During the interview process the discussion focused on the firm's current practices, what the responsibilities of the role involved and how my experience fit with the responsibilities. At the end, I was asked to take a test. The test was to "edit" an investor letter. The letter was full of errors, including grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, confusing voice and even words out of context. As someone who has been writing all my life, starting in my middle school gifted program and continuing as an english major at a selective university, it didn't even occur to me that the test could be too difficult. However, I took it seriously and read it carefully and considered the problems. Then I did my best to correct the items I believed needed to be corrected. If anything, I think I over-edited the piece. I am not sure what happened but my recruiter told me that HR told her I failed the test. Notwithstanding how well the interview portion went, I could not proceed unless I passed the "edit" test. Very arbitrary. Was their some hidden issue that I missed? My recruiter told me that had I passed, I would have gone on to the next step of the process, a personality test. And then if my personality matched what they were looking for, I would go on to another skills test where they analyzed my ability to actually perform due diligence on a fund. It was an interesting process, to say the least.
