Initial phone interviews were fine, albeit somewhat disorganized. After initial calls, they would schedule calls for a week in advance where they would ask a single five minute question which could have been efficiently answered with a short email or an impromptu call.
After two months of phone calls, I was flown out to global HQ in NYC.
Interviewers ranged from friendly to grouchy to abrasive. The most senior MDs were friendly, whereas the junior MDs were abrasive and overcompensating. One interviewer spent his time telling me how he was a BSD at another big firm before coming here while belittling his colleagues, "Oh, yeah don't worry, they've never seen that type of money before I came here".
Several days of interviews revealed inconsistencies about material facts such as the group's AUM and bonus claw-back provisions.
Further due diligence with personal contacts, including previous candidates, uncovered a toxic culture of communication breakdowns, disorganised or incompetent managers, under-investment in basic trading infrastructure and extensive turf-wars over trivial non-P&L functions.
An offer followed which reflected both political infighting as well as the fact that they didn't do their homework about the hiring country's employment laws, and after another two months of negotiations, trying to get a straight answer from them about specific terms and trying to smooth over growing disagreements, internal politics and incompetence became too much to overcome and the feeling became mutual that this wasn't going to work.
I think I dodged a bullet.
I can't speak for other divisions within Jefferies but certainly this division needs to work on hiring honest, professional and capable management or it will never overcome its reputation as a third-tier bank.
