Bank of Ireland Graduate Programme Assessment Centre

Absolut

Hi,

I've been invited to an assessment centre with Bank of Ireland next week, for the capital markets division of their graduate programme - any idea of what the assessment centre involves?

Thanks in advance for any help.

jameshayes

I'm not sure of the BoI one but most consist of a few team based exercises an interview with a 2/3 person panel. On grad assessment days you need to be as relaxed as possible, and talk to people, Recruiters/Managers like to see people mingle.

I recruit for technical roles and we have tests on the day as well as activities, but we would tell people before hand.

Don’t worry too much about it, just go with the flow of the day and look forward to the free biscuits!

Absolut

Thanks for the response.

I think the only thing I'll have a problem with is the eight minute presentation that I've heard we'll have to do - on the topic of my suitability for a position on the BOI graduate programme. Presentations are something I've never had to do before so I'm very much in the dark as to how to approach it!

farva

I've got it in a couple of weeks too. I'm going for Capital Markets aswell. I dont have much experience in the line of presentations either, so I'm also fairly screwed!

mcic

farva wrote: »

I've got it in a couple of weeks too. I'm going for Capital Markets aswell. I dont have much experience in the line of presentations either, so I'm also fairly screwed!

Same as me.

Anybody know what else is involved? I got a phonecall from the Grad recruitment people, but no e-mail like apparently everybody else got. I'm assuming some kind of competency interview and group work?

Running Bing

Absolut wrote: »

Thanks for the response.

I think the only thing I'll have a problem with is the eight minute presentation that I've heard we'll have to do - on the topic of my suitability for a position on the BOI graduate programme. Presentations are something I've never had to do before so I'm very much in the dark as to how to approach it!

How did you manage to get through two/three years of University without having to do a presentation:eek:

Absolut

Babybing wrote: »

How did you manage to get through two/three years of University without having to do a presentation:eek:

Three years - doing a maths degree. Never had any courses that needed presentations. Have only ever done three essays/projects. The assessments are all final exam and maths assignment based.

nesf

Babybing wrote: »

How did you manage to get through two/three years of University without having to do a presentation:eek:

Eh, what?

Absolut

I'd imagine that a lot of university courses don't involve regular (or any) presentations. The only one I'll ever have to do is for my final year dissertation.

Running Bing

nesf wrote: »

Eh, what?

I said "How did you manage to get through two/three years of University without having to do a presentation"



If your still having trouble try this http://www.google.com/language_tools

Running Bing

Absolut wrote: »

I'd imagine that a lot of university courses don't involve regular (or any) presentations. The only one I'll ever have to do is for my final year dissertation.

My mistake, I thought they were a pretty regular occurence in uni's.

nesf

Babybing wrote: »

I said "How did you manage to get through two/three years of University without having to do a presentation"



If your still having trouble try this http://www.google.com/language_tools

lol

chump

i went thru a four year degree without a presentation... i think some degrees concentrate on knowledge attainment - maybe it was just my degree
i'll be honest though i would have benefited from presentation skills courses

mcic

I've been wonderin what the presentation is about too - I tried e-mailing the graduate recruitment people also, but didn't get anything back. They do say no multimedia, and that you have to submit a copy to the interviewers, so I'm assuming you give them the written copy and then just give your eight minute presentation to them and the other 9 capital markets people at once. No idea what the presentation should containt though (stuff from the BOI website probabl?)

Kelso

Is the presentation definitely an 8 minute presentation on your suitability for the programme? They just told me it was a presentation, never gave anymore information at all.
Anyone else on at 1130 Tues?

Absolut

Don't all the assessment centres start at 08:30? If there was one at 11:30 I would have picked that one instead. Did you apply to capital markets?

The e-mail I got from them says:

Bank of Ireland Graduate Recruitment e-mail wrote:

Individual Presentation:
'Prepare a presentation demonstrating your suitability for a place on one of the Bank of Ireland Group Graduate Development Programmes. Your presentation should reflect your understanding of the Banks Strategy".

Your presentation should be no longer than 8 minutes, you should prepare a copy of your presentation to give to the assessors and you will not have access to multimedia.

Did you get an e-mail from them? I know of other people who got invites over the phone, but no e-mails. It's all a bit disorganised really - especially the way the registration dates and times were completely messed up when they sent the e-mails.

Kelso

Yes I am Capital Markets too. I got a call followed by an email.
This is basically all that was in the email, as an attachment:

11:30am Arrival & Registration


12:00pm Group Exercise – Assessment Centre

3:15pm Individual Presentation followed immediately by Interview


No explanation of anything that's involved at all really! Looks like it will be a long day anyway. I better ring them up in the morning I guess and try find out if all the presentations are the same or whats going on!

Edit: I didn't actually pick the time, just the day. I was told it could be as early as 8.30 but lucky for me it's not quite!! Also not too helpful that the hotel is pretty out of the way and charges for parking. Bound to be pretty expensive for the 5 hours or so it will take

Absolut

Hopefully mine won't be on at 08:30 - I'm living about 3 hours away from Dublin and don't like the prospect of having to pay €100+ for a night in the hotel.

Kelso

That's quite a trip alright! Do you know what day yours is even? I think if you have to travel a lng distance they usually reimburse expenses so I'd imagine you'll be ok.
I'm really puzzled about this presentation now-it's very annoying. And that's not even thinking about what the rest of the assessment centre will be like!

mcic

I didn't see anything mentioned about expenses on their website or their e-mail - so I doubt they'll be reimbusing us for anything. Most other big banks send you expsenses claim forms when they schedule the interviews, or offer to book flights/trains/hotels for you when you're scheduled. Not BoI it seems!

My assessment's scheduled for Thursday next week. No contact about it yet though.

EstUAr

i had my asessment center this mrning it was awful. the presentation was really tough infront of the other people and the interviewes. really stressful1!

europerson

EstUAr wrote: »

i had my asessment center this mrning it was awful. the presentation was really tough infront of the other people and the interviewes. really stressful1!

Any more details?

Kelso

EstUAr wrote: »

i had my asessment center this mrning it was awful. the presentation was really tough infront of the other people and the interviewes. really stressful1!

Oh god-doesn't sound too fun!!! What kind of stuff were you doing? Any tips? I have mine in the morning and not looking forward to it at all. Just starting to put my presentation together now, don't really know what I should have in it.
Anyone know what the banks strategy is??

farva

EstUAr wrote: »

i had my asessment center this mrning it was awful. the presentation was really tough infront of the other people and the interviewes. really stressful1!

That sounds like a complete p1ss take on their part!! They make you present on your suitability in the bank in front of the people that your competing against for a job...I mean like WTF!?!?!?

Any more info / advice on that?

I've got mine in about 2 weeks and have to say that I havent been impressed by them so far. The aptitute test was quite odd and riddled with spelling mistakes / gramatical errors, they made a balls of the dates on the first day of booking to the assesment centres and now this presentation in front of your competitors!

busie

i have mine next week, any idea what to put in the presentation? are the interviews ok?

mcic

Kelso wrote: »

I have mine in the morning and not looking forward to it at all. Just starting to put my presentation together now, don't really know what I should have in it.
Anyone know what the banks strategy is??

How'd it go? What was the standard of the presentations like?

Running Bing

farva wrote: »

That sounds like a complete p1ss take on their part!! They make you present on your suitability in the bank in front of the people that your competing against for a job...I mean like WTF!?!?!?

Any more info / advice on that?

I've got mine in about 2 weeks and have to say that I havent been impressed by them so far. The aptitute test was quite odd and riddled with spelling mistakes / gramatical errors, they made a balls of the dates on the first day of booking to the assesment centres and now this presentation in front of your competitors!

I must say that is absolutely baffling to me bordering on unprofessional.

Why should you have to stand up in front on other people going for a job interview and say why you are worthy? In front of the tea lady, the CEO the finance director, the HR manager or the entire Capital Markets department I would understand but in front of the other people going for the job?


Just sounds absolutely crazy to me.


Surely the interview is where you prove your suitability and if they want to see how you perform in front of people or what your presentation skills are like why not just do a presentation on a current business issue. Its ridiculous imo.

Kelso

Just back from assessment centre now. You will all be glad to know it's not as bad as it's been made out. You don't actually do your presentation in front of everyone-it's only in front of the two people interviewing you. You can even just sit down and do it so its fine.
The group assessment is just a case study to be discussed in a group of 6-8, which lasts just over an hour. The interview and presentation last about an hour together. There's a lot of hanging around though and you don't get any food. Best place to go is probably Heuston Station but it's about a 10/15 minute walk

justfortherecor

Ya, I also spoke my friend today and he said that he did the presentation in front of just the 2 interviewers. I dunno where people got the notion of doing it in front of everyone, that would be pretty ridiculous.

Kelso

EstUAr wrote: »

i had my asessment center this mrning it was awful. the presentation was really tough infront of the other people and the interviewes. really stressful1!

I think that's where everyone got the idea that the presentation was in front of everybody. Probably just mis-phrased I guess

mcic

Kelso wrote: »

Just back from assessment centre now.

So how do you think it went? Were the interviews competency based, or more technical? Just one interview with two interviewers? Any difficult course/technical/industry based questions?

europerson

Kelso wrote: »

There's a lot of hanging around though and you don't get any food.

How long were you there in total?

Kelso

I was there for about 5 hours total so waiting around roughly 3 hours. Some people weren't as bad and some were worse so luck of the draw I guess.
I thought it went ok, the interviewers were pretty nice and it wasn't too formal. Mainly competency based, nothing technical. One of the girls was saying she mentioned sub-prime in her presentation though and was quizzed on it soo prob best keeping them simple.
Best of luck to everyone left to go anyway!

Dan13

Hi - I was invited to attend an assessment centre too next week and I spoke to someone who gave me all the details.

Everyone has to do the same presentation and you just need to do a few slides and have a copy for the interviewers & talk them through it so there is no access to Powerpoint or anything like that to keep it simple... and it's definitely only in front of two interviewers because I know someone who did it this week.

Apparently they are meeting a lot of people each day so everyone has a slightly different timetable - some people have the presentation and interview first and others have the group exercise first. They email you out an individual schedule a few days beforehand. The presentation is 8 mins max to be preprepared, followed by a competency based interview - 1 hour for both in total. The group exercise is with a few other candidates which is separate from the interview and is for about 1.5 hours and that's it. It's the final stage of the process so you don't need to go back and forth to several stages so we should hear back in January.

I'm travelling from outside Dublin and they will give you up to €100 back for travel if you have a receipt. I think if you get to this stage you're doing well as they have increased the numbers for their programmes this year quite a lot. Also, there are free parking spaces in the hotel for people, first come first serve.

Wish me luck!

Running Bing

Dan13 wrote: »

Hi - I was invited to attend an assessment centre too next week and I spoke to someone who gave me all the details.

Everyone has to do the same presentation and you just need to do a few slides and have a copy for the interviewers & talk them through it so there is no access to Powerpoint or anything like that to keep it simple... and it's definitely only in front of two interviewers because I know someone who did it this week.

Apparently they are meeting a lot of people each day so everyone has a slightly different timetable - some people have the presentation and interview first and others have the group exercise first. They email you out an individual schedule a few days beforehand. The presentation is 8 mins max to be preprepared, followed by a competency based interview - 1 hour for both in total. The group exercise is with a few other candidates which is separate from the interview and is for about 1.5 hours and that's it. It's the final stage of the process so you don't need to go back and forth to several stages so we should hear back in January.

I'm travelling from outside Dublin and they will give you up to €100 back for travel if you have a receipt. I think if you get to this stage you're doing well as they have increased the numbers for their programmes this year quite a lot. Also, there are free parking spaces in the hotel for people, first come first serve.

Wish me luck!

Think you'll fit in well at BOI Dan....you already sound like an employee;)

Absolut

Any more reports?

White1

I had my interview and assessments last week and they went ok, the presentation was at the beginning of the interview so it was over with quickly... Then I had a Group Exercise, it was all fine, but there was some waiting around which was expected. Just prepare for you presentation and interview and you will be fine.

mikmo

I'd agree that it wasn't too bad, 2 people watching presentation is bearable.

I am curious as to when you were all told you'd hear back? I was told January, seems and excruciatingly long wait compared to other banks!

Kelso

Anyone else hear back? I got the call today, got offered Capital Markets. Didn't get much details but sending out offer letter by end of the week.
Does anyone know what the pay scales in banks are like? I know i starts at 28.5K but just wondering how quick it will go up and by how much?

Solarball10

My b/f works in graduate programme for them - his salary goes up 4 grand a year, started off on 22k, gettin 26k next yr. After 4 yrs he'll be on 42k. Not 2 shabby!

farva

I got an offer from Capital Markets today aswell. I'd love to hear some salary info aswell.

ozzyoh wrote: »

My b/f works in graduate programme for them - his salary goes up 4 grand a year, started off on 22k, gettin 26k next yr. After 4 yrs he'll be on 42k. Not 2 shabby!

But which grad programme is that? it doesnt sound like the Capital Markets grad programme as the starting salary seems a bit low?

Solarball10

He's in the finance programme!

jballantine

they say on their website that capital markets is in excess of 28k but to be honest it would have to be mid 30's . Everyone else seems to be offering well above what their quoting.

farva

ozzyoh wrote: »

He's in the finance programme!

Cheers ozzoh, that makes sense if its accounting based.

jballantine I would have thought that too, but I was on the phone to them today and they start you on €28.5k + bonus, Which does seem a bit low. as the going rate is about €35k including bouns, and I cant see the BOI bonus being €6.5k!! I'd love to know roughly what it would be, I assume about 10-15%?

jballantine

as far as I know everybody gets the same bonus for the first year. I think its marked out of a certain grade depending on your performance but I think most people get a 6% rise. I would be vary surprised in you get a bonus on top of this aswell and if so it will be definitely wont be double digits.

I think you get share options in year 2 which as an incentive.

jballantine

ok heres the info no cash bonus:

The bonus is in share options up to 6% it seems. However this could be worth nothing as the shares are down 40% on the year. Last share options were at 13 euro it seems.

Salary rise is graded on merit (yeah right) on a 5 point scale up to 8%. 5 being the highest and that being a 8% rise. However no one gets that in the first year so your talking about a 4% merit rise.

So unless they come in well above the 28.5 , I wouldn't bother.

farva

So you reckon: €28,500 + 6% bonus = €30,210. About €4 or €5k less than the competition...a bit disappointing.

I think that the capital markets grad programme looks good, as in the rotations are all front office in Asset Managment, Global Markets and Corporate Banking, but the money is a bit of a downer for me!

I saw in another thread that you were talking about negotiating on grad starting salaries. Did you get offered BOI?

farva

Just saw your second post there, that looks pretty sh1tty!! Where did you find that out?

jballantine

offer in the post but , in fairness the capital markets is a good programme I think they have asset management aswell this year plus a couple of other things as you mention which make it vary interesting.

However with inflation at 5% you can't be that far behind the competition. Maybe there trying to get their pool in early before AIB CM start their tests in january. AIB might be the same aswell so dont know?

edit haven't actually recieved the full contract just yet just going on what happened last year.

farva

I know that AIB CM start you on €30k + bonus and in your second year you get a pay rise, bonus inrease and profit sharing in cash or share options. And they also have a very attractive package, like discount car insurance and paying half a gym membership. But dont do rotations, you stay in the area that you're hired into. So in comparison to their main rival BOI CM renumeration package seems VERY poor!!!

Are all the BOI rotations definately front office? Or do they slyly stick you in the back office section of each rotation? (although I'm fairly sure that BOISS is their back office arm and you dont get rotated in there. Did you get all that salary info in the letter that they posted out to you?

jballantine

no i rang the guy that interview me there, he doesnt know what the offers are for this year only what the guys are currently on, he says his graduates are put to work straight away with clients, for the first year you basically act as a sponge and hopefully pick up as much as you can. ( knowledge wise not cash!)