<p>I recently interviewed with Barclays Capital and (BoA) Merrill Lynch, both for IT, at a career fair. Both interviews went very well. I was invited to dinner by ML with a bunch of senior VPs and about 20 other prospective full time employees (some intern candidates as well). </p>
<p>For the first round ML interview the guy seemed to like me, noting that I had a lot of practical experience in my field (=software dev jobs @ college). He told me that he would give me a call in half an hour to meet with his colleague (which didn't happen due to his busy schedule, see later). He did call me an hour later and told me to come to the reception+dinner they were hosting for candidates. At the dinner (which was casual but I maintained professional behavior since you never know), a HR rep told me out of 1000 who applied, they interviewed 200 and out of those, 30 were invited to the dinner.</p>
<p>The second "round" which took place the next day really did not seem like an interview; although I'm sure it was evaluative. Basically, I met with my first interviewer's colleague whom I was supposed to have met with during the previous day. He seemed like he was just trying to get to know me better. He did ask about some of my projects but did not grill me like the first one. He told me I would be notified about acceptance decisions in a few days. Before I left, he asked me whether I was interviewing with any other firms and I told him that I had a final round interview with Barclays Capital that afternoon. He wished me luck and told me, "I hope you choose us." </p>
<p>Which brings me to the Barclays interview which actually happened before my second interview with ML. I interviewed with a senior manager in IT who asked me a lot of technical questions and lastly asked me if I were interested in the job. I said I am very interested in the job, and he told me he would set me up with another person to "get a second opinion." When I told him I had to leave in a few hours due to travel restrictions, he got the HR to arrange an interview before I left. </p>
<p>The second interview with Barclays was with another senior manager but in foreign exchange. It was extremely brief; he told me from the start that he makes his interviews really short. Basically he just looked over my resume, asked me some about my past projects and then told me, "Okay, this looks good. I'm going to tell [the first interviewer] that I liked what I saw." </p>
<p>Could someone offer any insight as to how good of a chance I have at landing these internships? I spoke confidently and enthusiastically, and managed even to crack some (appropriate) jokes.</p>
<p>Also, if I ever am lucky enough to get both offers, I have to choose. Both jobs are similar, although Barclays seemed busier. Any advice please..</p>