I applied in-person. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Ipsos (Jakarta) in Apr 2016
Interview
Two staff interviewed me: a team leader and a senior management.
First impression, they do not fit into 'Consultant' build/stereotypes: not only they have weak handshake, a handshake that I had to initiate, they are also very soft-spoken.
You wouldn't get the charisma of people consulting various businesses and solve business issues.
The interview was very much one sided and interrogation-type.
Some of my questions were if this is a new/replacement role, types of clients they have, how relevant/popular business consulting is in Indonesia, how's the market looking like for a relatively young player like Ipsos' business consulting arm.
They lost me 2 minutes in the conversation and the longer I was there, the more I felt that I was there just to help the hiring manager proves something -- i.e. something unacceptable about me, how someone with an unconventional background like me does not deserve the role.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Over-reading every detail of my CV, scrutinizing quite some sentences in my competencies and skills, including a few months gap.
- What's your hobby? What's your weakness? Challenges you face?
Simple and easy, mainly focuses on regression, basic stats, and basics of coding language like python and sql. Not very technical in nature. Good to just learn multiple linear regression and excel skills just in case.
Multiple rounds of behavioral interviews and one case interview with members of the team. The interviews do not require prep in advance but it is good to know case study frameworks
I applied online. I interviewed at Ipsos (London, England)
Interview
It was Straightforward and consisted of 2 stages. First stage was an introductory telephone interview and 2nd was an in person interview with an activity that I had completed beforehand.