Atkins Telephone Interview

Can someone help with the question above?

I haven't got any info on the Atkin telephone interview specifically, although there is information about the rest of the assessment process on the wikis. See - Atkins

I recommend reading this article on telephone interviews and this article on competency based questions as your telephone interview will almost certainly feature them.

The interview will almost certainly be relatively short (20 - 30 mins) and you should be able to explain why you want to work for Atkins, why you want to work in this industry, and you should also be able to talk about commercial awareness type (business) issues about your industry.

Also, familiarise yourself with your CV as this will probably also be discussed.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Hi

I'm going to have mine next week. What did they ask in the interview? Any advice is very much appreciated.

Thanks

Hy

I had mine yesterday..........same typical questions like why Atkins? why Civil Engineering (as it was for graduate civil engineering job)
tell me about your degree? why u chose that particular business area? and some other questions................interview was ok..........outcome will be in few weeks..................what about you guys..............how was your interview? and what's the outcome

That's a shame. To be fair on Atkins, they are probably using a third party interview company to conduct their telephone interviews that are based in India, but even so.. that sounds pretty bad. You should call Atkins up and let them know. ...they'll probably spot this thread at some point anyhow and figure out they have a problem anyhow though I guess!

Hi all,

I had the almost exactly the same experience as Anil.
the questions were like what had been described by dashingdare.
I had mine in November and I didn't get through to the next stage.

Hi

My interview was similar to what Anil describes.
The tips that Redsuperted listed could help with the preparation of Atkins' interview.
I didn't through to next stage, neither.
Anyone here has got throught to the final stage?

I have to say that I have had a different experience.

I applied for a position as a maths graduate where they are only recruiting 8 this year.

I got interviewed by a lovely lady who worked for Atkins who gave good answers to my questions.

I am still waiting to hear if I get called for interview.

What position were you applying for Meep?

Guys - take a look at this wiki Atkins graduate scheme assessment day.

I applied literally for a position as a "Maths Graduate" and then you choose which is your first and second choice area to work in. I chose Defence and Intelligent Transport Systems.

I've just spoken to Atkins. They've seen this thread and are aware of the issues with the telephone interview. They were very apologetic for the problems you guys have faced and will be logging in to WikiJob this week to explain the reasons for these issues in greater detail.

We are very sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience during our recruitment process. We would be more than happy to discuss this further with you and personally address your concerns.

Atkins Graduate Recruitment Team

Hi.

I had my tel interview few days ago. My experience was not bad. The line was noisy, but I could hear well enough. The guy had an accent but spoke good english and was nice to speak to. The interview went as follows:
The interview was completely not technical. And the guy clearly filled up boxes in a questionnaire.
Introduction
Asked what I know about Atkins
Asked what are my 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices of sectors and what are my location preferences.
Told me what will happen if I'm successful and where the Assessment centres might be.
Asked:
Why I want to work in the field selected?
What 3 skills I can bring to atkins?
Why I study what I study?
What is best + worst about my course.

In total about 6-7 questions.

And promised to get back within 2 weeks or earlier.

Chirio.

Hi,
I had mine few days ago as well, My questions were similar to 100100's...
the guy said he will get back to me the end of this week or beginning of next week..
coz he said he will have to forward my application to the department (for example, my first choice, then if i cant get through, then forward to my second choice department..so it will take few days)...
I am bit confused..so basically,, the telephone interview is only the first round screening...the ppl in the department are the one who can really decide if you can get throught to the next stage.(even you did well on the telephone interview ..that doesnt mean you will get through the next stage..anyway..)

good luck :-)

vic.

Hey guys, I had my phone interviews almost 3 weeks ago, but still haven't heard from Atkins for the next stage, I have emailed them but got reply saying that due to the huge volume of applicants, they won't be able to let me know the outcome now, and will contact me as soon as they got the result. It is a bad sign ? How long normally did you guys received your results ?

Cheers !

Yvan

Applied to Atkins a week ago, Completed Numerical/verbal a day after I sent the application!, process seems quite fast but I suppose it's still a bit early in the recruitment cycle. I have my phone interview in 2 days time (done so much research). Above comments were useful so thanks.

Hi

I have to do the online assessment for my Atkins assessment. Can anybody that's done it help me with what to expect in the verbal reasoning part. I've read up on verbal reasoning tests but the format seems to vary. Do the question involve reading passage and the answering "true", "false" or "cannot say" or do we have to read a passage and choose the most appropriate sentence that fits the question? Also, how tight is the time allowance?

Any help would be most gratefully recieved.

Thanks!

Both the numerical and the verbal for Atkins are administered by PSL, the verbal will have passages and you say whether it's true,false or cannot say. try these practice questions at http://www.psl.co.uk/practice/

cant remember the time limit, I think it was 32 questions in 24 minutes, each passage will have around 3 questions, I didn't find it particurlarly tough.

good luck

Hi,
Could anyone who has done numerical test with atkins share their experience. How difficult it is in comparison to SHL, are there anything on currency conversion? Thank you for your soon replies.

The numerical was quite easy, easier than SHL though the verbal was harder, I remember doing a currency conversion question around midway in the test.

thanks Nick1 and jagode for you help. I found the test ok but very time pressured. Have heard that I passed it so I must have done ok.

Thanks guys for your comments. Is it possible to go back and forth on the test or once you submitt question it won´t allow you to go back? Thanx

You can go between questions so if you can't answere one move and come back to it at the end. The layout is exactly the same as the practice questions (I personally found the practive VR questions to be easier than the real ones). You don't have to do the actual test sraight after the practice ones because they are on seperate links so you can do the practice ones days before if you like.

Hi Peppi,

Thank you for your comment. You say that you did pass it so you have to be good in it. Don´t you wanna have my link to get me through those tests. LOL.

Hi guys,

Just want to ask, what do you think that score 11/20 on numerical reasoning test (Atkins - PSL) is kind of score that would let me to go to the next stage or it is too low to pass to the next stage. What you think? Please reply.

How long does it take them to get back after completion of the online tests?

I guess the pass mark is usually at least 50% with these things, so you could be good.

I got through to the Assessment Centre, has anyone heard back from their Phone Interview?

I got my reply 2 days after my tests, It should definitely be within a 3-10 days.

Hi Harmony,

Thanks for reply

I just completed verbal reasoning test for (Atkins PSL) and I think that I was sort of ok although I don´t think that I did pass it. There was around 24 question for around 18 minutes which means that on average there is 1 question/45 seconds which I don´t think that it is bad. But I am non-native speaker of english and found it quite challenging. Such a shame that they don´t have lower bench mark for non-native speakers. Lol.

Hi, Jagode

Congratulations for your phone interview! well done. I have got rejected after two weeks of my telephone interview, could you give me some advise on how to responde to their questions and how to prepare for telephone interviews plz, thx a lot!

Hi Jessicalee

For some reason I didn't receive your latest post in my wiki job subscription email until now.

For telephone interviews, you need to prepare a number of answers to key questions that are asked in almost all companies. 1. What do we do? (Services/ products). 2. Why have you applied to this company? 3. Clients and Industries served and list of Competitors (explain why you have chosen this company over others, doesn’t have to be detailed but include things like increased customer focus). 4. Why have you chosen the Business area you have applied for and what can you bring (skills)? 5. Duties of the chosen role (When asked this question I like to also name a few software applications I will be using for the role because you can usually find them on the company website). 6 What are your ambitions? 7. What are our core values?

Have a browse through the company graduate profiles and read the company’s press releases for recent news items, also read about their projects and take notes on 2 or 3 projects you are interested in, make sure one of the projects is within your chosen business area. Prepare a page on key figures and facts of the company such as Revenue, CEO, HQ location, Share Price, Countries they operate in, Number of employees.

Keep your answers in bullet point format and expand on them, also take pauses when answering the questions because the interviewer is most likely typing your answers.

That covers the first part of most interviews, the second part is the competency questions, wiki job has a list of the key competencies here http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/competency-based-questions

Read forums like wiki job to see which competencies were asked other candidates because many companies have a sheet of candidate questions which they then choose random 5 or 6 questions to ask each candidate. Prepare examples of teamwork, organisation, missed deadline, extra mile for client etc. Use the STAR technique on the link I gave. Sometimes you will have to think on the spot for some questions but you can ask for a minute or so to think of an answer and the interviewer will be fine with it.

The best key to the kind of questions going to be asked in an interview is based on the application form questions. The Atkins application form focused on you and your skills so it's very likely the interviewer will ask about your degree, skills and ambitions.

At the end make sure you ask at least 2 questions, I don’t think the interviewer will be able to answer questions relating to the company’s future directions but you can ask about the grad scheme and the company culture.

Hope that helps.

Hi, Jagode,

Thanks very much for your suggestions, they are greatly helpful. I think I spoke too fast during my telephone interview without any pause to allow the interviewer to write down my answers. Even I prepared all the questions that asked during the interview, my answers were not strong enough. Thanks for your help again, I will try to improve my performance next time.

Jess

Hi there,

I'm having a telephone interview next week with Atkins. Thank you guys so much for the advice and your experiences. Hopefully mine would be the better ones. Will post an update as soon as the interview is over!

Cheers!

Got my phone interview in a couple of days.

Thanks for all the advice - know what to concentrate my time preparing now! Hopefully it ill be a better experience than some of you have had!!!

Anyone attended an Atkins AC or going to the AC next week?

I might, how long did it take them to get back to you after your phone interview?

Hey jagode,

Which AC are you going to? I'm attending the one held in Epsom.

Hey had my teleinterview a few days ago. Didn't went as well as I hoped. The interviewer was an English lady. The interview was quite one sided and she was very quite throughout the interview which made me even more nervous as the other interviews I've had was rather fun and the interviewers were very nice and gave me some interaction. Anyhow, don't think I can advance through to the AC. Good news for you guys cause you'll have one less competition!! hahaha! well good luck to you guys and thank you for all the tips!!

p.s. Hopefully I'm wrong about the AC, I'd really hope to attend at least one AC!! all my other tele-interviews wasn't successful!!

I had my phone interview just before the christmas and still didn't hear the outcome. It was quite short one and it seemed to me as if the interviewer wanted to finish with me as soon as possible. Probably I haven't made it to AC. Lol. One less competition.

I had an Atkins telephone interview and was about 6 questions long:

Why Atkins?
Why this role?
What projects interest you?
What three things can you bring to the role? etc

The interview was a big improvement from an interview I had with them last year where the person on the end of the phone could not understand anything and was clearly uninterested and wanted to finish asap.

I got a reply within a week that stated I was successful in passing the telephone stage....but they would not be taking the application further as they have no roles available. Really strange way for a company to work that is pretty disrespectful for anyone who puts the time in to apply for them.

I had my interview some time ago now and they replied within a week or so.

Hey ladygaga

I'm also attending the Epsom AC for the ITS role, have they sent you the AC guide cos I've been pestering them to send it but I'm still waiting.

Hi

can you tell me which business areas you were applying to? seems odd that they would tell you you were successful but then not proceed with your application!

Yes, it is odd. Very frustrating as well when you take the time to study the company; fill out an application; study for tests; take the tests; prepare for the interview; take the interview and so on.

The email said: "Congratulations on passing through the telephone interview stage of our selection process. However, since our application process opened in September 2009 we have received a significantly high and disproportionate number of applications for very few vacancies in our ITS business. Given these volumes and the resulting competitive market we will not be progressing your application further at this time. "

Surely it is better just to stop the application process as soon as places have been filled. What makes it even more strange if the interviewer told me so much about the role and what I could expect. Very dissapointing.

Hi all, I have just had my Atkins tele interview a minute ago and it did not go very well... (Management Consultancy)

As mentioned above the speaker wasnt very easy to hear due to a bad line, I could hear other phones ringing in the background and other people being asked questions... Although it was an English lady with a pleasant manner I spoke to...

She asked me more questions about Atkins business roles than I expected and I tried my best to answer but then she would ask the Q again right after as if she was not happy with the answer Id given... Been told it will be 2 - 3 weeks before I hear anything so I think that means its no...

I am happy to use my exp to help anyone who has still to go through it, let me know...

Hi

I would be very interested to hear about your interview as I also have one coming up. Do they ask you specifically about the business areas you've applied for? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Hi strathstudent,

Don't worry, my interview did not go very well too. Unfortunatelly I didn't pass.

Just had my "interview". All they rang me up for was to tell me that they weren't hiring for any of the business areas I had applied to anymore! How stupid is that. So I suggested two more which they also said were full. Conventional power is the only area left I think! Cheers and good luck to anyone who made the ACs.