My experience with JP Morgan and Code For Good
Hey Guys, this is Ashwin, and here’s my experience with JP Morgan and the Code for Good hackathon.
This blog is probably for students who are still in college and looking for job opportunities in JPMC. You must read this blog as I would be discussing my learnings and strategies which you can use to make the best out of the whole Code for Good event.
PART-1
My whole experience with JP Morgan started in 3rd year when they came on campus to hire interns for the two months summer internship. The entire process took two months to complete: August, September.
The first round was a coding round. We had 2–3 questions, and almost all of them were based on problem-solving. As far as I remember, they didn’t ask any complex data structures. I was able to solve all of them. In just one question, some edge test cases didn’t pass. There was a little delay in declaring results for this round.
I got selected for round 2. This round was a face-to-face interview. There were panels, and the one I got was probably the worst amongst all of them.
In the interview, I felt that the interviewer was trying to grill me on something which I had no idea about. He was asking me proper Software Engineering questions, and I had no idea about that. I was asked to design a “lift” right from scratch. Umm, ok. I started with the requirements, moved to the algorithm part. Still, he wasn’t happy with what I answered. I guess he wanted me to follow proper Software Engg principles and then give a solution. Anyways, I wasn’t selected for further rounds. Sometimes, it’s hard to judge what went wrong in the interview.
Okay, now let me tell you about the other panel. He seemed to be a very experienced person, and the questions were mainly on resume, and apparently, from his panel, many students moved to round 3.
Learning: Never assume anything about the interview process and be prepared for the “worst.” In the past 2–3 years, I’ve given around 10+ interviews in big MNCs, and interviews have never been the way I assumed or expected to be. There might be a set of topics towards which a company is more inclined. However, it’s all about the interviewer and his mood.
PART-2
Now, let’s move to the experience with Code for Good(CFG).
For those who don’t know, CFG is a hackathon conducted by JP Morgan every year through which they hire, and this is an on-campus placement.
Before I begin, lemme tell you since the hackathon was completely virtual this time, the experience might be a little different from what was conducted offline every year. However, the essence of both remains the same.
️Round-1
The applications began in March 2020, followed by a Coding round. Again this round had 2–3 questions, and most of them were standard problem-solving questions. I managed to pass all the test cases in all the problems. If you are regular with solving DSA questions, you shouldn’t be worrying about this round.
Round-2
The next round was an online video interview round. So here, you will be redirected to a portal, where you will be asked two general questions. There will be an option to record your video there and then. You get 1 min to prepare and a max of two tries for every question.
In this round, they mainly check your communication skills and how passionate you are about your career. Expect to get questions like — “where do you see yourself in next 5 years?” (not the exact same though haha).
Round-3
Now it’s time for the actual Code For Good Hackathon. Around 42 students from my college were shortlisted to participate in this hack.
Let me give you a brief about this hack. The whole idea is to develop a solution for real-time problems faced by the NGOs. There were 4 NGOs that took part during my hack, and all of them presented their problem statement. We were supposed to analyze those, choose one of them(hold on.. you can’t choose just like that) and start working. And since everything was virtual, all the meetings were organized on Zoom.
Pre Hackathon Preparation
We got added to our team Github repo on 21st July. We all tried to find other teammates, made a Whatsapp group, and started interacting. It’s essential to know the technical strengths and weaknesses of all the teammates beforehand so that during the hackathon, we can divide the work efficiently. And this is what we all did in the initial conversations.
Our team discussions began, and we all tried to make plans and strategies.
Mistake: We assumed that the problem statement would mostly require a web application, and we mainly divided the team based on frontend and backend.
Learning: Be prepared for the worst as I said before. Try to find all possible tech domains which your teammates know. Mostly the problem statements require web apps/mobile apps however, it might also require tech like AR/VR, ML, etc.
Moving next, we had a couple of workshops conducted by JPMC. I found the workshops quite helpful. During these, you also get a chance to interact with people from JPMC, and altogether it was a good experience.
The night before the hack(Friday night) we were given a brief about the problem statements. Note that these were not the actual problem statements. There was not much that we could make out of those.
Learning: Make sure you have a nice sleep a day before the hack. Because the next day you can’t afford one.
Else..…
Learning: Sometimes, you need to put in extra effort to take the team along with you. As a team, we decided upon making the web application using React. And 2 of my teammates had no idea about the same. I took a 3-hour session for them the night before and made sure that they know all the basic workflows and are able to code during the hack.
🧔Mentors
Every team was assigned 2 mentors. They were mostly supposed to keep a check on whether everything is going as expected or not. They will also judge you based on your interactions and contribution to the team discussions.
Learning: Don’t hesitate to speak out while working in a team. You need to constantly show that you are contributing well enough to the team. Also, while doing so make sure that you don’t look dominating as it will altogether make your image negative.
📃Problem Statements
The actual problem statements were released on 25th July in the morning. We were supposed to analyze all of them and rank them in order of our preference.
Learning: Choose the problem statement considering various factors like skills possessed by your team, problem difficulty, the scope of innovation, etc. The biggest challenge is that you need to discuss asap and fill the form giving your preferences in order. Problems will be assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Planning and validation
Before starting the development, it is imperative to make a concrete plan and decide upon all the features. We had initially divided the team based on frontend and backend however, we realized that we might also need Whatsapp/Telegram bots and maybe an IVRS system as well. So things are always dynamic and we need to adapt accordingly.
Learning: The most important thing to do after making your plan is validation from the NGOs. 2–3 people from each NGO were available at their zoom meeting, and we were allowed to ask them questions, understand their requirements, etc. Now, the tricky part is that you need to ask questions in such a way that you don’t reveal your idea to other teams and also validate your solution at the same time.
👨💻 Development starts
Sooner, the development starts. Make sure all the teammates have some amount of work and everyone is contributing equally.
Try to finish your development work as soon as possible and give a good amount of time to presentations and videos as well. During my time, we were supposed to compile a demo video of our product which was played in front of the judges. They might also ask us some rebuttal questions as well after the video presentation.
Also, keep interacting in front of the team mentors and contribute to the team as much as possible. Do help others as well. It will help you in the end.
Learning: Your teammates might try to play some politics when it comes to fixing tech stack according to their comfortability. Make sure all these discussions are done well before the hackathon and you resort to using the same tech stacks wherever possible.
📞 Mentor Call
Before the presentation, you will also have a one-to-one mentor call. This is usually a small discussion about your hackathon experience. In my case, they didn’t ask me any technical questions or anything from my resume. I felt that it was one of the most important part of the whole event since mentors would be directly getting to know your experience, learnings, and access your personality. If you were a good team player then there will be people to back you up and appreciate your work in their mentor call. This could be an added advantage.
🎯 Results
Soon, the results were announced and we couldn’t make it to the winner's list.
But, hold on. It’s not just about the prize that you take away. Rather it’s about the new experience, the learnings, new friends, and relations that you make, your interaction with industry professionals, that will to work throughout the night and get the job done, late-night conversations with your teammates, and a lot of fun. You also get to learn how to deal with different kinds of people. So, in the end, regardless of you getting the prize or not, take away the amazing experience and great memories along with you.
In the end, I would say Code for Good is one of the best and easiest ways for getting a job at JPMC. And, you don’t even need to be a great developer for that. I can assure you that the experience will be one of its kind.
🙌 Post Results
Regardless of getting the job offer or not, I would request you not to make any opinions about the selection process or about your capabilities. There are a lot of factors considered while rolling out offers which we might not even know about. You might be a very strong candidate and still not land up with an offer and vice versa. I even got to know that from one of the winning teams this time, no one got an offer. So yeah, don’t assume anything based on results, just try to make the best out of this event, and don’t forget to take away good memories.
And just to let you know, I got the offer :D
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Let’s connect?
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ashwingoel
Website: https://ashwingoel.com
Email: goelashwin36@gmail.com
