Finance world is seeing double

Simon (left) and Mark Wilkinson have identical qualifications, making it 'a bit funny' going for job interviews. Photo / Christine Cornege

They are identical twin brothers who for years have pulled fast ones on their mates and colleagues trying to tell which one is which.

And now it's the financial world doing a double take as Mark and Simon Wilkinson apply for the same positions at the same companies - often going for job interviews on the same day.

It's hard to tell the 22-year-old brothers apart. The pair have the same manner of speech, the same teeth, the same haircuts, the same sunglasses and even wear the same watches.

They have the same friends, live in the same house, like the same sports and sat the same subjects at Waikato University's Management School over the past five years - where they both got an A minus average.

The twins from Cambridge also won the same award - a $750 prize for their dissertation on capital markets, sponsored by the Reserve Bank, the Treasury and the Ministry of Economic Development.

So now they're about to graduate with their masters degree in applied economics and finance it would make sense to go for the same job, right?

"We thought 'yeah, why not' but it is a bit funny going for interviews at the moment," said Simon.

"We did these assessment tests at the ANZ and I was on the day before he was and they were saying 'please don't tell him all the stuff that's in the test' and I'm like 'no way, we're competing for the same job'."

They say they are "hugely competitive" with each other but wouldn't mind working together - or one under the other - if the opportunity arose.

They have already worked together at their father's Hamilton pneumatics company and at a petrol station in Cambridge.

Mark and Simon put their similar tastes down to their upbringing. They say their younger brother Paul is studying exactly the same subjects that they did and has similar interests.

"Other twins we know really go out of their way to do different things but we ... have always enjoyed the same things," said Simon.