I’ve been asked by one of my juniors to write a guide for interview preparation, and I am happy to oblige! It’s amazing that there actually exist people that are interested in what I write.
First of all you need to know that Interview preparation is all about research. You need to know about to company, you should know what to expect in the interview, the process, etc.
So if you’d split the research you need to do, you’d end up with 3 big components: Continue reading
Again this is a quite delayed post as I had this interview last week on Tuesday, the day after the Intel assessment centre.
I have to be honest I did not really enjoy this interview since as I have read before in preparation Microsoft just hires some people to ask you questions that have been typed off on some form and they read it off and type your answer. Nothing really friendly and ‘cold’ in a way not at all the way I imagined Microsoft to be.
The interview was basically split into 5 parts each of them concerning a certain characteristic that is important to succeed in their company. Motivation, Awareness, Confidence, Tact and Drive. In total it took precisely 45 minutes to complete it.
First of all before asking anything they ask you to confirm some data you have provided and remind you that they will request for proof if you pass. Then they explained that it is important to follow the STAR concept when answering the questions. Honestly do so, since I actually read that somebody had been rejected because of poorly structured answers.
One of the main reasons why I was so busy the past week was the fact that I got a call the same day that I got rejected from Nomura inviting me to an assessment centre for Intel. I actually got this call before I received the rejection from Nomura and even though I still had hopes them I immediately accepted the suggested date. Monday of the following week.
Compared to other companies application process Intel’s is much shorter it’s just:
Online application -> online test -> information request call -> assessment centre
But what amazed me the most was that the person that contacts you is actually your future supervisor. He is the person you communicate with.
Back to topic. The assessment centre entailed a 10 minute presentation, a competency based interview and a technical test.
Before I start to talk about my assessment I have to say that my assessment experience might differ from yours as I was the only applicant being tested. There had been another assessment centre with more applicants on the same day in the morning but I was not able to attend that.
Last week Friday 2 days after the actual assessment centre I received a call from on of the recruiters responsible for the placements. Since
it was a call I got my hopes up and thought I might have passed the assessment centre but this was not the case. I got rejected and ironically the
person that called me to inform me about the rejection was the one that introduced me to Nomura and made me want to work there.
Even though at that moment I wished she had just e-mailed me about the news in the end I was really happy about the fact that even though I was rejected
they still took the time to call me. They also provided me with extensive feedback.
Basically the way it works in Nomura is you only get the position if you managed to score a ‘distinctive’ in all or most of their areas. I don’t actually know what all of the
areas are but some of them are Initiative, Leadership and Teamwork.
Tomorrow is the day! This is how much I know about Nomura’s final stage for now:
There is going to be a group exercise and 2 interviews with competency based questions. Each of the interviews is going to take 45 minutes and I think the group exercise shouldn’t take more than that either. So in total, it will take about 2 1/4 hours.
In an attempt to combine my tendency to procrastinate and the need to revise facts and details about Nomura and myself I’ll just post it here while I’m researching. This will probably be very boring to you so I placed a cut here. Only read further if you’re interested in how I researched about Nomura and what I’m preparing myself for.
As I mentioned before I applied to various companies in hopes of getting a placement. This list will show you which ones have already replied, how long it took and what I had to do. Hopefully it will give you an idea of how long the replies from those companies take.
Application sent: 16/12/12
Process: On line Application form
Reply received: 08/01/13 – Telephone interview invitation (Note: I have withdrawn that application)
Application sent: 20/12/12
Process: Online Application form
Reply received: 02/01/13 – Telephone Interview invitation (Note: I have yet to receive a date)
Application sent: 31/12/12
Process: Online Application form + CV -> Inductive reasoning test
Reply received: 06/01/13 – Telephone Interview Invitation -> 30/01/13 Passed Telephone interview
Application sent: 12/12/12
Process: CV template + Online Application form -> IBM Information Processing Aptitude Test Online (IPAT/CAT) -> Assessment Centre -> Final interview
Reply received: 13/12/13 (IPAT invitation) -> 03/01/13 (Assessment centre invitation)
Today I got an e-mail from IBM stating if I can advance to the next round or not. As I wrote before in my opinion I did very badly, even though I believe I had a good presentation I barely contributed to the success of the group tasks. But apparently I was mistaken.
Today afternoon my university colleagues, that attended the assessment centre on the same day, told me that they had received their e-mails already, each of them getting rejected. Honestly I was really surprised since I was in the same group task as one of them and it seemed to me that he did really well. Both of them are quite confident individuals and very skilled at what they do.My e-mail arrived a few hours after theirs and,
I advanced to the next round!!
I honestly do not know why I passed the assessment centre but I am really happy. It is of course not guaranteed that I get a space as an intern there but I am one step closer to my goal. The only thing I can do right now is to wait for them to tell me a time for the last interview.
Yesterday I went to the Assessment Centre in Hursley. Just like they tell you in your invitation this entails 2 Group exercises, 1 IPAT test and 1 presentation.
In my case the order was the following, IPAT, Group, presentation. But I don’t know if that is the case for everyone.
If you actually completed the IPAT necessary to get into the Assessment centre yourself you won’t have any problem with solving the one they’ll give you there. So you don’t need to worry about that.
For the Group exercises instead you should certainly practice, or at least read through some examples to get the necessary mindset. Another thing you can do is pray that you get a good group, one that actually collaborates instead of jut wanting to get the placement themselves.
I unfortunately can’t actually tell you the questions they asked us to work through since it is all confidential.
For the presentation you’ll have to prepare the questions you were sent about a week and half before. In addition to that be 100% sure that you know what you wrote in your application for by heart. For people that actually lied in some cases this might be a problem point as the interviewer might ask about something you mentioned and if you can’t elaborate you’re screwed. So be sure you know about everything.
So now once again I’ll describe in what way I believe I completely sucked. Or in other words I’ll describe the mistakes I made.
Now when I was complaining about how hard the interview with Nomura was you have to consider that this was my very first interview so I did not have much experience. If the interview at Nomura was bad that the telephone interview with Bloomberg was a complete, absolute and epic disaster.
It was my very first telephone interview and absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. 2 days ago I received the call, I was already patiently waiting for it in front of my laptop (more like completely panicking). Then I still believed I was well prepared. But then the Software developer that was interviewing me started asking me questions.
Why did you choose to apply for Bloomberg? Continue reading
Contrary to other companies Nomura only requires you to fill an online application form and send them your CV + Cover letter. They will read your application and if they like it invite you to the first stage interview. Which means the process is as follows:
I honestly think that I completely screwed up the interview but at least you can get an idea about what kind of questions they ask.
The interview was held in their headquarters in London. When I arrived in the building I registered at the reception, received a visitors pass and was told to wait for the recruiter which will bring me to the interview. In the waiting area there were two other applicants already waiting. Thinking back I should have probably started a conversation to ease my mind a bit but I was too occupied with my interview preparation and shy.
About 5 minutes later me and the other applicants were lead to the interview rooms and on our way there we were told about the building.
Honestly it is a pretty nice building with about 6 floors in each of them a different department. It is even quite well known because of its environmentally friendly built. The only thing I do not like that much was the fact that is has a open office layout.
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