Nationwide Building Society Assessment

yamamama

Been invited to attend an assessment evening for Nationwide Building Society. It is to include presentation, interview etc. Does anyone know what this will entail and what they would be looking for? Any help would be appreciated.

Daedalus

yamamama wrote: »

Been invited to attend an assessment evening for Nationwide Building Society. It is to include presentation, interview etc. Does anyone know what this will entail and what they would be looking for? Any help would be appreciated.

Depends on the role, but pretty generic markers.
Customer service, confidence, attention to detail, working in a team etc.

Catspajamas

What job are you going for in nationwide? I have been employed by them twice so might be able to give you some pointers depending on the level!

Daedalus

They are big on being a friendly building society and not an evil bank.

dancingfairy

Mine said that! I went and it was basically a half-hour chat. No presentation,no tour, no Q and A etc. Was done in half an hour.
It seemed more of an opportunity for a brief chat, find out about your cv, what your currently doing, why you are looking to move, what you know about Nationwide etc and a chance to sell yourself. Also to let you know what roles were actually available. Basically they had a big branch event but the actual roles available were all over the county.
I think they want to see whether it is worth doing a proper interview with you, that you're not a complete idiot and that the job appeals to you.
That was my impression anyway. I'm through to round 2 which apparently is a competency based interview.
df

yamamama

Thanks for the replies. Sorry not acknowledged sooner but been offline. My son had his "assessment" interview and has been called back for a formal interview. Just waiting for date. Think the job is a Customer Advisor role, so any more pointers would be appreciated. Probably competency based as most are these days. Thanks for your time.

dancingfairy

Hi. Glad your son got through the first bit. I can tell you what happened in my interview if it helps.
Basically there was 2 parts. 30 mins for each.
Part 1 started with a basic introductory tell me about yourself question then had 2/3 competency questions. I think I had one on teamwork and one on customer service (can't quite remember). I had prepared a bit about the history of the building society and had gone through the PRIDE values they mention on their website.
I was then given a brief scenario to read through briefly and then given 10 minutes to prepare for a role play. Role play took 5 mins max. I think purpose of role play is to see what sort of style you have interacting with customers - are you chatty, friendly, informal or formal and whether you can spot opportunities to refer people to say the mortgage adviser or the financial planner/adviser.
After that they ask you how you think it went.
Think mine went well but haven't heard yet.
df

yamamama

Dancingfairy, many thanks for this. I will pass on to my son - he is still waiting for his interview date! It will definitely help him. Hope you hear soon about your interview.
Good Luck

yamamama

Well son has his 2nd interview on Monday so he is now panicking!! Thanks to dancingfairy he now has some idea what's going to happen. Hopefully it will all go well. Any more pointers would be appreciated.
Dancingfairy - have you heard anything back yet?

dancingfairy

No, no news yet.
I believe there were actual vacancies in branches surrounding me (that I can't really get to) but none in my actual branch so I'm just hoping to get on the waiting list for my local branch for when there is a vacancy.
Tried to chase them up but no news yet.
Fingers crossed. Hope your sons interview goes well.
df
Edit: I think my role play had everything thrown into it: house purchase, holiday,new baby, financial planning etc. You just have to decide whether to pursue one opportunity or whether to go for several etc. I doubt they're expecting massive in depth knowledge of their products but a general knowledge of the sorts of things they provide.