I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at dunnhumby (London, England) in Sept 2018
Interview
I got this through a recruiter. Overall the process took really long. After having a chat with the recruiter it took nearly a month for me to get my first interview with the hiring team. Likely due to it being summer and several people on leave. The first interview was online via webcam and was with a very enthusiastic lady and went really well. Both me and the interviewer were quite impressed with each other. I was asked general questions about my current and previous roles, what i liked about my current role, why Dunnhumby why I wanted to leave my current organization and about which recent trend in the FMCG sector I found fascinating and why. As mentioned me and the interviewer were on the same page throughout and she immediately relayed to the recruiter (post the interview) that they would like to meet in person. An in-person meeting was set for a week and a half later. The in person interview started with a case study where I was given sheets of paper printed front and back and a few blank sheets of paper were provided and i was expected to look at the data and piece together a story and make recommendations based on the objectives that were set out. Unfortunately, i have 0 experience of working with paper for presentations and it being printed front and back means its difficult to look at 2 data points simultaneously. I got a bit anxious and this threw me completely off my game. An hour later the two interviewers came back and asked me to present. They introduced themselves and came across as friendly but really dull and serious with barely a smile. I totally tanked my presentation as i was just reading points i had penned down on paper and the points i was making didnt come across clearly given that i was not used to making presentations from data on paper. After this the interviewers had a couple of questions on the case then started with the interview. After 10 minutes into the interview i could read from one of the interviewers body language and tone that they had already made up their mind. Also they would constantly check their watch which was distracting. They seemed to be looking for very specific answers and came across as rigid and closed to how others/other organisations may be doing things differently. They seemed to want people who stick to fixed structures of operating that they are used to. Just my opinion/suggestion but sometimes things need to change to improve - fixed structures get outdated in the blink of an eye and one should be open to recognising the merits of how different organisations work differently. I heard from the recruiter a day later that I didn't get selected as I tanked the case study and didn't make a very strong case for myself. Which I thought was fair. Overall I think its good as I probably wouldn't be a good fit there. But am happy that the people I met were courteous and nice despite us not being on the same wavelength.
Interview questions [7]
Question 1
What did you enjoy the most about your previous role?
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a detailed review. We are appreciative of the points that you have raised and are committed to continuous improvement. I’m sorry to hear things didn't work out for you on this occasion and I wish you all the best for the future.