An application form (often with 2-4 250-word questions relating to the job included)
Situational, verbal and numerical reasoning tests
A phone interview or video interview
An assessment day comprising a group excercise, presentation or HR interview and more tests.
a final interview with a senior member of staff. (this is where I busted out of PwC)
It literally feels like a football tournament - group stage/ro16/quarters/semis/final!
Funnily enough with KPMG I did the app form, the tests and the 2-minute audio clip (their equivalent of a phone interview) - passed all of them - and then got an email from them telling me they were full up and couldn’t process me further - so it was all for nothing. Gutted!
On the plus side, given that apps. do take so long and involve so much, there’s a bit more ‘justification’ in being unemployed and having quit my journo job to chase these.
My advice. Don’t get a career. it’s overrated. Next move find something easy. Maybe admin. Could keep a spreadsheet up on pc and do nothing (see little annoyances thread).
Pretty pleased with how it went and if I’m honest, I’ll be quite surprised if I haven’t made it through. Well, OK, maybe that’s pushing it a bit, but I definitely feel like I performed to the best of my ability and that’s certainly all you can do.
We started off with a group excercise. Basically we were split into two groups of four given a bunch of flashcards with information on them about a fantasy civilisation buidling a pyramid or obelisk or something. It was basically a logic maths/puzzle where you had to work out on what day of the week their project was completed. You weren’t allowed to share your cards except through verbal communication so you had to establish how many days there were in the Monrovian week (or whatever this fictional civilisation were called) - how many ‘Schlibs’ they worked (which you could quickly work out to be their unit of time) and then work out how large the structure was, how many workers were on the building site, how many hours they worked etc. and factor in other idiosyncracies like their lunch break, the fact one of the builders didn’t work and was a foreman or whatever and the fact no-one worked on the fifth day of their week and whatnot. Then you just divide the structure volume by the labour output and hey presto, you’ve got your days it takes to finish.
We got the right answer and I thought I did well enough in terms of my contributions to the discussion. The other group fucked up and got the wrong answer so it was no walk in the park.
Next came the tests. Verbal reasoning I thought was fine. Maths was surprisingly tough. I managed to answer I think 24/32 of the questions and *think* I got most of them right. Apparently you’re not expected to finish so I don’t know what the pass mark will be. I ended up guessing the rest so some of it is in the lap of the Gods. If I fail, I think the maths will be what’s cost me. Still, everyone else had the same reaction and felt it was a tough test.
After that we did our SWOT analysis/presentation. I did mine on EasyJet which seemed like a pretty good choice. I was the only one who brought in handouts and stuff so hopefully that counted in my favour. However, I ran overtime by the most out of the group - so we’ll have to wait and see how significant that is to them. In terms of the presentation I thought I was probably the best of the four - but I’m not sure the presentation was something that counts for that much. Pretty sure the maths test is the most important factor.
Final thing was the HR interview which went well I feel. Nothing much to say about that. Typical ‘tell-me-about-a-time-when…’ competency stuff. Happy with my performance/wouldn’t do anything different blablabla.
So, yeah. Feeling fairly happy with all that.
Put it this way; if you could somehow guarantee that I’ve passed the maths test I’d genuinely be staggered if I didn’t get through. As it is I’d say I was the happy side of 50/50. Maybe 60/40 or so. But yeah. Done all I can for now.
We started off with a group excercise. Basically we were split into two groups of four given a bunch of flashcards with information on them about a fantasy civilisation buidling a pyramid or obelisk or something. It was basically a logic maths/puzzle where you had to work out on what day of the week their project was completed. You weren’t allowed to share your cards except through verbal communication so you had to establish how many days there were in the Monrovian week (or whatever this fictional civilisation were called) - how many ‘Schlibs’ they worked (which you could quickly work out to be their unit of time) and then work out how large the structure was, how many workers were on the building site, how many hours they worked etc. and factor in other idiosyncracies like their lunch break, the fact one of the builders didn’t work and was a foreman or whatever and the fact no-one worked on the fifth day of their week and whatnot. Then you just divide the structure volume by the labour output and hey presto, you’ve got your days it takes to finish.
Jesus. I work construction. Someone rings you up and says, hi m8, you want to come work here for a bit? and you say yeah ok, and then you start on Monday.
I wouldn’t know where to start with Trampos logic puzzle, and I have done managing builds of loads of pyramids. You’d have to factor in that half ur worforce will be either lazy, incompetent, or call in sick, the supervisor/foreman bro will be worse than useless, the materials will arrive late, and be incorrect, someone will drop a hammer on their foot and H&S will shut site down for 2 weeks to investigate, the design plans ur working to will be incomplete, impractical, and be changed six times in the first week of build it’s a fkn minefield srs.
Hand relief is like doing all his typing and stuff yeah? So his hands don’t get tired? Sounds pretty cocher to me. Besides, 9.30 start = nice lie in compared to my current 8.00 start
They’ve nicked that and changed it. It is plagiarised from a project management training exercise called the Temple of Oova, which can be found in a book by Ian Stokes.
