Allegis Group Interview Questions & Answers

I was invited to come in for an interview following an initial phone screening process. The interview was actually very relaxed. As soon as I walked in the man interviewing me was very pleasant and friendly. I was asked a series of questions. These included what my strengths and weaknesses were. He also asked why I wanted to work in recruitment. He further asked where I could see myself in 5 years informing me that the company liked for candidates to have serious goals (such as owning a property). He also asked me situational questions such as examples where I had to be competitive or overcome difficulties. I had to show what sort of skills I had that would be best suited to the role (one of the things I said was that I am a great listener which is good for building relationships). Overall, I felt very confident and relaxed.

"What is your main strength and weakness?" This was a difficult question because you have to figure out a weakness without making yourself seem like any less of an ideal candidate.

This company is very interested in a good level of experience. Although I had about a years worth of experience in retail this was cited as the main reason for not being offered the role. I was told that other candidates displayed that they were able to progress onto management roles. Therefore I would advise having a good level of experience before considering applying.

when I arrived at the office I was met by a friendly receptionist who directed me to sit in the waiting area. After about 10 minutes my interviewer came to meet me. It was a one on one interview so it was just us two. The interview took place in a small room. The interview lasted about 20 minutes conisting of various questions, the most notable of which are mentioned above. It was generally a good experience.

The interview was not as nerve racking as I initially thought it would be. I received a great reception from the interviewer. The questions were pretty straightforward and no trick questions were asked. It was a one to one interview, therefore, you feel a bit more at ease than when other candidates are present. which can sometimes cause you to be tense.

Not difficult, competency based questions. An example will be when was the last time you demonstrated resilience?

Stay calm and show interest in the organization so prep in advance and have questions ready to ask them. Also if you didn't understand a question rather than making a mistake just asked the interviewer to repeat it again. Better to answer correctly than not answering it right at all.

No assessment was carried out on that day.

A fair bit of vague background knowledge was given via email, but very little as to what the morning would entail. As such I was told generic things such as 'Be prepared to explain where you see yourself ten years from now', and so on, despite most of it not being touched on in the group session. The morning involved a group exercise with approximately 18 candidates in total. First we were put into pairs and had to explain why your partner should get the job (in under a minute) which was a very interesting method and left me wondering how effective it was. Some partners for example simply didn't ask the right questions which didn't appear to be realised by the assessors, and so when a poor case was put forward I feel it was perhaps presumed that the partner who was being talked about simply wasn't well-suited. In our pairs we were then tasked with selling a generic product (for example, one option was 'a chocolate bar'), by putting a positive case forward for it. We had thirty seconds to do this in our pair. Both tasks were presented to assessors and the rest of the group. This ended the interview.

Selling an item was very difficult due to the extremely generic things people were given to sell ('a chair', 'a car') and the very limited timeframe that we were given (30 seconds) for two people to share.

Be prepared to enter a very sales-heavy interview. You'll need to not only sell yourself, but sell someone else and a random standard product. Practise your public speaking and your presentation skills so that you're not nervous. If you're not into the sales environment then this isn't for you at all.

It was a very business focussed atmosphere that started with a presentation from an executive that told us about the company's history and a brief description of the different roles in the company.

The initial telephone interview came out of the blue and i was notified that it would occur later that day with their internal recruiter. So i was given the time to do a quick research on the company, which was lucky as i couldn't remember applying or anything about them, and then had the interview lasted about 20 mins to half an hour. We discussed my current job and especially my sales techniques and how i keep myself motivated. A lot was made of what motivates me, one of the answers they wanted being money, and we discussed how my personal goals drive me to achieve.

What weakness do you have? Describe a time you had to give a colleague some honest critique. How did you go about it?

I would say to be extremely well prepared on competitors within the industry and be able to display your level of interest in such a career. There is a high turn over in the industry with people starting and failing in a short space of time, and so they want to make sure you know what it entails. Examples that show your resilience and also having examples of times you gave criticism will be key as a capacity for this is what they seek for in candidates. It was key to also follow the companies own interview tips that you can find on their website, one of these being to always ask them what you can do at the end of the interview what you can do for them as follow-up. This will really impress the interviewer and show your level of interest.

It wasn't an assessment centre as such but for the final interview it was a series of interviews with staff ranging from new recruiters to the executive director. There was also a lunch with a couple of recruiters to assess how personable you are. It was actually quite exhausting and entailed quite a bit of waiting around. It was a busy office and so this was understandable, but it was quite intense going from one interview to the next. Ultimately this lasted for a couple of hours. The questions were all along the same lines. What is your perception of the industry so far? What are your energy levels like on a scale of 1-10? Why do you want the job?

Communication: Initial contact with the interviewer was via email after I had shown interest in the role a couple of weeks beforehand. I was then contacted by the recruiter who had viewed my CV and wanted to know whether recruitment was a career that I wanted to pursue. At the time I did not know a whole lot about recruiting. However, I said that I hadn't ruled it out and would research the role thoroughly and reply within the next working day if I would like to start the interview process officially.

Commute: On the day of the interview I woke up and got the earlier train to ensure that I was there on time (11 a.m). The journey itself took about an hour and a half but while commuting I made sure to think about whether this journey would be manageable on a daily basis (both time and cost of travelling)

The interview: I was met by a lovely employee who was very welcoming who escorted me to the conference room where the one on one meeting was held. She made a brief introduction of herself and her role in the company (She had only been working for 9 months herself). She then went on to ask about my education; grades, extra-curricular activities etc. After noticing a slight dip in grades in comparison to my others she very politely asked if there was a reason for this. I briefly told her of some personal matters that had affected my grades in my first year of college (to which she completely understood). Fortunately these discrepancies were dwarfed by my university grades and overall result. She then focused on my work history in chronological order and asked about the skills that I had attained in each job. I replied to what I thought that they would like to hear as a recruitment agency e.g. good customer service skills, time management, multitasking and building professional relationships.After she was satisfied with looking at my CV she was very sure to tell me about the workload and the stress that can come with the job. After doing my research previously I was already aware of the extremely competitive nature in the recruitment business so was not deterred by her warnings and understood that she had to make sure that I was not going to quit at the first sign of trouble.

The whole interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and was rounded off with her asking whether I had any questions to which I replied with my usual pre-prepared list of (what is the day to day life like?, what have people gone on to accomplish after this role etc.) After giving very detailed and insightful answers I was told that the next step would be to come in for a second interview after some more senior staff had a chance to look over my CV with the interviewer to see if I was a suitable candidate to carry on to the next stage of interviews.

Can you describe a scenario in your work that shows you have overcome an obstacle in your work?

What is your weakest trait?

Pre-interview:

- Know the company and what they do (more specifically what your role would be within the company) You can never do too much research!

- It's always better to over-dress than under-dress. If you happen to be far more formal than needed all that shows is that you care enough to put in the effort which is never a bad thing

- Plan your journey! If you don't know the route very well or have to rely on public transport, allow plenty of time in case you get lost/get stuck in traffic/get on the wrong train. Again, showing up early is never a bad sign!

- Look at your CV and extract skills that you have learnt over both your education and work experience and apply those relevant skills to the job you are applying for

Interview:

- Smile and have good posture and if you can, try and make small talk. It means you are relaxed in a work environment and not daunted by meeting new people (which is kind of crucial in a sales career)

If nothing else, just enjoy yourself. There is always the possibility that you may not get the job. The best thing to do is learn from it (get feedback if you can) and apply it to your future interviews

As a general tip for every interview it is always a nice touch to send an email to your interviewer after the interview (probably not as soon as you leave the door) saying thank you for their time and that you're looking forward to hearing from them.

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After applying for the recruitment consultant position online, I received a telephone call a few weeks later. It was a quick phone conversation, ultimately asking why recruitment and why the Allegis group in particular.

Following on from this, I was then asked to come to their office for a face to face interview. It was arranged for the following week and a comprehensive interview pack was sent over via email. It was extremely thorough and proved really helpful (it basically told you the dos and dont's if you want to impress and want the role). The member of the recruitment team was really supportive with any further questions or queries I had related to the interview.

The actual interview itself lasted a (record breaking for me) 4 hours, but it flew by! The structure followed a one to one with different employees of the Allegis group. I met about 5 different people in total and all were really lovely. They would each introduce themselves, their role and how they are finding it. They would then ask questions related to my CV, my extra curriculum activities and really try to understand you as a person - including your motivations.

Each person I was interviewed by had different interview tactics, so each experience was different and the difficulty of each interview was diverse. It was a really challenging, but good interview experience.

I was given a scenario and I had to work out what the best option/route to take would be, and to explain why i thought that. It required you to think quickly and be confident in your response. The interviewer was extremely positive though and was supportive in my answer.

Be prepared to really sell your strengths, whilst being yourself - but be realistic and honest. Really understand why you want to work in recruitment, and don't be afraid to say for the money! Learn about the company and research what you think working in recruitment will involve and how you would fit that role.
Follow and stick to the interview preparation pack, it is really helpful!

In my personal experience, there wasn't an assessment centre, but just a series of one to one interviews.

THe first interview was via the phone, asking why you want to go into recruitment and what motivates you. You're then given lots of information about the company which comes in use for the next stage- the Skype interview. This lasts about 30-40 minutes and covers all the main competency questions, who the company are and their background as well as digging through your CV.

Describe a time when you worked incredibly hard and still failed, and what did you take from it?
What makes a good company?

Really research the group and their different sectors- they take a lot of pride in their company. Have some ideas as to how recruitment firms find candidates. Have lots of questions prepared as each interviewer expects you to ask a number of questions.

The assessment centre lasted about 2 hours, and involved being sat in a room and being interviewed 1 on 1 by 4 members of the team. Each interviewer asks similar questions and tries to gauge you as a person- what drives you and why you think you would be a valuable memeber of their team. One interviewer in particular was very tenacious and asked a couple of abtract questions regarding the number of bricks in England. However all the interveiwers were friendly and were open to questions.