Recruitment Interview Questions & Answers

First was an initial phone interview where I was challenged on my reasons for wanting the job and my skills and competencies. Other things discussed was my current situation (university, living arrangements etc). Then I was invited to attend the assessment day. Here, the day was composed of various stages and exercises. You had to pass each stage and you were assessed on each exercise on your abilities such as teamwork, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, communication etc. The final task was the last chance to really sell yourself to a small panel on why you should be chosen for the job.

Questions relating to the group exercise - reasons to back up your decisions made relating to the sample scenario.

Be absolutely realistic about the anticipated outcome. Don't get your hopes up too early (just because you pass the first few stages). You have to be incisive, punchy, and powerful from the second you start and you need to maintain this throughout. Be natural and take charge as soon as you get the chance to (group exercise!!) but not unprofessional where you end up shouting over everyone. Above all, you have to stand out, physically and verbally.

The first task was an elevator pitch where we had to introduce ourselves, our general background and most importantly why we want the job.

The second task was a paired exercise where we were required to question and converse with our partner on why they want the job, why they would be best suited to the job and also things to do with their general background, skills, competencies, education history etc. Our partner then had to do the same to us. Then we had to report back to the rest of the group. In essence, we had to effectively "sell" the individual we had a few minutes to learn about.

The third task was a group exercise where we were given a sample scenario and we had to effectively communicate with each other, work as a team, project our views etc to come to a final, group, informed decision.

The final task was a final chance to really sell yourself to a small panel. You had 20 minutes beforehand to prepare the 3 minute pitch. You had to really stamp out and emphasise why you should be given the job, how your skills, past jobs, past experiences relate to the job and why you would be best suited for it. The panel would then ask you questions. (In my case, they didn't ask me much!)

You had to PASS each stage.

Obviously, as with any other company, the first thing I have done was to send my CV and cover Letter. I then received a call from one of their recruiters just to have a brief chat and he sent me some information about the company and the role. He told me to call him back in case I was interested. As I was, I have done a phone interview where I was asked some general questions on my background and on why I wanted to join that company. Specifically they asked me why I wanted to take over that role and how I would have been successful doing it. After the telephone interview I was invited to an assessment center in their HQ in London. We were previously given a couple of short case studies that we had to read for the assessment day. That day we had 3 exercises. The first one was a group one where we had to acquire a potential client: we were given time to discuss as a group of three people and then we had to do the role-play. The second was a face-to-face interview where we were supposed to be the interviewer; we were given a couple of CVs and the job description. Individually we had to decide which CV fitted the best and then we had to sell the position bargaining on the salary. Lastly, we had to solve an issue. They gave some real life problems and we had to pretend to be on the phone to calm the situation. Overall, the assessment center lasted around 2 hours and we were 6 people. At the assessment center they invite people for any type of position: from the entry level ones to the more specialized ones. Candidates were then given a mark in different relevant categories.

I found extremely hard pretending to be an interviewer. As I have never done it before, I missed some fundamental questions.

If you are interested in applying for this company there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, as with any other company, make sure your CV is up to date with all the relevant information, and the cover letter is tailored to the needs of the company. You do not have to be an expert in Adecco or recruitment consulting, however, it is important to possess some knowledge on the subject. What Adecco does, how it is divided, how it operates, and how it differs from its competitors. During the phone interview, just be calm and confident. This is what they want to see I think: a friendly confident individual who does not have problems to talk on the phone. Be interesting, keep the conversation going and prepare a couple of questions to ask the interviewer when the interview is finished. You can ask him the team members, the culture of the company: show him you are interested in understanding better the philosophy of the agency. For the assessment day, I do not have any real good advice that I can give since I did not get the job. Nevertheless, I would say to meet with a friend of yours and pretend to interview him for a job. I think that people should do some more role-playing at home. Try to imagine having a conversation with the HR manager of a big company and attracting him to make a contract with Adecco. Always be polite, but confident and firm.

That day we had 3 exercises. The first one was a group one where we had to acquire a potential client: we were given time to discuss as a group of three people and then we had to do the role-play. The second was a face-to-face interview where we were supposed to be the interviewer; we were given a couple of CVs and the job description. Individually we had to decide which CV fitted the best and then we had to sell the position bargaining on the salary. Lastly, we had to solve an issue. They gave some real life problems and we had to pretend to be on the phone to calm the situation. Overall, the assessment center lasted around 2 hours and we were 6 people. At the assessment center they invite people for any type of position: from the entry level ones to the more specialized ones. Candidates were then given a mark in different relevant categories.

4 stage Interview processes

Stage 1 -Phone interview with internal recruiter, following the successful phone interview....

Stage 2 -I was invited to their London HQ for a face to face interview with their internal recruiter, we spoke about my CV, what I knew about recruitment and we did a role play.

Stage 3 -Assessment centre in Brighton, role plays again and we had to answer questions based on recruitment and the company.

Stage 4 -Face to face interview with the Regional Director at the office you will work from.

One question I found difficult as I can't really judge what the right answer is .. "Why Hays?"

Know what a recruiter does and for role plays ask good questions that will help. If you are selling candidate a service, ask questions before selling. Get them to tell you things and play off the things they tell you to sell.

Answer fact based questions about the company
Introduce yourself, describe your background, why recruitment and interesting facts about yourself.
Look at CV's and choose what candidate is best for a role and why.
Fake telephone call convincing a client to do business with you.

Broken down, the interview was made up of three parts; firstly an informal chat with one of the team members, followed by a second interview with the regional directors and finally an online questionnaire.

The first meeting was to establish what I was looking for in a role and what Michael Page were looking for in a candidate. The second meeting was more difficult and involved two role play activities based upon everyday scenarios. Finally came the online questionnaire, comprised of both personal and probing questions and some problem-solving tasks, which I found to be the most challenging part of the interview process.

A section of the interview consisted of trying to sell myself as a candidate in the third person. I found this particularly difficult as it is something I felt a little awkward doing.

Do your research of the company but more importantly research thoroughly the specific role you are going for and really be prepared to talk yourself up in front of strangers, something which can at first seem rather daunting.

I undertook two role playing activities in which I was given possible hiccups to deal with. For example, you have put somebody into a job role set to start next Monday. The candidate calls you the Friday before and explains they have accepted another role with anther company. My task was then to call the prospective employer, explain the situation and suggest possible solutions.

Initially I was contacted on the phone by a Manager at Eurostaff. they were interested in me based on my European language skills (German, French, English) as well as my diverse academic background (European Studies). The interview lasted about 30 minutes during which I was asked about my reasons for wanting to join a recruitment company and how I think I would be suited for the job. Having said that I sounded very confident and engaging (I did some research on Eurostaff, which always helps) I was invited to an interview at their London Headquarters a week later. The face-to-face interview with a different manager than the one undertaking the previous phone interview lasted for about an hour. We discussed my CV, my ambitions and what I thought a recruitment position required as well as financial matters. Since Eurostaff are a recruitment company focused on recruiting talent from European countries to join clients in the UK, they explained their company structure and the way they usually go about recruiting, as well as the level of targets they tend to set themselves (in my case they were looking for someone to recruit upper management from the financial sector in Germany and other German speaking countries.) A day later I was invited to meet the senior management staff which, unfortunately, never took place as we could never agree on a set time.

Having never worked in recruitment before, the most difficult question concerned my expectations i.e. "How many people do you think you will, on average, recruit in a month?"

Also, "what traits do you think a recruiter should have at Eurostaff." This question required knowledge not only of the recruitment process, but also what the Eurostaff environment looks like and how I thought I would fit in.

Thankfully no generic interview questions like "describe a mistake you made and how you dealt with it" were asked. Eurostaff focuses on the individual and the recruitment process rather than generic interviewing.

I have learned that recruitment companies are very good at selling themselves and often promise things they cannot keep. Unfortunately Eurostaff withdrew their interest after stringing interview dates with senior managers along for three weeks even though they showed fantastic interest in me during the initial face-to-face interview. Be prepared for setbacks and do not be afraid to ask directly how serious they are about strengthening their team.

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Initial telephone interview was first carried out, followed by an invitation to attend the assessment centre. Here, we did various exercises, first an elevator pitch, followed by a paired exercise, then a group exercise then a final individual pitch. The whole process from start to finish, lasted for just under 3 hours.

Those to do with the group exercise - where we were challenged on our decisions.

Be realistic about whether it would be best suited for the type of person you are, before agreeing to attend the assessment centre. It's simply not enough to have fantastic skills, abilities, talents, and good solid grades. You need to be able to really stand out from such a small group, physically and verbally.

N.B. You had to pass each stage to get to the next.

First task: had to briefly introduce ourselves, university, degree etc.

Second task: a paired exercise where we had to interview another individual and vice versa about some of their background, education, career aspirations etc. Then, we were required to present the individual we interviewed to the rest of the group.

Third task: a group exercise where we all had to work together to figure out how to overcome a given scenario.

Final stage: Given 20 minutes to prepare a 3 minute individual presentation as the final chance to really sell yourself (skills, abilities, ambitions, hobbies/interests, why you would be best suited for the job etc).

My initial telephone interview was very short. Having spoken to a very nice manager for this primarily IT oriented recruitment company for 15 minutes about why I think I would be a good recruiter, I was invited for a face-to-face interview at their office in London. Once there, I met with the same person who interviewed me over the phone. We talked about the company, the role I was interviewing for, and quickly drifted off topic into personal conversation. The "interview" lasted for about 1.5 hours during which I incorporated my past experiences to emphasize why I think I would be good for this position while a the same time keeping the conversation light and easy. The manager was impressed with my manner of speaking fluently and stepped out for 10 minutes to get a senior-manager who asked me some more direct questions including my language skills, why I would be suited for the role, what I have done in the past to communicate with people and what expectations I have of Templeton. Having interviewed on a Thursday I was invited to return on Monday for a final informal meeting with the owners. However, Monday past and I did not hear from Templeton until Wednesday when I was told that the owners, on Monday, decided to restructure the company and are not taking on any graduates at the time.

The interview with Templeton was the most informal interview I had ever attended with no difficult questions being asked. The managers did not expect you to know about the companies history or philosophy but rather only seemed interested in how comfortable you are holding a conversation with people you've never met before.

Templeton are looking for motivated and easy going people. A professional,friendly and approachable manner seem to be the main characteristics Templeton and Partners desire.

The company itself seemed rather small and the interview took place in a very small room 3 floors below the actual office space. The whole building appeared to be under renovation and the 12 employees were casually walking around with their wireless headsets. With a goal of breaking out of the UK recruitment market, Templeton employees spoke only English. I was told that my language skills, specifically German are of interest as they want to expand into the German market.

Initially, I had a brief telephone conversation with a member of the recruitment team. This was to identify my reasons for applying for the job, why i'm interested in the role and my key competencies. I was then invited to a group interview. There was 11 of us at the group interview, all with a diverse range of degrees and experience. We started with an ice breaker to introduce ourselves, this was simply telling everyone our name, our degree and which University we studied at. Next we were split into pairs. Our task was to pick any item from the room and to effectively sell it as the new must have item for 2013, without selling it's original function. For example, a pen could not be sold as a writing implement. We were given a short time to do this. We then presented our item to the group as well as 2 of the companies employees. Our final task was individual. We had to prepare an individual oral presentation on 'why I am suitable for this role'. Again, we were only given a short amount of time to do this. We had to give our presentation to the group as well as to the founder of the company and some of the higher managers. We was also asked to give an interesting fact about ourselves.This presentation was to last no longer than 60 seconds. Afterwards we were told we would be contacted by 4pm in regards to whether or not we were successful.

The paired task was very difficult. Although, our idea wasn't important and it was our presentation skills that were, it was difficult to come up with an initial idea.

Make an effort to stand out from a large group, don't fade into the background.

In a group interview certain individuals do stand out more, meaning that it is harder for others to get noticed.

It was really laid back and more of a chat about my expereinces rather than an interview. She informed me the second stage included a elevator pitch and competency questions, however even that would be laid back. I felt at ease with the interviewer, as if I was having a chat talking about my past roles and my study year abroad.

If you could choose any job role, which would you choose?

If your applying for a trainee office role, dont assume they will hire you and train you, they are still looking for previous experiences in individuals therefore making it more difficult to be successful if you havent got this.

There was no assessment centre in this interview.

I spoke to a member of human resources for this company on two occasions. Her approach was very conversational which allowed me to relax into the interview. I was asked about my intentions concerning a career within recruitment, and quizzed on my knowledge of the industry. The conversation lasted about 20mins, and concluded with a promise of a follow up phone interview. I believe this initial phone call was to discern how serious I was about the position. The second phone call was more specific and asked e where I would like to work, what skills I would bring to the job and what I would expect from the company.

I was asked 'what are the chief challenges to the recruitment industry today?'

Prepare answers to common questions for that industry. Try a web search asking what are the likely interview questions for a job in recruitment and you will find a great deal of information.

I did not attend an assessment centre