Perform Interview Questions & Answers

The first recruitment step that Perform employed was a detailed online application form. This consisted of all the standard application questions i.e. contact details, education, work experience, CV etc. It then moved on to ask you 5 specific questions regarding the sporting environment in which the company currently operates. They were predominantly based on sport and how technology is changing the way we consume sport and how we access it on a regular basis. The length required for each of these questions was around 400-500 words each. This was quite a time consuming process because it required you to take your time and really focus on what they were asking you. Upon completion, the company got back to me in about a month saying that I was successful in passing this stage and that they would like to invite me to an assessment centre, which I duly accepted. The assessment centre was nearly 2 months away from when they asked me. In that time I was required to complete a psychometric test in which the survey asked about various personality traits to try and match me to the job. This was a bit difficult at times as it required you to pick 3 statements from the list of 5, which reflected you best. But on most occasions, more than the 3 might have appealed to you so you had to really scrutinise about which options to choose.

Describe a time when you have shown entrepreneurial skills?

Prepare in advance for the assessment centre. The presentation was based about their products, so having a good knowledge of their products is useful.

Take your time during the presentation. I spoke way too quickly and ended up finishing in just a few minutes.

When the assessment centre finally came round, I travelled down to London where Perform booked a room for me in the Premier Inn the night before (Nice touch!) and they would later refund my travel expenses. The day began with a lot of waiting around as 2 people never showed up for the day. That left 10 of us, with 3 of us being selected at the end of the day.

The day started off with a group based activity. We were split into 2 groups of 5 and sent off to separate rooms with 4 assessors in each. We were then presented with several case studies in which to read through and then discuss in the group. This lasted about 50 mins with 4 case studies.

Next was some more waiting around, followed by a presentation. We were given 40 mins to read a case study and prepare a short 5 min presentation on a given subject. This was where I was let down because my presentation skills are significantly weaker than my other interview skills. You presented in front of another 3 assessors (different from the first activity). They would then each ask you a question after you presentation.

Next was a LONG lunch break as you waited for everyone to complete their presentations and then have lunch. I was first to present so I was sat there for around 2 hours.

Straight after lunch was the interviews with 2 assessors. They basically sat there with you and asked questions about your CV and your past work experiences. They then related this experience to some competency questions to see how you dealt with different scenarios. I usually interview well so I thought this stage went well. I then had to wait another hour because I was second to be interviewed.

The final stage of assessment was a 20 min numerical reasoning test which consisted of 18 questions. Some of which were fairly tricky, but that is to be expected. Most questions were based around percentage changes.

The Assessment centre then finished about 2 and a half hours earlier than expected which was a bit annoying because I had booked an advance train so could not catch an earlier one. So yet again I had more waiting around.

We were due to receive feedback at the start of the next week (the centre was held on a Thursday). But it got to the next Thursday I had not still heard anything. So I emailed them and they had "forgot" to get back to me, which didn't bode well. So the next day I got a sympathetic phone call from the lead assessor saying that I had not been successful and then tried to give me "detailed" feedback, which did not meet my expectations.

On the whole, it was a useful day to experience, but there was a lot of waiting around and I was expecting more feedback than "I showed good commercial awareness and the interviewers didn't say anything bad about you"