Honda Interview Questions & Answers

The first stage of the Honda Graduate Programme is to send your CV and cover letter. This should be tailored to the programme. The first things they ask you are to name two traits about yourself that you believe would make you a good candidate for the role.

Once you pass the initial stages (there was no online testing)you will receive a telephone interview. This lasted about 30 minutes. It was not a typical phone interview asking about your skills - it was more about explaining what the role would entail and what you would put into the role. They make it clear from the start that this is not really a Learning and Development programme, but is a real job from the first day. It is hard to mess up the telephone stage. They will invite you to an initial assessment centre. The new Head Office is in Bracknell, Berkshire where they will carry out interviews - this is also where you would work if successful. This consisted of 8 candidates and two assessors. You were first asked to do a short five minute presentation. Then, you would be presented with a case study and asked to resolve issues as a group. The key things to look out for are listening to others, remembering people's names, having intuitive ideas and ensuring that you answer the question given.

The next stage of the first assessment centre is a number of computer-based exercises. You will have to compose an email to a customer, use excel to analyse data and prioritise business scenarios and explain your answers.

If successful at this half day assessment centre, you will be invited back to a final assessment centre which will involve senior management. You will have to present to them and be interviewed more formally. This assessment centre is much more serious than the first one and is all day as opposed to half a day. This will be approximately 6 weeks after the first one.

I was asked if I fully understood the structure of the organisation, which I didn't as the organisation has so many different elements. It is crucial to carry out thorough research into this. Everything else was reasonably standard.

The emails I received from the company were riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. They spent far too long responding between different parts of the process - by the time they got back to me I had already been offered a different job.
The role seemed to be very hands on, whereas I would personally prefer a more integrative process where you learn along the way.
One tip is not to just apply if you are interested in cars because you need to have intuitive business accumin in order to do well in the exercises. You can do well if you come from any academic background, as long as you have taken part in a variety of extra curricular activities and demonstrated your ability to lead teams.

We started with an individual pre-prepared presentation about a proud achievement. This lasted five minutes. We then were given a case-study about the organisation and were asked to resolve issues, which we were given half an hour to discuss and formulate a solution.
We then carried out computer-based exercises for two hours which involved prioritising tasks, organising data on excel and creating charts, and writing an email to a customer. We also had to make a powerpoint presentation in which we would analyse a particular scenario with a client and the potential risks to the company if the issue was not resolved. This tests your awareness.