I had a promising start with my interview at Euc, beginning with an initial call with Claude, the recruiter. Claude was fantastic—welcoming and engaging, which set a positive tone for the process. We discussed my career history and motivations in-depth, which I appreciated since I had put a lot of effort into my application. Claude explained the interview process and invited me to the second stage, which involved completing a task to present to the hiring managers. The task included three sections: complaint management, KPI setting, and a headcount forecast based on provided data points. The forecasting element of the task, however, was quite sparce. The data provided for the forecast was limited to external factors, lacking the foundational contact data needed for an accurate headcount forecast. In my task, I detailed an industry-standard approach, setting out in two pages how to use an Erlang algorithm to establish the foundation using Average Handle Times and Contact Volumes; critical elements for contact centre forecasting. I then explained how to incorporate “seasonal” or secondary data, such as new product increases which was the data provided, to fine-tune the forecast. My experience in other scale-ups has shown how essential it is to differentiate forecasting for customer service teams and using industry standard methodologies, as treating it the same as other teams often leads to big inaccuracies, either overshooting headcount and costs or undershooting, which impacts customer experience. I also highlighted that the data provided couldn’t yield an accurate forecast - which would defeat the object of completing a forecast as otherwise it's just a finger in the air guess! Despite this, I received a general rejection email three days later without the chance to present my work. After following up for feedback, I was told that I hadn’t “completed” the forecast element, despite the limitations of the data provided. The experience left me with the impression that data accuracy and comprehensive feedback might not be Euc’s focus, which was disappointing given the initial positive interactions.