ANZ Graduate Program

[XRated]

After the talk about the Ford Graduate Program, I ended up getting an e-mail from ANZ to sit an online test to see if I was a suitable candidate. Aside from it being the worst test in history and thinking I did extremely bad (I still think I did) they some how invited me to the next stage - a 2.5 hour group assessment thing. Ohhh how I loathe group assessments.

I was hoping someone has done it or know someone who has been through it and might be able to give me some indication of what the process involves. It's scheduled for tomorrow morning so I'm stressing out that I will be surrounded by geeky Economists and the like that know the ins-and-outs of everything!

I only know one guy who secured a position through this program last year but apparently it was more of a fluke...

Anyway, I hope someone can shed some light.

Cheers

[Polyal]

The basics of group assessment are all the same, no matter what company happens to be running them; some little details might be different.

Be confident, listen to other peoples ideas, speak your opinion.

Basically be normal and dont shoot people down, but if you think your opinion/answer is the right one then stick with it.

Its a balancing act, and personally, no amount of prep will ever help. Just go in and strut your stuff without being a tosspot.

[XRated]

Yeah I know the basics, but I am just wondering how focussed on the banking industry it might be. The test was predominantly about banking, economics etc that I have no idea about because I come from an IT background, hence why I am wondering...

[Polyal]

Hmm...well I can only go from the Ford experience I had.

It pays to know what the company is doing now, what they are looking into, what services they provide.

Also I guess it would help if you knew some of the basics about our economy, how its traveling, interest rates, CPI, inflation etc.

[42.57lb]

if they think you're a suitable applicant bearing in mind your I.T. background, they're probably doing a sweep for graduate positions including their own I.T. department. So my advice would be don't stress too hard. Recruiters won't mess about if you're not right for whatever job it might be they're filling. The online test is probably generic knowledge for the financial sector that they put everyone through.

GOOD LUCK though!

[4.9 EF Futura]

Not familiar with what ANZ will be asking, but can tell you whatever you need to know about the banking industry or how a bank operates...

Id hazard a guess that you're more likely to be surrounded by HR and operational managers as opposed to technical experts.

[MX837M-GE]

I attended the ANZ Assessment Centre last Monday.

There are various activities you rotate through, and the order may be different for you but this is what happened for me:

1) Lecture by ANZ employee about working at ANZ, its culture rar rar rar. The guy was pretty senior, but quite entertaining and did'nt take himself too seriously. This is the chance to ask ANZ any questions you might have as you spend the rest of the time with Hudson recruitment consultants.

2) Yet more testing... I, like you, found the online test quite horrific and was surprised to hear from them. I was yet more surprised to do be asked to do 40 more questions in 20 mins - these are more of those pattern questions. They show you four in a sequence and ask you to select the next from four options. There is no point trying to do all of them of course, but to do as many as possible accurately

3) myself and 4 others were sent in to another room whre we did the group task. This was not directly banking related by any means. Maybe PM me if you want all the gory details about this stage.

[XRated]

Thanks guys. I did it today with about 12 others. It was pretty nerve racking, particularly the last part where they gave us less than five minutes to prepare and do a three minute presentation. I don't expect to get through to the next stage, but I would've regretted not going to the group assessment. Oh well.

Special thanks to MX837M-GE for all his help seeing as he's been through it before.

[mcnamg]

mate you would be surprised who banks will hire trust me I worked for one for 2 years half the people who were in senior management roles must have lost their marbles after their interviews or else the guys at hudson were having a really bad day. My wife still works for said bank and is currently looking for new job too as said bank treats staff like s$%t and then advertises that they are the number one bank for staff conditions. They are willing to sacrifice talented staff and promote people who know how to meet sales targets but dont know how to lead as the real leaders may miss a sales target by one or 2 sales and arent eligible to apply for a job. Real great. Probably much the same as any other large companies out there though

[MX837M-GE]

Originally Posted by XRated

Thanks guys. I did it today with about 12 others. It was pretty nerve racking, particularly the last part where they gave us less than five minutes to prepare and do a three minute presentation. I don't expect to get through to the next stage, but I would've regretted not going to the group assessment. Oh well.

Special thanks to MX837M-GE for all his help seeing as he's been through it before.

Good work mate, I'm sure you've done much better than you think. Everyone gets nervous in these sorts of things!

Good luck with all your applications!

mcnamg: You have to start somewhere, and a grad role with a big bank can't hurt!

[Smoked]

Originally Posted by XRated

It was pretty nerve racking, particularly the last part where they gave us less than five minutes to prepare and do a three minute presentation.

Been there and done that mate.

It pays to do courses on public speaking when and if you can. The final assessment for a course on public speaking I did in late 2004 involved preparing a five minute speech (READ, 5 mins) in 1 (yes, ONE) minute.

These courses teach you to remember the basic format of a speech and from there, you are set for any speech thereafter. (intro - 1min, 3 main points -1min each, conclusions - 1min)

[4.9 EF Futura]

Originally Posted by mcnamg

and then advertises that they are the number one bank for staff conditions.

Lol... not to name any names!