Applied online and was then invited to get a feel for the company with a group of other interviewees. Initially a very impressive business and group of people. The business is sold as a place where you can grow and if you put the effort in you can make some serious money. Andrew and Guy ran this first day and it came across as if they had a genuine interest in you as a person and not just an employee. The benefits of working for them are ingrained into you and you leave feeling as if this is a business that knows what they are doing and it would be a great opportunity to work for them. Following this you are then shortlisted and invited back down to take part in some exercises; such as sorting out emails in terms of priority and actually cold calling hospitals to gain information on their employees. It must be said that anything organised by Andrew at this point is exceptional and you can tell he's good at what he does. However with the phone call exercise, it was my experience that half the numbers provided to me were no longer in service or lead to loops between the same trusts/hospitals on the list given. Therefore, this did not really give me a good chance to demonstrate my skills or gain an insight into what the job would be like. Finally, and this is what changed my impression of the organisation, the "competency interview" or at least their interpretation of one. This was the first contact with Joanna and the initial few questions were your standard what are you good at, why do you want the role etc; But it then took a U-turn and never in all of my interviews have I been asked how much debt I had, as if the answer had any impact on how well I could perform in the role. In hindsight I should have refuted the question and explained how rude it is to ask anyone such a question, interview or not. From then it was downhill and the ridiculous questions continued with items such as "who do you confide in most out of your parents", again as if this has any implications in which I can perform in the role. And how would you spend x amount of money, where it seems that any common sense response such as saving it is looked down upon in favour of just "splashing the cash" In the end I left the organisation with the complete opposite impression to when it first started. TLDR; Stroud's interview technique is now an often joked upon story due to its rudeness and downright inappropriateness.

I applied online, through Indeed and then a phone interview took place. As a result of passing the phone interview stage, I was invited to attend what they called a 'Graduate Recruitment Event', although this was informal, I was told that our interaction with other candidates and the way we presented ourselves would be assessed. It was a great opportunity to learn about the role itself, as well as the recruitment industry in general. I was impressed by their openness and honesty about both the positives and negatives involved in the role. We were also given the opportunity to ask a current employee any questions in a confidential environment. Following this stage, I was invited to take part in their assessment centre. It consisted of a range of activities, assessing our suitability for the role in many different areas. This included communication, presenting and my overall cultural fit for the business. I really enjoyed the whole process, the directors were extremely quick in disclosing whether I was through to the next stage, as well as confirming whether I had been successful less than a couple of hours after leaving their office. I personally felt that throughout the day, they wanted us to do well and were encouraging in their approach. Not an easy process but I would 100% recommend attending, if successful you'd be joining a great business with an extremely supportive Senior Management Team with a genuine interest in your professional development and success.