27 S&P Global Interview Questions & Answers

"When I was working in San Antonio, I received a call from the airforce base, which was close to the office. They were having some trouble, they didn't specify what. I assumed they probably had an old system and took with me the tools I thought appropriate. I was wrong, their system was super old and strange. I had never seen anything like it before. And what had stopped working were their barriers. Since the control panel was sitting in the middle of a field in the sun and it was a hot tough day. I talked to the guy in charge and was honest with him. Just told him I needed to research their system and that I needed to go back to the office and come back the next day. He was ok with this. I went back to the office and stayed there until I had learned how to work it out. Didn't get much sleep that night, but I was able to get the barriers back up and running the next day."

"Econometric analysis is an integral part of my economic formation during my master's degree. So I am quite familiar with several methods of statistical analysis. I think the most appropriate ones for S&P will be all the ones that have to do with time series analysis. After all, a company's valuation is exactly that, a time series. And actually, my master's thesis is a time series analysis of a multivariate model. I am familiar with the need to make sure that your data complies with several properties like stationarity and cointegration."

"I have never come across a company in this situation. However, I have read about this phenomenon and I was able to immediately imagine a situation where just positive cash flow isn't enough to conclude sound financials in a company. The most common answer I've found is of course when accounts payable keeps growing. The company is going through its operations while its debt keeps growing. However, what if the cash flow comes from issuing more and more stock, or more bonds or options. That just can't be sustainable."

"I am a person that needs to be constantly presented with challenges and I need to feel that I am learning new things as I show up for work every day. This is part of the reason I decided to leave my previous job, I felt I was stuck in a role that lacked dynamism. So I finally decided to quit and pursue a new and challenging path. Furthermore, if I can see that my work is relevant to a larger than myself goal I am guaranteed to deliver excellence in any task assigned to me."

"The previous industry that I was working on was a little different from the financial industry. I am eager to learn new ways to deal with new kinds of risks like systematic or credit risks. However, most of the risk I was dealing with was an operational risk. I believe that the best way to mitigate this is excellent communication of the entire team. Make sure everybody knows what the scope of the project that we are working on is and that each team member understands his or her role. And of course, it is very important to be checking in to validate this is true throughout the job."

"I don't doubt it. A position like this is extremely appealing to anybody even remotely interested in the financial world. I have several skills that I know would prove to be excellent assets to S&P. My strong need to be constantly challenged and constantly learning are some examples of this, and I know there will be more than enough of both of those in this position. But the one thing that I believe really sets me apart is motivation. I am sure that a man in your position knows that morale is a crucial part of any team at any company. A motivated employee will do wonders. I left a very stable well-paying job in the US to pursue a master's degree to learn how to use all my skills in the financial and economic markets. So, a position like this is exactly what I was looking for when I presented my notice over 2 years ago. I really am yearning to join S&P."

"There is more than one reason to be attracted to S&P global. Personally, the global reach of the company is extremely appealing. It guarantees a dynamism few other companies can offer. Second, I feel like at S&P I will be looking at contemporary data and problems that are very much relevant to current global financial and economic markets. Third, it feels like lately the financial markets and wall street type places, in general, are being a little bit frowned upon. I believe that with S&P some of that misunderstood reputation gets cleaned up. In a way, S&P restores the integrity of the financial world."

"Of course, wherever you go there will most likely be a difficult person to work with. Or, at least, someone you disagree with. It is part of the beauty of diversity. However, I have lived and worked in several different cities, including Monterrey, NYC, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Colorado, Ohio, Ecuador. This has given me exposure to people from all around the globe with a lot of different mindsets. Which has taught me to be versatile and a people person. In my experience, I have found that no matter who you are dealing with if you treat him with courtesy and respect and listen to what he or she has to say always puts people on your side and willing to come to an agreement and/or solution to whatever problem you are dealing with."

"I strongly believe that any conflict can be solved with a professional and respectful conversation where each side listens to one another. Problems are solved by talking them out. One time, we were at a meeting where I was the youngest attendant. I had a slight disagreement with one of the contractors on a minor technical thing. He immediately started calling me out on being younger and straight up asked for my credentials and why I was there. I calmly responded and the meeting went on until it was over. After the meeting, I looked for that man and had a deep conversation. I told him that I understood that there was a disagreement but that I never meant to take anything personally. We were all professionals there and that his attitude of calling me a "kid" and questioning me in front of everybody was a little bit unprofessional. I apologized if he felt that I was rude in disagreeing with him and assured him that I meant no disrespect. However, I did tell him that I hope that was the last time he disrespected me in that manner and expected the same professionalism from his side. We never had a problem again after that."

"One big problem with data is that it is never clean and ready to be analyzed. No matter what database you download you must make sure that all data makes sense, and nothing is amiss. In the financial industry, there is yet another level that amplifies this problem: the constant update of data. We are talking sometimes even minute to minute changes. Going through new data daily can be very time-consuming. An automated method to vouch for the data can be a difference-maker."

"I have always thought that treating anybody with courtesy and respect makes for a healthy relationship. However, this one time that alone wasn't enough. I was working on a very large project where my job was to make screens through which the whole process was controlled. I was directly in contact with the client and had to make sure that everything he wanted was on those screens. However, I started noticing that he would say things in a meeting and change them a few weeks later claiming he had said this new thing from the very beginning. I noticed this because I got in trouble at one of the project's checkpoints. He showed up on the day of the check-up claiming he said he wanted something quite different. To this day I am not sure if he did it on purpose to get something for cheaper or if he did in fact forget that he never mentioned it. To solve it of course I just worked extra hours for free. But the real solution is that I started carefully taking meeting minutes and dedicating a considerable amount of time to document everything that was said after every meeting. However, this can't be used as a defense mechanism once the customer changes something. Instead, I started making sure everybody got a copy of what was said in a friendly manner. At first, I thought this might come up a little bit as a passive-aggressive move. But it turned out that it helped the entire team a lot. Everybody was on the same page from then on and we had a lot fewer problems of this nature moving forward."

"Thinking back to the job description I saw and it caught my attention that the index manager will be supporting a very diversified team. Including the sales team, the marketing team, and client services. Not only that but I would be maintaining a direct relationship with the client. I know my previous experience has made this my specialty. These kinds of diversified teams were something I had to work with for years. I learn to achieve this coordination and balance by being very organized in my work, my agenda (meaning keeping records of meetings I attended), and my email inbox. This skill doesn't stop there. This organization will help in a duplicated kind of way because I am sure that it will be crucial to maintain organized files where the indices are calculated and updated."

"Working in such dynamic and diverse environments and industries has given me several new skills that I had to polish. The three top ones are the ability to work with a deadline in sight, there was hardly ever any room for delays. The ability to recognize where a certain tool can be useful, sometimes there are tools developed for some other task that with a little twitch can be applied to another task. And, the most important one, organization skills focused on communication. It is hard to deal with different teams and different people and keep track of what is being said and to whom. And also, who hasn't heard something that should. Keeping good and effective documentation of this sort of thing is something that I learned the hard way and that I am really proud of."

"When I was working in NY they had a system that was constantly gathering information about certain very crucial variables in the process. However, they were having problems that made the system less than perfectly efficient. The system would stop every once in a while, seemingly at random and it was necessary to start it back up, which is a waste of time. I suggested we install a temporary server to be able to look at the data. After a few weeks, I came back and gathered the data from that server and looked at it. While analyzing it and looking at graphs it became evident that the problem wasn't at all random. It seemed like especially when there were times of strong volatility in the data the system would fail. Looking at this I suggested they let me look at the communications programming. I indeed found that data was only being communicated when there was a change, ergo increased volatility increased comms flow, and that it wasn't being handled properly. This saturated the comms cards and everything failed. I reprogrammed all of this and I never heard of a problem with them again."

"Tight deadlines were an everyday thing in my previous job. I particularly remember one occasion where a software acceptance test was coming close. My task was to develop screens through which the whole process is controlled. Suddenly the date for the acceptance test was moved 3 weeks. I realized that put me in a very delicate position. Since I was in San Antonio and the acceptance test was going to take place at a fellow contractor's site in Houston, I kindly contacted them and ask if I could be allowed to work directly on their servers because that would save the time of moving the developed files later. Furthermore, I asked my boss to assign another developer to my team and to let me take him with me to Houston. Even more, when we finally got there the next day I noticed that the conditions weren't very comfortable. There was no way my team could meet those deadlines without proper equipment. So, I headed to Home Depot and purchased some tables, chairs, and even computer screens to make sure my team was working at its top capacity. I also provided them with breakfast and lunch daily (expensive ones too) to keep them going strong. Fortunately, my boss agreed to reimburse all these expenses once the deadline was successfully met."

"Being both an economist and an engineer I consider I have a wide variety of tools available. Beginning with my understanding of pseudocode, helps me take advantage of deeper tools within certain environments. Like excel VBA. However, I can also complement this with python tools that can manage the database more efficiently and then write it back to an excel readable file. Lastly, one of the tools that have helped me in almost every chapter of my life has been the correct use of regular expressions. My economic background provides further complementing mathematical and econometrical tools that allow me to be able to understand and design even more complex algorithms. Since I can take advantage of statistical and probabilistic concepts as well."

"My experience with Machine learning is mostly academic. I see this tool as an excellent opportunity to automate processes. Building tools that effectively save time and man-hours to the company has been my specialty in my previous professional experience. So, If hired for this role I would be intensely yearning to learn more about it and put it to good use. After all, learning to do new and exciting things like this one to stay ahead of the game is what I am looking for."

"Of course, there is no single metric or ratio that can be relied solely upon. However, having to choose, I would go with solvency ratios. Specifically, the debt-to-equity ratio. Whatever the current problems of a company, these may be fixed with time. This metric tells you if the company really has time. Who knows what will happen to the company in ten years' time. But there is a better chance that those problems will be solved if the company still exists then."

"To me, customer service is the single most important aspect of almost any job. The way I see it I have the job thanks to her. So, what this means is that I must listen with attention and make sure she feels that I am putting all my energy and attention into implementing her needs and desires. And, in the end, listening and putting my skills to her service is both challenging and satisfying. I know there will be no better feeling than to help the client achieve her financial goals and leave her with a feeling of pure satisfaction."

"I've come to a point in my life where I am finally looking to settle down. I have lived in different places and met a lot of different people. In this timeframe, I am looking to get married and start a family so what I need are two things. The first is stability. S&P has proven to be an excellent company in this aspect, even though the recent crisis the company's reports hardly broke a sweat. The second is happiness. I believe S&P is the right place to do this because working in a job like this is the reason I left my previous career in the first place. So, I'll be happy and stable on the job which can only help in raising my family. If I were to settle down on a job I disliked the frustration and anger would absolutely overlap with my household, and that is a big no-no for my career goals."

"There is only one way to stay up to date on anything: reading. I love to read and I like to spend time every week to find worthy articles and read them. They can be academic or news sources. However, in the past 2 years, I haven't had access to all platforms. Most of the time they aren't free and the price of many of them can add up quickly, especially to a student. Nevertheless, I can only imagine the sources of information that I will have access to as an employee at S&P. I am really looking forward to that kind of information."

"Well, in my previous job I would find a way to visualize most of the data. Usually graphing was the easiest solution and most of the time it is easy to see an outlier data entry. However, during my master's I immediately noticed that financial data is a lot more volatile and this is not always enough. Obviously, software that works with SQL automatically checks the data to make sure it complies with the rules assigned to it. Inspired by this I have experience designing algorithms that make sure every entry in a column or variable complies with certain rules as necessary. I also like to, when possible of course, get the data from a second source and compare it. Either using aggregate measures like average, standard deviation, etc. Or with a designed algorithm."

"Vouching. That is not a term I use too much but I am familiar with it, yes. It means when you verify some of the data. Obviously, it is pointless and impossible to check a database row by row but spot-checking against a second source can sometimes be very useful."