My last bloody interview in New York City

The night before the interviews I was housed at Hilton Sheraton just two blocks away from the World Financial Center, and boy the view from the hotel was awesome! I had a view of the former World Trade Center, and the whole place looked like Manhattan that I had seen in the movies. I thanked God for the opportunity, studied alittle bit, and went straight to sleep.

So I made it to the Merrill Lynch Offices for the Superday, and I saw a long long line of candidates from various universities including Harvard, Yale, UT, Drexel, and other 2nd year and 3rd year analysts from competing banks. Everyone seemed to be reading that morning's WSJ and we all looked so nervous, and I could tell from the looks on the faces of the recruiters that something just wasn't right.

Anyway, my interviews lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 12: noon, and my flight was scheduled for Atlanta for 4:00 p.m. that day. I interviewed with two guys from the Financial Sponsors group, one from equity-linked securities, and another from the retail group. I did my best tried to establish quick rapport, and I knew I nailed those interviews.

On my way back home, I met one of my buddies from Emory that made the final cut, and we spoke about the interviews. We both looked puzzled and I could tell that one of us was going to get cut. We boarded the plane, I had a long dose, and when we arrived at Atlanta, my phone buzzed.. I got a phone call..

"Thadonmega.. This is xxxxx, and I just wanted to pass the good news to you! Everyone liked you and we all thought you were a great fit for the firm and we would like to have you speak with a few more bankers after thanksgiving."

The email said that the interview was the final round interview and that was it. Now this lady is inviting me back for another final round interview. It turns out that out of 100 or so candidates that day, they picked out only 10 to compete for a few spots in the 2007 analyst class.

From my Morgan Stanley interview after the final round was the "sell day" so I honestly thought that was the sell day interview where I got to choose my groups, but I guess I was in for a huge surprise.