Watson Wyatt application

I completed that application form and felt just as you did.

Basically, what I talked about the areas/services they provide. They focus on human capital and financial management. Human capital services incl. employee benefits, retention and communication. Also, they manage pensions and insurance, provide a range of investment consulting (asset management, risk analysis etc.) services.

I would advise you to look through the services they provide. What I really did was write a very brief overview of that. I wrote less than 300 words in total but it was fine and I got asked for the psychometric tests.

Good luck with it!

I'M doing the numerical test tomorrow
Anyone care to share any tips please?

 I did the online numerical test for watson wyatt and was unsuccessful! Any advise on how I can improve as I have tried all the practice psychometric tests at my careers service ad seem to be getting nowhere?

Thanks

Well what was it like please?
Was it similar to the SHL practice tests?
cheers

Yep, it was similar to the SHL practice tests.

Jobless, I suggest that you look at the mistakes you made. Some of these tests have solutions and tell you what questions you got wrong. I looked through my mistakes to see what I was getting wrong, pinpointed what I tended to mess up and tried to pay extra attention to tt sort of questions.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

I had 25 mins to do 18 questions and the questions are hard, even though I am a maths student. I applied for actuarial work, so maybe they require harder numerical questions. There were a few questions that were simple, but most are difficult as I don't know how to get the answers as u have to calculate differnet things in one question and keep track.

Does any know the past rate mark maybe if u have to reach a minimum percentage?

I don't know how to get solutions as I don't think they tell u the answers?

Well dont worry i just failed my test as well, which im seriously annoyed about.
More complicated than the practice tests ive done.
I was only trying to do the non-acturial route anyway.
I didn't expect the thing that would stop me being hired was my numerical skills as i thought i was reasonable. Guess i need more practice.
good luck to all

Hi, I've applied for an actuarial position with watson wyatt.
I passed the online test, but there were some slightly tricky parts including a killer trick question about exchange rates which I'm sure most people got wrong. Agreed though, it was a hard test. I'm not sure what the standard is but I'm certain, unless there were any more places to trip up in that I was unaware of, I got roughly 16/18. I am however a Master's of Maths student, so this should be my strong point.
Then I had to do verbal which was ok, but now I'm having trouble actually booking a telephone interview! There are never any slots.

For the ""Describe your understanding of a) what a role in your chosen practice would involve and b) the market Watson Wyatt operates in." (400 words max)."

a) I talked about day-to-day roles (ie/ group meetings, regularly phoning the client), as well as talking about some of the main lines of actuarial work - pensions, life-insurance etc..

b) I concentrated on the size and scale of their clients and talked about how they regularly deal with FTSE 350 and Global500 companies. I wrote a lot more in a), than b).

I hope that helps. If anyone is interested I will post further details about the telephone interview.

The same problem.....currently no slots available....Will there be any in the next few days? I doubt....

Hey Tb_yeovil

I have recently failed the numerical test, so let us know how you do at telephone stage and what it involved. It's looking likely that I'm going to reapply next year as this year is looking blank for me cos I'm not getting anywhere.
Are u a graduate or undergraduate?
Wat actuarial position u applied for?

Ring them up and find out your mark. I was in the 37th percentile which isn't so far from the mean, but not good enough here.
For reference, are SHL negatively marked, because i guessed the last couple of questions just so that i go an answer down? Is this a good idea?

thanks

Tb_yeovil,

Hi congratulations and have u booked ur telephone interview?
Do u have any clue what will they ask during the interview?

so many thanks!!

Hi All,
I passed the online tests and had my telephone interview last night, am now waiting on the results of that, fingers crossed!
My tips on the numerical test is to do all of the SHL practice tests, as the actual ones are very similar, and just scribble stuff down as you go along to keep track.
The telephone interview was fairly pleasant, starting off with why I chose the degree I did (Physics) and then why I decided to move into finance and why I wanted to be an actuary. Followed by a few questions about Watson Wyatt and the practice group I had applied for. It then finished off with some competency-based questions (~5) about the usual stuff - teamwork, communication etc.
Good luck to you all!

Hi everyone

Can anyone give any websites or books that give solutions to numerical tests? I've only came across the efinancialcareers website that gives solutions.
I need to understand the methods used to acheive the answers!

Thanks!

try shl or psl

Hello,

I had the telephone interview but sadly didn't get beyond tt. Still waiting for my feedback.

Being the geek I am, I took notes on my interview. First they asked what other companies I applied to; why I want to work for them; why I was interested in non-actuarial consulting (what I applied for). Then the competency questions: example when I improved a process or system (sth like tt); worked as a team; exceeded expectations; when it was impt for me to form a good relationship; took the initiative.

It won't be too technical because it is HR interviewing. My only gripe was the girl interviewing me sounded really ill. I have sympathy for her but she was quite grumpy and kept interrupting me with her coughing and nose-blowing.. *sigh*

Did they ask questions in the frame of commerical awareness?

I rung them up and left a message with the HR woman, moaning about lack of telephone interview slots. To be fair she rung me up and about 2 hours later and I now have a telephone slot on November 25 ... I imagine it's just be why did you apply to this line etc.. and the usual competency stuff. It fustrates me that initial interviews in general and I imagine even more so in a telephone interview are just basically exams that you have to revise for. crap system
anyway will let people what sort of stuff they asked...

Sorry "jobless", to answer your question I am an undergraduate and applied for Total Reward and Benefits

Just finished my telephone interview. Did not do very well. Share with you guys some question they asked.

1) Why Watson Wyatt? Why an actuary role?
2) Time when you create team spirit
3) Time when you improve a process/system
4) Leadership
5) Time when you need to build a strong relationship
6) How do you guarantee the quality of your work?
7) Example of innovation

Good luck
p.s. I applied for Investment Group, but I think the questions are general to all roles.

I did the tests on Thursday and on Friday I received an email saying I passed the test and invited for a telephone interview. But the only avaiable time slot I could book is on the 5th of Dec. Really hv no idea why it is so late? I applied for the Investment Group as well.

Regarding the test, I agreed the numercial test was slightly harder than the standard SHL one, the calculations were harder and more complex towards the final few questions. And the verbal test as well, the articles were geting longer towards the end....... .

By the way Winniedilu, how long was your telephone interview?

london_mai,

The interview is no longer than 35 as the HR people said and mine is 34 mins. Wish you good luck.

Hi guys, i was wondering if you can help me with the application form.

What does a non-actuarial role involve??

Hi, I'm so glad others here found the numerical test difficult. I recently finished a Masters in maths and thought the test would be a breeze, only to fail it!!! I felt super thick afterwards but later when I found that my brother who does maths, said he easily passed a Deloitte numerical test but then struggled to get the example quesions of the WW one right, and also failed it, I felt better! It does seem WW push you a lot, certainly more so than practice tests i've tried.

But practice makes perfect, and I reapplied and have now passed em. Incidentally I found the verbal test much easier. It's not that the maths of the numeracy test is more advanced than other tests, but it seems that the Watson wyatt questions are more involved and complex and require more calculation steps per question than others. Obviously with the time pressure that can make things difficult if you don't spot what needs to be done quickly. Also, a lot of questions seemed to bombard you with with lots of info that mostly wasn't necessary. I recommend the SHL practice tests as the closest thing to em.

I've applied to the Investment Strategy Group. It was between that or the Benefits. Not sure if I should have gone for that Benefits as it is the largest group and all, but investment strategy came across as bit more technical and hence (for me!) more interesting.

Also, for the telephone interview (I have to wait till Dec 3rd as literally missed out on a this Friday slot by seconds - went to click for 5:00 Fri 21st then when tried to confirm it went 'already taken' bah!), could anyone tell me how much finance or business awareness you need to know? I find it hard to find specific examples related to WW. Any good sources? And was the telephone interview scary!!!?

Thanks

Hey, I have just got information from WW that you need at to be at least in the 50 percentile mark in order to progress.
I failed this test terribly as a maths student on a first! It just goes to show that it's not really the maths that candidates struggle with, but more about understanding the datas and how to intepret the data in terms of the question.
I could be working out a question for 2 mins and realise that all I needed to do was only going to take me 20 secs.
Anyone agree?

Yep exactly. It's more about being able to pick out the relevant data and understand the question quickly. I'm sure we could all get them all right if it was like an overnight 'homework' - as in it's not as if you're tested on hard to understand concepts. These tests really are just systems that you have to go jump through; you don't actually need to be great at proper maths to do em. But if you fail (like I did) they seem happy to let you apply again straight away with a different email address. That's what I did with a straight copy and paste of my app form. No questions asked!

Can u really reapply with a different email address?
Wat if they find out?
Or wat are chances of them finding that out?

double post

How's it a problem? It's not like you can only ever apply to company once in you life, and I said on the app form i'd applied before. Ha if i'm honest this is the 3rd time I applied. I still didn't get through the test the second time, though I knew I'd done a lot better so felt was close and worth one more shot before London apps deadline closed. I did think when I reapplied they might go 'no, you've had your chance' but was fine, and besides the worst that could've happened would have been a no! Also it was good to reapply even if it just forced me to keep practicing the tests! I'm not super confident about the next stages if i'm honest, but again it's all experience.

pretty sure it has to be 12 months later. in applying twice you're more than likely be found out and could possibly ruin applying for them again in the future.

Perhaps you're right, though I honestly didn't realise this. Of course I expect if you applied for a job and and had an interview and didn't get through, you couldn't apply again for that intake and then would have to show that you've developed yourself further to get another interview. Perhaps just getting past an online test is less restrictive (it was definitely harder than I expected from other tests and seems as if it does take a few by surprise). I mean, I figured they'd record some of your details to a database or something when your application is successful, so I did think my name might get flagged up when I reapplied but was fine (and I didn't try and 'disguise' myself at all!) Anyway, we'll see, just taking it as experience, and what will be will be!!!

About the numerical test guys, a lot of you are saying the SHL practice is the best preparation, do they only have the one practice on their site-'One verbal and one numerical' or are there more?

Cheers

Interview was tough, the competency based q's were the toughest iv ever faced

Hey Wagwan,

Do you mind to let us know what your q's were in the tele interview? Were they similar as the other one's?
Thanks a lot

Hey, Guys, I have just failed the WW numerical online test.... gutted cause I though I had a really good chance... I did all sort of online tests and even bought books, still didn't work... I did engineering for undergraduate degree, pretty strong in Math... anyway, could anyone suggest effctive methods to practice online numerical test please? Many thanks in advance!!!

Just thought I'd add to this thread. I completed my psychometric tests and got through to the phone interview stage though all the slots I could do were in December which seems really late to me.

I, unlike everyone else it seems, found the numerical slightly easier than the practice test on the SHL site, although I found it really annoying that I could not skip the longer questions and go back to them if I had time like I could in the practice one. I found the verbal test quite hard as there were a few questions that were very difficult for me to answer. For example one question clearly looked like it should be 'true' based on the paragraph but I felt this depended on the assumption that all 'flora' were plants which whilst obvious was not stated in the paragraph, I would love to know what the real answers were in a test like that.

Any advice for the phone interview would be great. Thankfully I was able to book myself a 'mock' phone interview with my uni so I will have a chance to practice and get feedback before the big scary call.

Hi Seeker,

When is ur telephone interview? Mine is on the 5th of Dec, very late as well!

I'd rather not say, its very late though which is annoying for me as I was hoping to get the assessment centre day (assuming I get one of course) out of the way before Christmas.

Hi Anyone going to the assessment centre? seems like everyone is waiting for the telephone interview...when you get through let's discuss about the assessment centre and maybe we could work together. I'm applying for client consulting.

the telephone interview was pretty much the same.. as those people have shared. I guess they're quite standard questions. So just think quickly and say whatever you first think of. I reckon they just want to see how you respond to questions and communicate effectively

and... be prepared to discuss what other companies you have applied to!

Thanks for the advice. I will certainly think about how to justify the companies I have applied to.

I might be prepared to discuss them, however I don't see any reason why I should reveal all the companies I'm applying to just because they ask me... at least not until I'm more sure of where I stand and where I want to work.

It seems slightly unrealistic of them to ask that kind of question, but that's just my opinion. I've never had a phone interview before so perhaps that's a standard question and I should not read too much into it.

I have had a phone interview with Watson Wyatt last Tuesday and have no news from them yet. Just wondering how long does it take for them to get back to you. The lady who interviewed me told me it takes three days but it's been too long now. Should I call them?

Hi jann-ning, it took them almost exactly 3 days to get back to me after my phone interview. I would also recommend logging on to the website as they also update that with your status.
Good luck!

Hi HBM,

I have finally got an email from them, I passed to first interview!! so relieved now!!! Have you been to the assessment centre yet? I am awaiting for the arrangement :)

Hi All,

I gave my telephone interview in Nov 2008 and passed it...since then I have been waiting for the AC and have been asking them regulalry....They say they will call me in feb/march....I applied for the Investmet Consulting london but now my application has been changed to Dublin....since they have filled all the places....I would be really grateful if anyone could share their experiences and let me knwo if they are in the same situation and has anyone heard about the AC for Dublin office being held in the near future?

Thanx

Hi mate can you please tell us about your telephone interview in detail.

Got through to the assessment centre-piece of cake