I interviewed at Market Financial Solutions (London, England)
Interview
This was a fairly standard 2 step interview process. First one was to meet the sales team leaders, the next one was with the team leaders and the sales manager
I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Market Financial Solutions
Interview
Complete waste of time. I was interviewed by two people. A HR person and a PA. The conversation itself was relaxed and it really felt like it went well. They both had my CV printed. My CV was very explanatory. My experience was in the same sector. The role itself was very general and I had all the transferable skills and then some. I was told at the end they would get back regarding next steps and feedback in a "few days". However, only a handful of hours after they said I did well to the agency but they did not feel I was a "right fit" or "what they were looking for". They didn't take the time to even consider me as a candidate. I had my experience clearly laid out on my CV. If I wasn't a "right fit" or "what they were looking for" why bother wasting my time and inviting me to a interview? Having to book time off work and such. All I can assume is they wasted my time with a absolute nonsensical meeting as they most likely had someone internal already. And reading the reviews on here, looks like I dodged a toxic workplace.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Market Financial Solutions (London, England) in July 2025
Interview
2 stage interview. 1st stage :
Sent me to the wrong office, the hiring team asked me to walk to the other office (25 minute walk in a heat wave).
I asked questions around sustainability and they said they aren't regulated so don't need to focus on it or offer anything to clients, but the CEO donates to charities.
I asked what they do for managing a healthy work life balance as they're 5 days in the office, and their response was "we dropped our hours from 9-6 to 9-5:30 and increased the WFH days to 12 per year (only in case of emergencies)".
Got kicked out the meeting room before interview had finished as someone else in the company had booked the room (very unprofessional).
2nd stage they asked me to come up with a presentation to test my presentational skills. I retracted my application for the role due to personal hesitations, (short term logistics to the 5 days in the office requirement, not presented in 5 years etc ). The recruitment team convinced me to continue as the Hiring team supposedly liked me, and they could look at flexible working, so I submitted the presentation ahead of time, which met the brief based on what was available to me (it obviously didn't have accurate calculations, internal flow or acronyms, and I was told it was to test my presentational skills). It took me 2 days.
They came back and said they didn't want to progress because it wasn't what they were looking for, and that my hesitation around the office requirement wasn't a fit.
Submitting a presentation is working for free. Seeing through the interview once someone has spent time creating the presentation is basic decency. Dodged a bullet - do not recommend working in an environment like this.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What do I see as a future challenge in the commercial industry.