Easy mcquaig test then watch a pretty pointless but relatively relaxed Webinar followed by a brief pleasant phone interview (Depending on who interviewed you apparently) asking the usual questions such as why you want to work there.
Then have to go to an assessment centre in London. (You get laughed at or an email very bluntly literally saying "NO" when politely asking if travel expenses will be reimbursed as you are travelling from the other side of the country) This initially set off warning bells in my mind that the company was very unprofessional. Don't get me wrong it's fine if the company doesn't reimburse travel fees even though most others do but no need to be so disgustingly arrogant and narcissistic.
I went to the assessment centre and instantly my fears were confirmed. Quite frankly I don't even know where to start with this assessment day as it is actually laughable.
Everyone goes to sit down where some arrogant man talks about the job, carefully dodging any questions people ask and all he talks about how there is potential to earn 60,000+ in the first year and that one person has done it. Then there was a small straightforward test while being called over for interviews. The interview started nice and was very simple. Then in a unsuccessful attempt to portray this wolf of wall street image they asked the dreaded question "Sell me something, anything, you have 10 seconds to think". Despite answering this relatively well it made me question if I was applying for a salesman cold calling job or for a wealth advisor, apparently they are the same in De veres eyes.
Next there was the most laughable thing I have ever witnessed in a professional setting. I kid you not you had to stand behind a line and attempt to throw a coin at the wall amongst a group of others. Apparently this was to tell if you were competitive enough. 10,000 coin throws later (Yes we literally did this for almost an hour straight and every single person was bored and deflated after it) the other recruiter came over and started criticising us for not being enthusiastic. Something almost impossible to be when everyone else has given up and would happily never see a coin again, pretty ironic as thats what the end result is with a career at de vere: Broke.
I think this was the main problem with the assessment day, there was only 2 de vere workers there. This meant the whole day was incredibly unorganised with them constantly shouting across the room asking what to do next but also meant the day which could have been completed in 2 hours took more than 4. For example the people reliving their days as a four year old throwing their coins at the wall could not move on until one of the de vere workers had completed all their interviews. When there was about 30 people there (Way too many) this was ludicrous.
The next task was a group debating exercise where you were put on teams, the debating topics were chosen by the groups and were relatively lighthearted topics such as thin vs thick crust pizza. One person in my group choose marvel vs Dc or something which meant she had a ridiculous advantage because she actually knew what to debate about where no one else had a clue. This actually had no influence on whether they got the job or not because for 99% of the time no one was watching the debate because they ended up both doing interviews. I literally watched her come over for less than 10 seconds and mark the people who were talking at that moment highly and the ones who were listening very low and then proceeded to walk off.
Then the final task was relatively lighthearted and at this point almost all 30 people who were at the assessment day realised what a joke both the company itself and the day had been. People began mocking de vere giving purposely comedic poor answers. Everyone was given a card with a occupation on it and had to state why they should stay on a desert island. People ended up getting jobs like the guy who puts the hole in the middle of polos and a pole dancer, professional eh?
All in all the day was a complete disaster, there was too many people there, no where near enough staff and the activities were something you would witness on a playground. Looking back on it it does seem relatively apt as the job actually is something a child could do, pick up the phone cold call someone, get hung up on, do this for a few months, leave de Vere, not be able to get a new job because of de veres absolutely awful reputation within the industry.
Don't be roped in by the promise of high pay, I too ignored the other reviews written here and wow do I regret it. I believe almost everyone gets through to the assessment centre and I would suggest only going if you live locally, have nothing better to do and want a good laugh.
The staff member from de vere said it himself, the job for the first few months is "Hell". I think this is the only truthful thing that came out of his mouth all day.