/accounting subject matter expert. I prepared by reviewing accounting literature for hedges, derivatives, FX accounting, etc. The interview steps were: 1. Detailed accounting questions from the SME, including how to account for bonds and my past experience setting up for FASB 91 accounting. This was challenging as I had limited experience with FASB 91. 2. The Project Manager then asked about soft BA skills, like how an IA would gather requirements and the steps involved. He also inquired about industry terms used by fixed income traders, such as defining volatility when requested by a trader for a report. Initially, several others were expected on the call, but they were reassigned. They decided not to proceed further after the phone interview, apparently opting for an internal resource or a big three consultant instead of a contract consultant.