Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently, I have been none stop with uni work and graduate job searching!
As the second part in my graduate marketing job hunt- I was recently invited to attend the Vodafone Marketing Stream Graduate Assessment Centre and here's what happened!
I'd been meaning to do the Vodafone application form for ages but I had kept putting it off as I was super busy, however one evening I sat down and wrote my cover letter and answers to a few simple questions and sent them off with my CV. I really liked the Vodafone application form in comparison to most of the graduate applications I was used to, which were endless questions and hundreds of boxes to fill in. I like to think my CV speaks for itself and by compacting the selling of myself into a short cover letter, I was able to get across the most important points concisely and highlight my best assets!
I was then invited to complete the dreaded verbal and numerical reasoning tests- an absolute pain! I really tried hard to complete them to the best of my ability although I was convinced I'd failed the numerical one... I'm bloody awful at Maths so I ended up guessing a fair few of the answers!
However, the next day I was told I had passed the tests (I was so shocked!) and was invited to complete a video interview. I actually found this part of the recruitment process really fun and had to sit infront on my iPad and wait for the questions to pop up then I had 30 seconds to prepare my answer before I recorded it and then they sped off to Vodafone! The questions were really varied and ranged from what 3 things would I take to a desert island to more specific to Vodafone. However, I believe this part of the process wasn't specific to a particular department so they were still fairly general.
Then the next day, I got another email saying I'd made it through to the next stage and could I come in for an assessment centre a week later!! It all happened within the space of a few days which was really awesome as it was all fresh in my mind and I could really focus all of my attention on the application.
So I headed to Newbury, Vodafone's HQ which is absolutely awesome- really modern and so Vodafied (new word!). There were lots of other candidates- I'd say around 30, however we were told that there were lots of ACs happening over a few weeks and they were recruiting for 150 roles- so the element of competition was eliminated from the atmosphere- something I really hate when going for a job interview, I'd much rather people sell themselves as who they are... rather than who they are compared to a competitor.
All of the employees running the day were absolutely lovely, and lots of current grads came throughout the day to answer any questions we had. I felt really relaxed and not at all nervous- I'm not sure if this was due to the speed at which I'd breezed through the previous application stages or the fact that the other candidates were really lovely, but I was really keen to get through the day!
My first activity was a presentation based on a case study, which we had 45 minutes to read through and provide recommendations and analysis based on downfalls of a business. I found this really easy as I study services marketing and the task was really similar to what we do within the module- I also really liked my interviewer and delivered the presentation to him whilst making jokes and got along with him. It didn't feel like a normal, formal interview and that's what I really liked about the day.
We were then given a coffee break before I was invited to have a one-to-one interview with one of the Sales Directors. He asked me a number of competency questions which I found really simple and he liked my blog, enactus, placement year and my self-employed event work- I felt really prepared and had lots of examples to give!
Then, he started asking me more marketing-specific questions, some about social media which I found OK and then one which threw me off slightly.... he asked "what are the three most important things when creating a marketing campaign?" I was totally thrown off and I almost argued back to him saying how subjective the question was, I hadn't been given any context whatsoever and on that basis, how could I answer when I had no idea what the objectives were, who the target audience was or what media was being used?
I know he was just reading the questions off a piece of paper, but I felt as though the question wasn't testing my marketing knowledge (which arguably is fairly in-depth) so I got a little frustrated. I could tell he was trying to guide me a little which helped... however I knew I hadn't done so well on that particular question.
We were then given a tour of the offices, set in gorgeous green space with loads of client space, a gym and Starbucks AND Costa... slightly better than what was on offer at IBM I must say.... the current graduates answered loads of questions and were super friendly.
It was then my turn to complete the group exercise, and one of the grads had told me during the tour it was about developing an app (not sure if he should have told me that- but thanks ;-)) so I had been thinking about it and therefore when we all sat down and were given the task- I already had an idea in my head. My group were all really confident and respectful, and my app idea was chosen by the entire group which made me feel really happy! The assessors asked us questions at the end which I think I nailed to be honest!
I left the day feeling really positive and weighing up the idea of living in Newbury... I've wanted to move to London for so long that I wasn't sure... however Vodafone looked like really awesome employers.
Vodafone had told us they'd let us know the outcome of the day before the weekend (the AC was on the Wednesday) so I was pretty much glued to my phone all day on the Friday, despite being in London on and off the tube... and the second they rang I happened to be in the bloody lift going down to Covent Garden station so I couldn't answer! Then my phone ran out of battery! It was such a palava!!
However, when I did manage to phone back, I was told I'd passed the Assessment Centre... however I was told I'd been put on to the Sales stream rather than the Marketing stream as they felt that was a better fit!! Not going to lie, I was gutted, I'd really wanted to get on to the Marketing stream and wasn't happy at all going in to sales, however the salary was reasonable and at least it was A job... so I asked for the weekend to think about it.
However, over the weekend I'd thought more and more about it and realized that I hadn't put 4 years of my life into pursuing a career in marketing to then take a sales job, I decided my passions came first so when she rang me back on the Monday I politely declined the offer.
I was just expecting a complete rejection, however- I was then passed on to the head of recruitment who I somehow managed to convince to put me on the marketing stream! I explained that I was really passionate about a career in marketing and that I had worked so hard for it and I knew that the reason I had been moved to sales was because of that one bloody question! So she asked me what I would have said instead and then said she would move me as she could sense my passion!
I felt so good about myself then and I knew it's exactly where I want to be- so I'm very chuffed to say I will be joining the marketing department at Vodafone this September as a graduate!
