Long process, had a half day interview and then progressed to a full day assessment centre. The assessment centre was not well organised and we were left alone in a room for ages with no idea what was coming up next. We also had a meal the night before the interview and a lot of the employees who were supposed to be there didn’t turn up, so first impression was not good. Didn’t feel like a friendly environment and I have been to much better assessment centres. I did not even want the job at the end of the day my impressions were that bad.
I applied online. I interviewed at Mars (Loughborough, England) in Nov 2015
Interview
Graduates were invited for a combined technical and general interview. I would describe the technical questions as focusing largely on chemical engineering knowledge. The general interview questions were along the lines of 'describe a time when you...'
The graduates responsible for ushering the interviewees around weren't particularly positive about the company but the interviewers were friendly and professional.
The technical interview tested a very particular range of knowledge so I would advise any non-chemical engineers to prepare properly.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Mars (Wodonga) in Apr 2016
Interview
1. Online Application
2. Online Testing - Easiest online testing I had completed by far out of the majority of other graduate applications
3. Video Interview - 15 secs to read, 2 mins to answer. Can be quite tough if it is your first time using vieple. Questions were standard and expected, closely aligned to the 5 principles.
4. Assessment Centre (Syd or Mel):
Again not a particularly challenging process, 3 hour AC consisted of maybe 50 minutes of actually assessed content, rest was them talking and waiting around for your turn to do the individual presentation:
- Group based case study
Very general, so be prepared to talk about brand placement, etc. They want to see your EQ not just your IQ
- Individual presentation
Almost like an interview but alot easier, given 10 minutes to prepare a 3min pitch answering three questions (Who are you, what is your biggest strength & what have you learnt about yourself recently)
5. Final Round (Wodonga):
Things get challenging and competitive, all the candidates involved in this round are very high caliber. Only 2/5 activities planned for the day are formally assessed. Dinner with all other candidates and mars directors & leaders the night before certainly took the edge off, having already met your assessors.
Interview:
Fairly stock standard interview format, very structured and rigid again based on the 5 principles, probing questions designed to dissect the smallest hint of blowing things up beyond what they actually were
Case study:
This was quite tough. 90min of prep time to create a 15min presentation using A0 paper and permanent markers. 30min to go a curveball was thrown in changing the situation you were reporting on. Actual case study material was lots of stats, faux email correspondence etc., no calculators allowed which would have made it alot easier to get some figures out. Most difficult aspect was that the presentation was not immediately after prep time, but about an hour later, so make sure your papers have enough info on them to get you by for 15mins.
Other activities are enjoyable and provide a god insight into mars' products and how they work.
Gave good feedback on final round performance and areas of improvement, phone call rejection rather than email was nice.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How have you taken these lessons learnt from this experience and applied them again in another context? (This followup question was asked after every question)