After being rejected for Client Services, I was invited for an Assessment Centre regarding an Analytical role for Moody's Investors Service. The schedule of the day: an Accounting Test + an essay/article to be produced about the recent economic events (1.30h for the two tasks) + 2 interviews (45’ each). The Test was not very difficult: divided in 2 parts (one for corporates’ balance sheet/financial statements, one for banking institutions), the exercises were similar: for example, classifying items in assets and liabilities and completing a simple balance sheet. Then, a series of two 2:1 interviews with other Financial Data Analysts and the Managers followed. Both "teams" wanted to check my technical accounting skills, like the understanding of a balance sheet of a corporate/bank regarding the riskiness of their businesses. No competency-based questions were asked, but I have to say they were the most aggressive interviewers ever met. Accounting is not my major and I had got the invitation email about 30 hours before the AC (no real time to make an accurate revision), so I wasn't that surprised that they didn't offer me a job (they called me back about 10 days later), since "other candidates performed better than you in the test and interviews". However, the company left me an extremely positive impression.

First interview is a English interview from one supervisor and a senior employee. Second one is another pair of supervisor and a senior employee in Japanese. Both of the interview are quite relaxing.