IT (Technical) Graduate Assessment Centre - London

The Credit Suisse application process is slow and requires patience - on a positive note this is because they look at you as an individual and they want to match your personal interests and skills with the jobs available.

The company's policy is that they are trying to place you in a real position with real responsibilities. So the Assessment Centre is an opportunity for you to find out what roles are available. The manager that conducted the telephone interview (prior to the AC) will make a recommendation to HR with regards to which managers and roles you should interview for (based on your conversation on the phone, your personal interests, your skills and your CV).

The Assessment Centre consists of a networking lunch, a group task and three one-to-one interviews.
During an AC 6 managers and 6 students will come together. At the beginning of the AC each graduate candidate will receive a schedule for the day. This will be your first chance to know who you will be meeting during your one-to-one interviews.

During the networking lunch, it is best to try to mingle and walk around. In particular, try to talk to those managers that you will NOT be meeting on your interviews... They might have roles that are interesting to you.

The Group exercise is a group task in which you need to make an IT recommendation based on certain specs and with somewhat limited information (the actual task is not important, as they probably have a pool of scenarios for candidates to work on). Taking part in the group exercise are three candidates and three managers. The Group exercise takes around 45-50 minutes: roughly 10 minutes to read, 25 minutes to put a recommendation together and 15 minutes to present and get question by the panel. This is a GROUP exercise - so the focus is in working together as a team. Try to include other members in the discussion, particularly those that are shy/quiet. When it comes to the presentation and the questions by the managers, there will be some questions that you (as a team and as an individual) will not know how to answer immediately. The point of these questions is to show your logic skills and how you react under pressure. When you are answering, try to describe your logic process in broad strokes.

The interviews are three and are divided by competencies (except the technical interview). i.e. You should give examples that describe a situation, what the main issue was, your involvement, how you resolved it, and the outcome. One interview will be on Communication and interpersonal skills. Another on Technical and Problem solving skills. The third one is about Project/Time Managament and taking responsibility. Additionally the managers will be talking to you about the roles that they have and trying to find out more about you. Since they are looking to fill a position, they might ask you questions that have been asked by other managers.

The Outcome

Once you have left, managers will discuss how you did on the interviews, where you would fit best etc. If a manager is interested in you, they will usually ask you for (either) an additional one-to-one interview OR a telephone interview. Occasionally, if a manager is keen in you and thinks you will be a highly desirable asset (i.e. if he thinks that, besides him offering you a role, you will probably get more offers from within the company and several managers will be trying to get you in their teams), they will ask you in for an informal meeting - this type of interviews tend to be quite informal and more of a chat, and they are usually trying to sell you the role - don't get cocky! Until you have a job offer, nothing is guaranteed.

Sometimes you do get job offers from managers that you did not meet. The offer will be based on your interviews (in person and telephone) and the opinion of those who interviewed you, how you did on the group exercise and your personal interests.