Recruitment Interview Questions & Answers

The interview process had five stages. This began with a 30 minute telephone conversation and then progressed onto a 45 minute long Skype call. After my application was progressed I made the first of three trips into Mayfair, London for face to face interviews. I met separately with four Managing Consultants and answered questions that mainly focused on conveying my personality to the interviewer. They were most concerned with establishing what I was like as a person, rather than determining if I would be able to do the job. Then, one week later, I met separately with the two directors of the company in a 90 minute interview that was very thorough. Finally, one week later, I returned to London to complete a 15 minute presentation about my knowledge of the recruitment industry and why I felt I was a credible candidate for this application process.

Tell us about the tasks you would expect to be conducting in your first month?
- There is very little information available on the intricacies of recruitment available online and therefore had I not done detailed preparation, I would have been stumped.

Dress in a navy suit and have a smart, professional haircut. Arrive 30 minutes early to establish where your interview will be (and grab a coffee for the nerves!). Read as much as is possible about the industry online beforehand. The trickiest questions were all industry specific.

Most importantly, however, is to be yourself. They are looking for a hard-working, honest, entrepreneurial minded individual and if you tick these criteria and give a good account of yourself on the day(s) you will be fine!

A beautiful, glass building in the centre of Mayfair. The interview was carried out in a very relaxed, informal manner and conveyed the laid back culture of the company despite the location of its offices.

The interview was conducted over the phone. The company responded to my job application on the date that the application was sent. The individual that I spoke to was very useful because they were very supportive throughout the application process and also went through my CV. They were attentive to my needs, for example the fact that I was working over the summer and they replied immediately after the phone call to arrange a meeting for the interview.

Where do you see yourself in the future, say in two to three years.

Phone interview, make sure that before you send a job application that you research the company, so that you know exactly what you're signing up for. This may sound stupid, but make sure that you know that you want this job because it gives you more of an incentive to work for the role.

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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.

After an initial phone interview, I was invited to their offices near Monument. There were questions about my CV and what I thought I could bring to the role. I then met with other senior figures within the company who asked general questions about my work background. The whole day was really informative, I was left with no questions about the role and as someone who has had few formal interviews, it was great experience for potential future interviews.

Where do you see yourself in the next three to five years?

I would advise anyone going for this role or something similar in recruitment that the role itself is not necessarily important. Recruiters will try and offer you other positions that are available, so remain firm on the position you applied for if that is the one you really want.

No Assessment Centre

I was interviewed by a senior member of the legal recruitment team, who previously worked in the city as a lawyer. He asked several key questions surrounding my ambitions to orogress, why their firm and the training that could be offered. It was a real challenge as the atmosphere was very intense and extensive preparation about the company is required. Mostly questions will be drawn from your CV yet I would recommend checking the culture of the firm as they are very corporate before arriving to see if it would be the correct fit.

What is the average day in the life of a 2 year qualified consultant with this firm?

Know your CV, understand the legal sector of recruitment and what makes it different, the legal sector is much more fast paced in a lot of regards and you need to be able to be comfortable conversing with some top performing people on the city, if you don't have the confidence to do that then this isn't the job for you, dress smart, have a good answer for exactly why London and this sector. This interview is very intense however with the correct preparation you can get through it! I was very nervous going in and I think they picked up on that but the conversation began to run smoothly after a while. It's just about being able to explain exactly why you want to do the role and being confident that you have the right personality to succeed.

A large majority of the interview consisted of competency based questions and questions such as: why London? What makes Taylor Root different etc.

The initial telephone interview was very brief, and asked a standard set of questions: Why Recruitment? Why Hays? and so on.

A one-on-one interview was arranged for the next morning. This lasted about half an hour. Involved a more detailed look over my CV, alongside a short role play of a recruitment scenario.

Was invited to attend assessment centre the next day.

Nothing particularly hard; role play was most challenging as hadn't done that before.

Don't forget it's a sales role; in any role play/scenario you should get something positive out of it. Getting your candidate (in the scenario) an interview is ideal.

The assessment centre is the most challenging part by far. I would really recommend practicing some role-play or general recruitment phone calls with somebody if possible - don't get flustered by an objection which you should be able to overcome.

Arrived at Recruitment Centre in London at 8:30. There was about 17 people there. First exercise you were given a short period of time to either agree or disagree with a generic statement about business/recruitment. This was fairly tough, albeit only as I was first. Those at the end of the table had a good 8 minutes to prepare in contrast to my 30 seconds.

Secondly, the group split into two. One takes a tour around the office and talks to some current staff. Members of the other group are given a CV each of varying strength. Asked to rank them in order of quality, then perform an individual exercise trying to sell the candidate to the client. Remember to sell the interview and you'll be fine; be persistent! Groups then rotate around.

Thirdly, you are assigned a random recruitment scenario as you go to the front of the room for a role-play. You've got no time to prepare for this one. Just remember to get something positive out of it and you'll be fine; don't forget to use creative license.

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Lastly, we were told to write a job spec for a trainee recruitment consultant whilst they go out of the room to decide who is through to the final interviews. This task is essentially pointless as far as I can work, as if you're out it won't get looked at (and probably doesn't if you get through).

I was invited back for final interviews (same day). This involved 3 interviews with members of the sector in which I would be placed. Roughly, I'd say they were done to test 1) Motivation 2) Sales ability / How you'd fit in 3) Personality (although there was definitely crossover between all 3 people interviewing).

Didn't find the final interviews particularly challenging, as long as you're aware of your CV and past you should be ok.

I was told I'd hear back the following Monday although had nothing. Attempted to chase them up later in the week and couldn't get through to the internal recruiter. Sent an e-mail and arranged to speak the next day, although was busy again when I phoned. Asked for feedback via email finally although had nothing since.

In my initial phone interview they wanted to make sure I knew what the role was and was comfortable doing it. They asked questions like would you be able to support yourself on 16-18k the first year in a new place (ie. Bristol). They didn't want people dropping out as they couldn't afford to live. They wanted evidence of self motivation, happy to work in an individual role, evidence that you are money motivated. Not so much asking for experience, but when we were talking about the role as in why I applied I would say certain things and they would go "Ahh so you are self motivated!" "Ahh so you are money motivated!" etc..

The most difficult question would probably be in one of the tasks when doing a mock exercise as a recruitment consultant the intimidating mock client when told that we had a wider range of graduates than our competitors, announced he was in talks with recruitment businesses just as big and professional as us, what makes us stand out? As we had not started a career as Recruitment Consultants yet, our team was a bit stumped how to answer this and we were only able to offer whimsical suggestions.

Be really confidant straight away, talk to the other guys who are interviewing with you, don't see them as competitors. It's an interview, but also a great chance to social network with people interested in the same career as you. I have stayed in touch with four people from my interview and we have all tried to let each other know about jobs that are available. If you are moving to a new city it's a great way to meet people as well! From a purely interview perspective then the people you are speaking to may be doing the tasks with later, it's to your advantageous to already have a rapport in order to do tasks!

As much as it is not about the facts they give you for tasks, rather how you approach people, make sure you pick up the key tasks! There is nothing worse than when they ask you where a graduate works and you guess London! (Even if it is London!)

In groups of three we had to sell ourselves to a company looking for 5 graduates to use us and then see if there were any deals e can do ie. use us permanently or get a higher price.

The next task was individual where we met with a graduate and tried to convince them to take a job.

The next task was in groups of three again and it was doing problem solving, so hard issues by clients and graduates came up, played by the interviewers, that we had to deal with them accordingly.

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?

There was an initial phone interview, which I wasn't aware of as I only rang back for further details. It was a graduate recruitment member of their team and lasted about 25 minutes. About why I would be good at the job, what my strengths are, what qualities I think an individual in recruitment should possess and where I see myself in the future including the most important factors to myself. This was followed by feedback and an invitation to the group exercise/interviews the following day.

There were a large group of graduates, we each stood up to introduce ourselves. Then were put into groups where we had to try an exercise to influence the others to our point of view and evaluate how well we had done.
Then each graduate had to stand up for a 1 minute debate on a given subject.
After this step some were asked to leave as they hadn't been successful.
After this there was a interview with a panel of two interviewers.
Then feedback on the interview, and finally questions on where I want to be within the sector and finally I was invited back next week for a training day.

Out of everyone here, why are you the best for recruitment and what marks you out as different?

Be confident, don't be intimidated by the other candidates because in all likelihood, never mind how good they seem, you equally managed to get to that step so you are just as good, if not better, than everyone else. Believe in yourself and remember it does not matter what others think of you, just be yourself.

Described above.

The phone interview was relatively simple, they ask questions about your experience and why you want to work in recruitment.

The interview lasted for around 10 -15 minutes. I was asked questions such as tell me about yourself, I was asked to take the recruiter through my CV, I was asked to give examples demonstrating that I was motivated and resilient and I was asked to explain why I was money motivated.

I received feedback immediately after and was invited to an assessment centre the following week.

The most difficult question was why you want to work in recruitment. They want you to have strong reasons and specific answers. Before the interview they provided a PDF document which basically told you want they want to hear. They want you to be money motivated and know what you want to do with the money and interested in career progression.

Read over all of the documents they send and if you're not given feedback after your phone interview ask for some as it gives you an idea what they are looking for in the assessment centre. Try to be confident or at least show that you are as the people that did in my assessment centre made it through to the next stage.

The assessment centre involved group tasks followed by a one on one interview if you are successful in the group stage.

The day lasted for around 3-4 hours. On my assessment day there were just over 10 people. Before you begin you are seated in a waiting area giving you time to get to know the other candidates. We were there for around 30 minutes longer than the time they said it would start. Eventually someone came through and took us to a room just off to the side.

They ask you to fill out a form and attach your cv to it. We watched a presentation about the company and the roles they recruit for. We were then asked to introduce our selves to everyone and give a fun fact about something other than ourselves.

One of the group tasks was to rate statements inividually then in groups of 3-4 come to an agreement on the ratings. I assume this was to test our negotiation and persuasion skills. Another of the tasks involved splitting into two and selling the person you are partnered with. You have to relay their experience and skills in relation to the role they are interested in. I think the people that performed best where those that really tried to sell the person instead of just giving information about them.

After a break, in a sort of x-factor like fashion they split the group and took half of us outside. When outside they told us we will not be making it to the next stage. I found this quite dramatic and it was unfortunate that I did not get to have a one to one interview to really sell myself. Overall the experience with graduate recruitment was OK, it was my first assessment centre and it's given me an idea of what to expect for future ones. Hopefully other assessment centres give you the opportunity to be assessed on a full range of activities not just what I thought were a few basic group tasks.