Friday 8 March 2013
Leicester award session 3
Today was going to be my final leicester award session with Santander, and it was the day of the practice interview with the company. I felt quite prepared for this interview as I had prepared for the interview by getting friends to ask me competency questions that may be asked by a company, and me answering these questions. I had practiced answering a wide variety of questions such as "Why work for Santander?", "Describe a time when you have shown initiative", "What motivates you?", and more.
When I arrived at Santander, I met with my 2 interviewers, 1 of whom I had met before. I was led to a private room and I was told by the interviewer the outline of the interview and how long it should take and whether I was ready to start. I told him that I was ready and he begun the interview.
The interviewer started off with some basic questions about my CV, asking me what I did during the time that I was working at certain places, the tasks that I performed, and what I learnt working at those places. The interviewer seemed pretty stern and did not smile much, this got me a little worried but i tried to ignore it. He then asked me "why apply for Santander?", I answered by explaining that I applied to Santander because they are a leading financial service provider with a global presence. They have also won many graduate and employment rewards which shows that they place emphasis on helping and developing their employees which I believe is very important.
Then he moved on to asking me competency questions, and I was really surprised with the questions asked as they were very different to the questions that I had expected and practiced for. This meant that I had to think of a lot of answers on the spot and I found this part of the interview quite challenging.
Here is a brief outline of the questions that were asked, and before I answered these questions, I reminded myself to use the STAR method and break the questions up and answer in as much detail as possible.
.
Tell me about a time when you have had to make a decision or take an action without a clear understanding of what was expected.
Give me an example of when it has been really important for you to understand someone's needs or requirements in order to successfully deliver and difficult target/task/objective.
Tell me about a time when you have sucessfully encouraged others to work more as a team in order to achieve a shared target or goal.
Describe a situation when you were given a reponsibility for a task or project where you had no real expertise or experience.
Give me an example of a time when it was important for you to analyse the business or commercial implications of an action or decision you were taking.
After the interview was over, I was given feedback for each answer, and feedback on my overall performance during the interview. The interviewer told me that he was giving me the impression that he seemed like a harsh guy on purpose, to see if I would get put off by him. He also said that I still performed well and I was very confident and easy to get along with. The areas that I could have improved on were my answers, as some of the answers could have been more precise and some of my answers did not fully address the question that the interviewer had asked. This meant that I should take my time to focus on the question and understand it before answering too quickly.
I believe that the final session with Santander provided me with very valuable experience on how competency interviews in large companies work. It will definitely help me when I apply for jobs and I also learnt many of my strengths and weaknesses through taking part in this programme. From the Leicester award program, I have prioritized on improving many of my weaknesses by taking time to practice and prepare for tasks that are coming up. I also need to improve on working as a team, being more consultative and listening and contributing more to other team members input.
Leicester Award Session 2
I arrived at the Percy Gee building at the University of Leicester for my second session of the Leicester award with Santander. Within minutes of arriving at the meeting point, the coach arrived and took us to the Santander Headquarters at Carlton park and this time my group were led to a different training room within the building.
The tasks were quickly intergrated once we sat down on our allocated seats in the training room. The group were split into 3 teams, and I was put into team 2. I was then partnered with an employee from Santander. As we were walking to the room where I was supposed to prepare and make my presentation I asked her some questions about which department she worked in and what tasks she had to do in her job. I felt pretty nervous about doing the presentation but exited at the same time.
So once we arrived at our designated room, I was told that I had 30 minutes to look at the presentation task and use my research to help me in my presentation. The first section of the task was to make a presentation on the challenges and opportunities that Santander face. The second section was to make a presentation on what Santander can do to make them the best bank for customers, staff, and shareholders. Using the research that I had brought with me, I started to plan out my presentation.
So after 30 mins was over, I was told to present when I was ready. Surprisingly when it actually came for me to do my presentation, I felt quite really calm and relaxed. I started the presentation by making an introduction about Santander, mentioning their position in the industry, how large the bank was and the amount of employees that were employed. I then moved onto explain the current challenges that Santander faced, mentioning how I thought that the current economic environment posed challenges to the bank.
Of the 10 minutes given for the presentation, I presented for 6 minutes. I was then asked a couple of questions about the bank in relation to my presentations. And after that, I was given some feedback. I was told that I presented really well, I was confident and fluid on my presentation. However I could have structured my presentation more and be more precise on the sections that I was presenting. The feedback given to me was really helpful, as it gave me directions and guidance on what I needed to improve on. I thought that the task had developed my presentation skills and pinpointed my weaknesses. I felt that I could have done more research so that my presentation would have lasted longer and it was something that I needed to reflect on.
After the presentation was completed, I was taken back to the training room and put into a group of 5. We were tasked with a group assessment, similar to the group assessment that I participated in during the first session. This time however, we were given a report on a company and our task was to think of how the company can improve their performance without using financial means. Using the feedback from my previous experience, I tried to improve my performance by mentioning more about the figures and numerical parts of the assessment. I was also more assertive and took part in the group assessment by giving my ideas and agreeing or disagreeing with my team members ideas. Once we finished deciding on what the company should prioritize and focus on in order to improve their performance, we each presented different areas of our report. General feedback was given at the end of our presentation, however I was able to link my performance with the feedback given and I think that I may have been too assertive and not consultative enough with my team members. I believe that I should have stated the reasons for my ideas, and why I believe that someone else's idea may have worked or not. Overall, I think that I definitely had improved compared to the first time I took part in a group assessment and it provided me with valuable experience in dealing with a group assessment in the future.
Our last session of the day involved in listening to a presentation about competency questions and interviews. I thought that the presentation was useful as it gave me an insight on what types of questions will be asked during a competency interview, and how to prepare for them. I found the presentation very useful as it showed that you can prepare for competency interviews by practicing the questions.This would definitely aid me in future job interviews.
The tasks were quickly intergrated once we sat down on our allocated seats in the training room. The group were split into 3 teams, and I was put into team 2. I was then partnered with an employee from Santander. As we were walking to the room where I was supposed to prepare and make my presentation I asked her some questions about which department she worked in and what tasks she had to do in her job. I felt pretty nervous about doing the presentation but exited at the same time.
So once we arrived at our designated room, I was told that I had 30 minutes to look at the presentation task and use my research to help me in my presentation. The first section of the task was to make a presentation on the challenges and opportunities that Santander face. The second section was to make a presentation on what Santander can do to make them the best bank for customers, staff, and shareholders. Using the research that I had brought with me, I started to plan out my presentation.
So after 30 mins was over, I was told to present when I was ready. Surprisingly when it actually came for me to do my presentation, I felt quite really calm and relaxed. I started the presentation by making an introduction about Santander, mentioning their position in the industry, how large the bank was and the amount of employees that were employed. I then moved onto explain the current challenges that Santander faced, mentioning how I thought that the current economic environment posed challenges to the bank.
Of the 10 minutes given for the presentation, I presented for 6 minutes. I was then asked a couple of questions about the bank in relation to my presentations. And after that, I was given some feedback. I was told that I presented really well, I was confident and fluid on my presentation. However I could have structured my presentation more and be more precise on the sections that I was presenting. The feedback given to me was really helpful, as it gave me directions and guidance on what I needed to improve on. I thought that the task had developed my presentation skills and pinpointed my weaknesses. I felt that I could have done more research so that my presentation would have lasted longer and it was something that I needed to reflect on.
After the presentation was completed, I was taken back to the training room and put into a group of 5. We were tasked with a group assessment, similar to the group assessment that I participated in during the first session. This time however, we were given a report on a company and our task was to think of how the company can improve their performance without using financial means. Using the feedback from my previous experience, I tried to improve my performance by mentioning more about the figures and numerical parts of the assessment. I was also more assertive and took part in the group assessment by giving my ideas and agreeing or disagreeing with my team members ideas. Once we finished deciding on what the company should prioritize and focus on in order to improve their performance, we each presented different areas of our report. General feedback was given at the end of our presentation, however I was able to link my performance with the feedback given and I think that I may have been too assertive and not consultative enough with my team members. I believe that I should have stated the reasons for my ideas, and why I believe that someone else's idea may have worked or not. Overall, I think that I definitely had improved compared to the first time I took part in a group assessment and it provided me with valuable experience in dealing with a group assessment in the future.
Our last session of the day involved in listening to a presentation about competency questions and interviews. I thought that the presentation was useful as it gave me an insight on what types of questions will be asked during a competency interview, and how to prepare for them. I found the presentation very useful as it showed that you can prepare for competency interviews by practicing the questions.This would definitely aid me in future job interviews.
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