Towers Watson Telephone Interview

I am hoping to get a phone interview later this month, how did yours go? Can you tell me something about what they asked? Thanks!

Hi I have a telephone interview in a few days time in retirement. I have been preparing for it for a couple days now. Just wanted to know if anyone could share anything about the questions they were asked. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!!

Hey sanc88...how did your interview go? I have a phone interview coming up in a few days. I wonder if you could share some of the questions...many thanks.

It's competency based. They ask questions like how did you deal with a conflict within a team, when have you improved a process, when have you worked to a deadline to complete a series of difficult tasks... Can't remember the others but there were about 5 questions and follow up questions on each of them.

Yes, like chaudha mentioned, it's mainly a competency based interview. I wasn't even asked the usual questions like Why TW? Why Investment consultancy? I was asked 4 main questions with follow up questions:
1. A time when you had to deal with someone difficult?
2. A time when you were involved in making improvements to a process?
3. A time you had to work to achieve excellent results?
4. A time where your organisation and leadership was tested?
I would also recommend having a few questions prepared to ask the interviewer at the end. The interviewer was very friendly and asked follow up questions where she wanted clarifications. Also, the interview was only 35 mins. Hope it helps :)

@ac_tj01

Thanks for the post. I had my interview on Monday. I was just wondering if you were successful? How long did it take for them to get back to you?

scratch that just heard that I was successful :)

good luck to everyone else!!!!

Congrats kenpachi00!!!! I was successful too =D

Have you heard anything about when the assessment centres are going to take place?

No just that I would be informed closer to the time. I was just glad because I didn't think my interview went well. Had an old woman that kept pausing to write stuff down. Are you going for any other stuff apart from investment consulting?

They said that there are generrally about 6 people at the assessment centre, so not too many of us left at this point.

Also, well done!!!

Hello guys,

Thanks ac_tj01, just had the telephone interview for investment consulting.
Exactly the same structure as above, none technical questions or even why TW, or abt the role. So there are the questions:

1. Competency - Client focus, building relationship etc.
Question: Time you had to build a relationship with someone who was difficult and not easy to approach?

2. Competency - Results focussed, Providing High Quality & timely work
Question: Time you've managed a challenging event and project to a deadline.

3. Competency - Collaboration, creating high performance environment to achieve success
Question: Time you've worked in a group and when your opinion was different from someone else.

4. Competency - Though, leadership, innovation & improvement.
Question: Time you had initiated, and/or implemented a new idea to do something.

The interviewer was very nice, and in the end she discusses whether you are considering any other opportunities etc, which may clash.

Nonetheless, Good Luck to all !

Thank you so much to everone sharing experience with rest of us.
I am wating for my tel interview date to be confirmed. Do all of you guys went for investment consulting?? I am in for Actuarial (Risk Consulting& Software team)...Could you just clarify whether the programme you guys are in.. :-)

Thank you

hey guys,

i had my telephone interview at the beginning of december and passed but still havent had a date confirmed for the next round. cant remember the questions exactly but i recall being asked along these lines:

 - time you had to build a business relationship with someone. what was the outcome?
 - time you had conflict within a team. how did you respond? what could you have done better?
 - time you had to complete a series of tasks to a deadline. how did you manage your time? what did you learn from this experience?
 - when did you lead a team to success? why was it a success?
 - time you brought a new idea to something.

Hi,

I have a telephone interview for actuarial this week, has anyone else had one? If so, what kind of questions were asked?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

@kenpachioo: Thanks, I've only applied to Investment consulting. What about you? Have you still heard from them about assessment centres? I still haven't heard from them? It's quite odd given I had my interview in November.

@reddevil: You're welcome :) Did you succeed?

Does anyone know how many people get the job after the assessment centre?

How long TW takes to confirm whether you passed the 1st round interview?
Does anyone know how long I may need to wait to have assessment centre?

Hi

I had my telephone interview on Thursday and everything mentioned here was very helpful!

As mentioned above, the interview was competency based with follow up questions on the examples I gave. They asked me the following:

-Describe a time you had to build a relationship with a person who was difficult to approach.
-Describe a difficult task you had to complete to a deadline
-Describe a time where you were working in a group and experienced a difference of opinion
-Describe a time you used your initiative to complete/improve a task you were working on.

The only thing that caught me a bit off guard in the follow up questions was being asked what I learnt from the experience so I would advise you to be prepared for that question.

I was told that I would be informed of the outcome of my interview within 5 working days and I found out the next day that I passed! I have a feeling they might inform people at the end of the week so I put my speedy reply down to my interview being on Thursday.

Been invited to an Assessment Day in early February. Does anyone know what to expect?

Hey guys,

Can I just ask yall for some advice - it may sound stupid but every little helps:

I have my interview next thursday, but I have not picked and interviewer yet (they give you the option). From your experiences, who do you think is the best person to go for?

Theresa Foote or Samantha Lambert?

Cheers!

I've already chosen Theresa Foote... ! Because the time suited me be better.

Anyone had an Actuarial interview recently, and care to share what Qs are asked? Are they still the same as the ones above?

Would be grateful
GG

I had an interview for investment management and the questions were the same. Good luck

Have you guys applied for Graduate positions or summer? I assume the questions for both would be focused on the same competencies?

Graduate.

I recently had an AC - they told us there were only 2 positions available (but there were only 2 positions available in total for that position) so I guess it depends on which role you're going for and whether they've already appointed people for it. We were the only AC for that role (from what we understood at the time).

I can't remember exact interview questions as my phone interview was back in november, but they were all pretty standard competency ones e.g. working with a difficult member of a team, implementing some kind of new policy doing something, working in a new and unusual situation and how you coped and something else about teamwork. As someone above said, be prepared for the "What have you learnt from this situation" question as she asked me that for pretty much everything.

Oh yes, these questions seem familiar!!

-Describe a time you had to build a relationship with a person who was difficult to approach.
-Describe a difficult task you had to complete to a deadline
-Describe a time where you were working in a group and experienced a difference of opinion
-Describe a time you used your initiative to complete/improve a task you were working on.

And lasttimeround, AC for benefits was competency interview, group exercise, lunch, numerical verification exercise, preparation for role play, problem solving and career motivation interview, role play and role play write-up and office tour.

@ threeblindmice - dude, 2 positions left for summer internship? Is that what they told you? Or was that for graduate?

@borislava- where have you applied for? Just being nosey here.

Okay cheers guys, if anyone has had their Actuarial Consulting interview please let us know what they asked!!

Thanks

I applied for a summer internship in Risk Consulting, but I suppose investment analysis goes under that department, because there wasn't exclusively 'investment analysis'.

No, graduate International Benefits - so quite a specific role!

I applied for actuarial internship. Does anyone know about the questions that they will ask for Telephone Interview? I will have mine coming up next week.

hey joanne,

i applied for consulting so not sure if theyre the same. however, none of my questions were regarding consulting. they were standard competency questions so you need to prepare examples for times you (for example) were part of a team, gave a presentation, encountered conflict in a group, organised something to a deadline, had to persuade someone, had to make a difficult decision, made a mistake, overcame a problem... these are examples of ones i know people have been asked. think about what you learned in each of these situations, they'll be impressed with that. competency questions are not difficult so long as you answer the question

hope this helps

Hi,

Okay. Thanks a lot! It does helps. Hope yours goes well. My interview is on coming Tuesday.
Hopefully everything goes well.

I had my telephone interview for Consulting last Friday 11th and I got a confirmation that I passed on Tuesday.

The questions were just like what many have stated in the above posts and I had the opportunity to ask questions later. He said it was going to last about 30 minutes but it easily went 45 minutes because he made me feel extremely comfortable (by far the most friendly telephone I had).

Just prepare the Competency questions mentioned above and at the end he asked me to elaborate (if I left anything out) and he asked me to explain what I learned from this experience.

I wasn't asked Why Towers Watson or Why Consulting (which was quite shocking), but I threw in some facts that I learned from my research of the firm and role and he really liked it.

I hope this helps and if anyone has a telephone interview coming up good luck.

hey han,

during your research of TW did you find out any of their clients? i'm really struggling to find any info on TW clients online. could you tell me what you know about this or perhaps where I could look them up?

massive thanks

had my phone interview on Thursday. The questions are the same as those highlighted in most of the posts. The only difference was I was asked to give an example of a time where I worked in a team and MY OPINION was different from what everyone else's

@bho500

Thanks for adding your experience of this year's telephone interviews to those already posted from previous years. It seems as though TW's approach to telephone interviews is strictly competency-based, which as far as I know is unique in the industry. I have a telephone interview on Thursday; is it safe to focus solely on my responses to competency questions? I feel a bit apprehensive about not preparing for technical/case study questions, but judging by the experiences of others, it seems like it's a fairly safe gamble. Anyone beg to differ?

@d201ea

Hope this isn't too late. Just had my interview today as well, and the questions were EXACTLY as on this page. No other questions. My interview only lasted 20 minutes and it was very focused on the 4 questions as above.

Any of you guys had AC invites yet?

Hey guys,

I had an internship with TW last year for risk and I can tell you - they don't tend to ask technical questions, especially if you haven't done actuarial science. The telephone interview is ONLY competency based.

With regard to the AC - it won't happen till after xmas. It was actually quite late for me, compared to other companies for which I'd applied for. If anyone has any particular q-ns regarding the AC, inbox me.

@ clk555

Your response was just too late for me; my interview was at 10:30, but thanks anyway! Thankfully it went just as everybody else's, with four main competency questions (plus additional probing of my answers to those - specifically geared around 'what I learned' from each situation), then a brief explanation of what the next stage (i.e. assessment cente) would entail, then an opportunity for Q&A. Mine lasted a bit longer than yours - about 45 minutes - but it may just be that you were more succinct with your responses than I was (something I need to work on).

She told me that I can expend to find out whether I'll progress to AC tomorrow (Friday), or Monday at the latest.

Good luck!

Hi all,

 I received email confirmation this afternoon that my telephone interview was successful. The signals were somewhat mixed though, as they were keen to stress that competition for places at the AC's is highly competitive and are awarded on merit. It makes it sound (to me, at least) as though getting an AC place is not guaranteed, even though I have been progressed to the next stage!

I phoned them up yesterday and they made it quite clear that despite passing the telephone interview you weren't necessarily guaranteed a place. I'm assuming it means they'll take other things into account like degree grades and verbal/numerical test scores. Good luck!

Got some good news today, much sooner than I might have hoped: I've been invited to the assessment centre on Monday 19th December (I'm applying for Talent and Rewards). Good luck to everyone else, let us know if you hear anything.

Where is your AC d2?

Also, anyone applying for benefits heard back yet? The waiting is killing me!

@ WastedFun -- My AC is at the London office in Holborn.

Hope they put an end to your torture soon; good luck, and let me know how you get on.

I had my interview a few days ago and I was successful (I got an AC date but am currently waiting for a rescheduled date). I owe this to the comments I have read here. So to return the favour:

Exactly the same four questions as before:

1. A time when you had to deal with someone difficult/not easy to approach. (Building Relationships)
2. A time when you completed a project. (High Quality/Timely Work)
3. A time you encountered conflict within a group-here I was given options (a) I was the only one disagreeing with the rest or (b) there was a general split etc. I was not forced towards one of those, just given as options. (Team Work)
4. A time you improved a process/implemented a new idea. (Innovation/Initiative)

Was a very nice interviewer, gave a lot of information at the beginning and the end. Made me feel very comfortable. There were LOADS and LOADS of DETAILED follow up questions (prepare VERY well!)-not just what I have learnt from the experience (which did come up almost everywhere but certainly was not the only follow up question).

And contrary to what I have read here previously, I was in the end asked "Why Towers Watson?" and I think here it would be good to demonstrate you have done your research. Also, if I have applied to/I would be applying to other companies and briefly about my choice of career (in general), even details of when my course would finish, work permits etc. It took exactly one hour.

This really is the whole story and I hope this will help others.

Hi mpp,

Thanks a lot for your post. I have my interview coming up end of this week. Just wanted to know what kind of follow up questions did they ask?

Thanks!

It was really very specific to what I have said, clarifications, explain more, reflect more, but only based on my answers, I do not think it will help you. All I can say is just know everything in detail, keep calm, listen carefully, and take a couple of seconds to think. You will be fine.

How did it go on monday d2? Did you get accepted? Im waiting to hear back on an assessment day

@ indigo123

Got made an offer today! I was one of two from our AC group of eight to be offered. Good luck! Hope they let you know before shutting up shop for Christmas. Let us know how you fare.