Watson Wyatt assessment centre

Hi JDK90

I have been invited to the assessment centre but have no idea when it is yet! Have they contacted you yet about when it will be?

Nikita

Omg, the interview was nothing like what people described, they must've asked aroun 15 competency qestions.... I was seriously running out of examples!!!! Wonder if i did well enough....

Nikita,

Great to know that I have company!

No, they haven't told me when it will be yet! Hope it will be soon. Have you done any research yet about the AC? Well...would be good to know what the writing exercise is about but at the moment I can't find information anywhere...

Keep in touch & good luck everyone!

Hi everybody,

I have also just passed the first interview. Apparrently we would be given a topic to prepare for the presentation during the AC, that's what I was told by the interviewer. Anybody has other info???

We might go to the same AC, excited!!!!!

My friend works at Watson Wyatt and he said that he was given 3 days to prepare his topic and that they just ask you some questions on it. You also have to do a group exercise and then you have another interview with the management as well as do the online tests again.

That's all I know about the assessment centre...if you guys have any questions let me know and I can ask him for you.

x

Yay…I am loving this heated discussion!

From what I know (well…from their website…)

There will be a written exercise, group discussion, presentation (topics given prior to the AC) and an interview.

I am not too concerned about the presentation actually because at least you have time to prepare for it. I am just thinking what this “written exercise” is. Hope it’s not going to be a shocker!

Yeah…Nikita...if you could ask your friend about the written exercise that would be really cool. Thanks a million!

Yeah! I am also concerned about the written exercise.. it's something related to the position u apply for, sounds scary!

Btw, which division are u guys applying for? I applied for Actuarial Investment Consulting.

hey guys,

I've an AC with WW coming up too. I emailed them today about dates and they said they were still TBC. I applied for Investment- Client Consulting in London.

I applied for two locations: London and Manchester.
It seems very likely that we will attend the same AC!!!

I've applied for Investment Client Consulting in London also! I'm doing the non-actuarial route though.
We may all be doing the AC together if we all havent heard yet.

I asked my WW friend about the written exercise just waiting for his reply..

looking forward to our group discussion, LOL*

Thx Nikita for your info~~~ Wondering what kind of topic will us be asked to prepare for the presentation...

Looks like I am the only Manchester guy here?! anyway...Can't wait to get this over with and have an easy Christmas holiday. alright..Keep the spirit!

aww... me too!!!!!!!!! JDK90 I might get the Manchester AC, who knows~~

Hey ppl, I've applied for Investment Client Consulting in there Reigate office. I got through the 1st round and waited for a week for a response about their AC. They just told me today that they've arranged my assessment centre for WW in Leeds which was my 2nd choice probably becuase it saves me the long journey of goin to london from newcastle . Was wondering if anyone else has a Leeds AC?? Also will we need to do anymore numerical or verbal reasoning tests at the AC??

Hey,

I've still not heard about the AC. I'm getting a little worried as I want it out of the way asap but I'm out of the country from the 16th and pretty busy between now and then. yikes. I think they might retest at the AC but the website doesn't say for sure (I don't think)

Don't worry bob85, I can't make it on 16th either :p called them today to inform them about my availability.. I think u should call them too.

Hey guys,

This may or may not be relevant to you. I just rang WW grad recruitment. I applied for Investment - Client Consulting with London as my first choice and Reigate second. I was told that the places in London had been filled but that they would be holding AC for Reigate in Jan.

Tbh, I'm a bit gutted. I wanted to work in London and I got my app in fairly early and had the phone interview quite a while ago. Has anyone on Wikijob either had a WW AC or maybe has one definitely scheduled for London?

I just called them. London was my only option..I am so gutted. I live in London and cant imagine travelling to Surrey everyday!

I told them I would consider Reigate as well..but it's only because I really want the job! May be able to transfer to London office later.

This is all a bit depressing...

January?!! no, I want an AC before Xmas... this thing has been dragging too long for me..

I don't mind Manchester so hopefully they will have an AC for Manchester soon!!!

Nikita, have you heard anything about the written exercise yet? =)

Has anyone done an AC for Benfits Actuarial Consulting? I gave an AC in Leeds on Monday and still havent been given the presentation topic.

ooh Saher, most of us ar still waiting for a date now. Perhaps we should get some advice from you after Monday. I think you would receive the topic on Friday as they normally give three days for your preparation.

Good Luck!!!!! x

Hey Saher, I read in your other post that you are travelling from Southampton to Leeds for your A/C. Did you arrange overnight accommodation in Leeds? I have an A/C in Reigate and I need to travel from Nottingham. Noticed that I will need to catch like a 4am train to get there for 9am, if that is the start time. Dont want to get to A/C and be sleeping in the writen exercise or something.

Are u guys applying for full-time positions or internships? I currently overseas but applied for London internship. Will that affect my chances for an AC invite? Thks!

Hi wing,I booked a room for a night. Watson Wyatt said they will reimburse all travel and accommodation upto 150. You really dont want to be waking up at 3a.m before an AC. What have you applied for? Im quite pissed off that they dint invite me to Reigate which would have been so much easier for me.

Ok cool, think i will book a room asap. I've applied for Benefits. Yeh you going to Reigate will be much easier to be honest! Do you study somewhere near Leeds?! If you did then maybe they thought that might be more convenient. By the way, do you need to be retested for the numerical and verbal?! I think i will need to in Reigate as I have received this link on my login saying 'numerical verify test' hahahah. Good luck with your A/C in Leeds!! Let us know how it goes!

Aurorablitz, I'm applying for full time position. I dont think you being overseas will affect your chances, as i think there are quite a few overseas students that get on the internship, but dont count my words for it!! What are you applying for by the way?

hey guys, i just received full details for my AC for Investment Client Consulting in Leeds for this Wednesday. The AC involves a group exercise, a written exercise, a presentation and an interview.

Before the AC you have to prepare a 10 minute presentation in which you are not required to use a flip chart, laptop or over head slides and such equipment will not be provided for use. The topic which i've been given to prepare is:

What advice would you give to a pension fund that is asking for help with its investment strategy in the current financial crisis? In particular, how can the pension fund manage its risk?

- You can assume that the pension fund has a significant proportion of its portfolio invested in global equities.
- You can assume that there are no tax or regulatory constraints on the pension fund.

I'm going to have to do quite a bit of research on this topic before my AC as I don't have too many ideas atm. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The whole day itself lasts for about 6 hours. Good luck for your apps, I hope this is helpful to you guys.

Hi WIng, I'm applying for Investment strategy. Dunno if they;re going to ask tehnical questions in the phone interview besides competence ones?

You mean overseas students studying in UK? They should not have problems attending AC there then. If they offer AC to me, I'll have to fly there, which is why I'm not sure that will affect my chances as they might not wanna pay for my flight.

Another thing, I've been checking their website to book an interview slot every day since last week. But no slots open since then. Is it normal?

Good luck for your AC.

Hi aurorablitz@hot...

I think I can answer your question. I did apply for the Investment Strategy and had a phone interview this morning. No technical questions. The only question asked related to the field was: Do you hold a portfolio? Why and how did you choose your shares or bonds? The rest questions are similar to the compentency questions that other ppl described. Hope it help.

Hi london_mai, thanks for the insight. Wish u the best for today's interview and do tell us if u're at the AC. Should be exciting, judging from the comments of those who went.

Atif_Salim,

Thanks for your info, you are very kind! Good luck for tomorrow. Do you mean we can't use PowerPoint for the presentation? What material do you use then? Or is it just a speech presentation?

Jann

I'm guessing that it's just a speech presentation but you can still probably use que cards to help you remember your speech.

Contacted WW regarding the dates of the assessment centre in AC in london, they are saying to me that they are hoping to hold them in Feb! Well at least now I concentrate on my jan exams or anyone else who has exams in jan!

Hi guys..ive got an AC in manchester this week for Benefits consultant.. Just like most of u, i applied fr investment consultant in London but eventually landed in Benefits, cs they filled up all the vacancies.. Does anyone know what the written exercise is like??

Hey Atif, Saher and cybergal!! How were your assessment centres with WW?!?!

Hi wing--, How was your AC. I am also from Nottingham. Could you please give me some advice to preapre for AC. I am worrying about Written exercise..
Cheers,
Thank you

Hi wing--, How was your AC. I am also from Nottingham. Could you please give me some advice to preapre for AC. I am worrying about Written exercise..
Cheers,
Thank you

Nikita, did u receive any message from your friend about written excercise?

Hey everyone,

I have received an offer from Watson Wyatt so I thought Ill share my experience of the Assessment centre with you all.

My day started with the presentation which was quite informal, there was just one person. Then followed a q/a session but it was mostly about how I had prepared my presentation rather than the content of the presentation, how I did my research, what resources I used, what aspect of the preparation process did i find most challenging etc.

Then was the interview which was a usual competency based interview, and a few questions from my application form about my experiences. It lasted a bit over an hour but my interview was the longest, all others finished with the hour. They dint ask any technical questions about the practise or anything related to the current economic situation.

The written exercise was probably the most technical of the whole selection process. I was required to do a pensions calculation, the formula and all required info was provided. And there was a more open ended questions about a pension scheme looking to make some changes in the way they calculate individual pensions.

I also had to do a numerical reasoning test, but it was quuite short and similar to the online ones.

Hope this is useful and good luck to all who have ACs soon.

Dear Saher, congratulations!! you must have done really well to land with the job offer!!

May I know, for the written exercise, do you have to write an essay to advise on the pension calculations? How long were u given to calculate the pensions?

Also, what was your presentation topic?

I bet you have the best Xmas gift this year, have a lovely Christmas ^_^

Dear Saher,
Congrats.
Thank you for sharing AC info. could u plz elaborate the details about written exercise.I am from non financial back ground.I think that I need to prepare a bit more technically.
Thank you for sharing your experiences..

Hi Atif_Salim,

May I know, for your presentation, did you just give a speech presentation, or did you bring any material with you? Hope to hear from you soon~

I attended assessment centre on 12th December still did not receive reply about the final outcome!!! OK, I guess I am not going to be offered a job, but it would be really helpful to receive a feedback which was promised to be sent within 3 days! I am not getting what could be the reason for such a big delay???

Hi laitlana,
Which area you had applied? Could you please give me few more details of assessment centre.
Thank you,

Hi laitlana,
Which area you had applied? Could you please give me few more details of assessment centre.
Thank you,

Well, I applied for Benefits Group graduate scheme in Manchester. The AC was similar to the one discussed by Saher but I also had a group discussion in the end.

 My day started with a written exercise which I found fairly difficult. I was provided with lots of info ( 2 emails from clients, graphs, formulas on how to calculate a pension, some supplementary info that would be needed to be taken into consideration when calculating, explanation of terms and so on). 

The task was to reply to 2 e-mails (hand written) in 1 hour. The first e-mail was based on providing info on the clients pension. This basically meant calculating the pension and providing some explanation.
I do not remember the full details about the second task. But as I can recall it required to provide an advice on a pension scheme which would be more appropriate for the company and which would cost less to implement. Some background info about the company was given plus 5 or 6 options of pension schemes.
Overall, task required to use analytical, critical and communication and time management skills and no previous knowledge was needed. As English is not my first language I was a bit panicking about my language and I think I screwed up a bit. I shall admit that my mistakes were that I read through all the information provided, only realising that some of it was irrelevant. I also spent a bit too much time on the first task and did not manage to complete the second task.
Therefore, my advice is not to panic, understand fully the task before reading through the material provided and manage the time.
I also had the presentation that I prepared beforehand. It went quite good in my opinion and it was followed by some informal questions.
The interview- a lot of competency based questions which were formulated in a way that would confuse you. Well, at least me. :) It worth to have a persuasive answer on how you manage your time and how you deal with pressure and deadlines.
Finally, I had a group discussion. we were given 10 minutes to read through the material. It included the details and background information about 3 different companies and services provided by WW. We had 30 minutes to discuss which company would be the best target to build stronger relationships and offer other services.
At the end I also had numerical test too.
Hope it helps!

Thanks laitlana for your detailed info! I really appreciate that!

For the written exercise, do the formulae contain actuarial notations? I am wondering if I should revise my actuarial core readings for preparation.

Also, did you bring any material with you for the presentation?

The day sounds really hectic, I hope you hear a good news from WW soon. :)

No, the formula was quite easy but for me who does not have any acturial background it was a bit confusing as we had to consider the length of service and the position of the employee in the company.
Formula is as follows:

 ‘Fund Pension’ (for each year) =

    Final Pensionable Pay x

    Pensionable Service ÷ Accrual Rate 

I am sure you will be fine if you are familiar with the basics.

For the presentation I prepared the slide show which I used during presentation and I gave one for the assessor as well.

Good luck to you, jann_ning and everyone else with their job hunting!!!

Thanks laitlana! You are really kind~

But I thought laptop is not provided; so how did you present your slide?

Thank you laitlana.I hope you will get positive reply from WW soon.
I am also from non acturial back ground.completely from out of finance back ground. I dont know how to prepare for written excercise. Numerically,i am OK with geometry and matrices but need to revise everything now. Could any one suggest me to prepare well for written exercise and numerical bits as i applied for inv.consulting.

Thanks for all