Santander assessment days

poindexter

Hello,

I've recently been on a 4 hour assessment for a part-time call-handling job with Santander. I failed because, in the role play section of the four part assessment, although I sorted out the pretend customer's bank problems, I didn't ask them where they were going on their holidays. Truth. Anyway, that's just a moan and besides the point.

This assessment day was organised by a 'solutions' firm called, I think, Alexander Mann. I'm convinced that, out of the ten of us, at least one was a plant. This was the final stage of the process, and she admitted struggling with the previous stage (when we were asked things like what is 20% of 500). She got everything wrong, laughed about how bad she was at Maths and finished about half of the numbers test. Then for the role play, for which you were given the pretend customers bank activity which was crucial to deal with the call, she said she forgot to take it in and had to wing it.

I was already suspicious but that clinched it. Surely the assessor would have told her to go back for it, or given her a copy? How could it go on otherwise?

All this was for a part-time, slightly more than minimum wage position. Is it normal practice to go to such lengths nowadays? Has anyone had similar experiences with Santander or Alexander Mann, particularly in applying for jobs at the Bootle call centre?

Thanks for the chance to vent.