1. What is a Research Analyst at and Huntington?

Stepping into the role of a Research Analyst—specifically operating as a Commercial Bank Data and Insights Analyst—at and Huntington means becoming a crucial driver of data-informed strategy within the commercial banking sector. This position is central to how the bank understands its commercial clients, optimizes its lending portfolios, and identifies new revenue opportunities. You will be transforming raw financial and operational data into actionable insights that directly influence high-level business decisions.

Your impact in this role extends across multiple product lines and teams based out of the Columbus, OH headquarters and beyond. By analyzing market trends, client behavior, and internal performance metrics, you empower commercial banking leaders to refine their go-to-market strategies and improve client experiences. The scale of the data is massive, and the complexity of commercial banking products requires a sharp analytical mind capable of navigating ambiguity.

Expect a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment where your findings will be heavily scrutinized and relied upon. The and Huntington team values analysts who do not just pull numbers, but who can craft a compelling narrative around what those numbers mean for the business. You will be expected to act as a strategic partner, bridging the gap between deep technical data extraction and executive-level business strategy.

2. Common Interview Questions

3. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for your interview requires a balanced approach, as and Huntington evaluates candidates on both their technical rigor and their commercial banking intuition. You should approach your preparation by mastering a few core competencies that interviewers will consistently test.

Technical & Data Fluency – This evaluates your ability to extract, manipulate, and visualize complex datasets. Interviewers at and Huntington want to see your proficiency in SQL, Excel, and visualization tools like Tableau or PowerBI. You can demonstrate strength here by clearly explaining your data-cleaning processes and how you ensure data integrity before running analyses.

Commercial Banking Acumen – This criterion measures your understanding of the financial services industry, specifically commercial lending, treasury management, and risk. Interviewers evaluate this by asking how you would approach specific banking scenarios. Strong candidates will proactively use banking terminology and show an understanding of how macroeconomic factors impact commercial clients.

Problem-Solving Ability – This assesses how you structure ambiguous business questions into logical, data-driven frameworks. You will be evaluated on your analytical methodology rather than just getting the "right" answer. Demonstrate this by thinking out loud, outlining your assumptions, and explaining the step-by-step logic you would use to solve a case study.

Stakeholder Communication – This looks at your capacity to translate complex data into simple, actionable insights for non-technical banking executives. Interviewers will test this through behavioral questions and presentation exercises. You can excel here by using the STAR method and focusing heavily on the business impact of your past analytical projects.

4. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for the Commercial Bank Data and Insights Analyst role at and Huntington is designed to be thorough, testing both your technical capabilities and your cultural alignment with the bank. Typically, the process begins with an initial HR phone screen, which is conversational and focuses on your background, salary expectations, and basic qualifications. This is followed by a hiring manager interview, which dives deeper into your resume and assesses your high-level understanding of commercial banking data.

If you pass the initial screens, you will usually face a technical assessment or a take-home data case study. This stage is highly pragmatic, asking you to perform data manipulation, write SQL queries, or build a basic dashboard using a sample dataset representative of actual and Huntington commercial banking data. The final round consists of a panel interview where you will present your case study findings and face a mix of behavioral, technical, and situational questions from various stakeholders, including product managers and senior analysts.

Throughout the process, the bank places a heavy emphasis on collaboration and user focus. Interviewers want to see how you handle pushback on your data insights and how effectively you can partner with commercial bankers who may not have a technical background. The rigor is high, but the atmosphere is generally supportive and focused on discovering how you think rather than trying to trick you with obscure technical trivia.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression of the and Huntington interview process, from the initial recruiter screen through the technical assessment and final panel rounds. You should use this to pace your preparation, focusing first on your behavioral narrative and banking acumen before diving deeply into SQL and case study practice for the later stages. Keep in mind that the exact sequence may vary slightly depending on the specific commercial banking team you are interviewing with.