Certus Graduate Opportunities

duende12

I have just secured a graduate job with Certus on Stephen's Green and couldn't be happier. I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience working for them?? Things like if its challenging work, staff morale and dresscode are what i'd like to find out before starting.

I'd appreciate people sharing any experience they've had good or bad.

Thanks

duende12

Anyone??

pow1987

How are you finding your new job with Certus? what is the role like?

Sonsof95

Hi,

Have applied for the 2013 variation, but know very little about the company or the role - when you've time you could enlighten me?

Any help greatly appreciated!

freeze4real

Did anyone get through to the psychometric testing.

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Just got the mail for it today. Doing it later.
Anyone do it yet?

skeleton_boy

Just saw the e-mail now. How did you fair? What kinda stuff came up on it?

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Havent done it yet boi.
Goin to leave it till tomorrow afternoon.
I will come back though and let yee know whats on it.
There are some examples you can do through the website as well.
Just sign up with your email

Wendero

What's on the psychometric test? I'm going to do it later today and I'd really like to know

skeleton_boy

Did it this morning. You have to give responses to certain workplace scenarios. Not really anything you can prepare for.

Wendero

Oh that sounds easy enough - what kind of scenarios are we talking about? If you don't mind giving me a hand

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Just completed it there folks
Fairly standard "what would you do/not do in this situation" test.
Examples were "we require a different report formatting, what would you say to new systems, to convince the other meeting attendees to accept new processes etc"

Nothing too extreme and no IQ kind of questions like sequencing etc.
Good luck
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Wendero

Well that's great anyway So are these "essay" questions or do they give you options (multiple choice)?

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Multiple choice.
There's a scenario, five options, you decide which is the best option and the least helpful option for the scenario.

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Anyone updates? Haven't received an email for interview yet myself

skeleton_boy

Nothing here either. It was Thursday when they sent out the stage one e-mails so possibly the same again this week?

Wendero

I haven't heard anything either. I called them and they said by the end of this week they would get back to us.

Eoghanaldo

duende12 wrote: »

I have just secured a graduate job with Certus on Stephen's Green and couldn't be happier. I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience working for them?? Things like if its challenging work, staff morale and dresscode are what i'd like to find out before starting.

I'd appreciate people sharing any experience they've had good or bad.

Thanks

My OH worked with them for one year and hated every minute of it. She came from a huge financial corporation in the US and said that the senior to mid-level management is truly laughable. The HR functionality is amateur at best and promotions are based on your level of incompetence and 'friendliness' with senior management. Understandably, there is a massive staff turnover. There is constant internal strife, as there is no communications between the different departments and often a source of huge frustration for the client.

As far as she was informed, their contracts with the major banks they work for are finished early next year and it's not looking likely any will be renewed due to them not achieving any major targets set thus far.

I met some of her colleagues who made it abundantly clear that they really didn't like it there and were looking for the exit sign as soon as they had the opportunity. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole by all accounts.

Eoghanaldo

Apologies though that is just one account! I realise I came off very negative. Congratulations to you on the job and best wishes with the position.

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Just got the interview for Monday

Canyon86

aaaaaaaahhhhhh wrote: »

Just got the interview for Monday

congrats!

I have one aswell.

But I im in a job already that im unsure of going to interview, dont want to be greedy!

good luck

Wendero

So I haven't heard anything from them yet... guess I'm left out in the cold

Ah well, I'm just gonna have to wait and see.

Canyon86

Wendero wrote: »

So I haven't heard anything from them yet... guess I'm left out in the cold

Ah well, I'm just gonna have to wait and see.

Wendero,

Keep the head up, check the emails still,

plus a lot of grad programmes are opening up in sept/oct,

keep an eye on those

Wendero

Thanks. Yeah I will - they did say the end of the week, not today, so presumably not everyone who will be interviewed have received their notifications yet.

Wendero

Yeay, I just got my interview confirmed for wednesday next week.

Canyon86

Wendero wrote: »

Yeay, I just got my interview confirmed for wednesday next week.

Delighted for you Wendero:)

worth keeping the head up aye

Wendero

Haha, yeah you were right. It's just that having received a lot of rejections, you kind of start assuming the worse when employers don't get back to you as soon as you think they should. :P

Thing is, they didn't actually write down which department they wanted me in - personal, commercial or MI analytics. Is the interview just general or should I call them to find out for sure?

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

I would ring them.
I was told by the HR rep on de phone I was a best fit for "MI analytics".
No harm in calling them IMO

Canyon86

Wendero wrote: »

Haha, yeah you were right. It's just that having received a lot of rejections, you kind of start assuming the worse when employers don't get back to you as soon as you think they should. :P

Thing is, they didn't actually write down which department they wanted me in - personal, commercial or MI analytics. Is the interview just general or should I call them to find out for sure?

Ya mate ring them,the lady I was on the phone to was very helpful

Wendero

OK, yeah that makes sense. I think based on the case study that they want me in personal recovery, also they said the interview would be competency based, which typically mean "We won't bombard you with differential equations" which they probably would in MI analytics.

freeze4real

A mate of mine was given a case report based on team work.

Wendero

that's what I've been given It doesn't seem to hard.

skeleton_boy

Were three rejection e-mails really necessary, one was disheartening enough

Wendero

Sorry to hear that skeleton_boy

skeleton_boy

Thanks wendero, best of luck to you and others on here with the rest of the application. As for myself just have to keep on trying

Wendero

That's the spirit

I got a call from them today and they asked me to confirm that I was going to attend my interview. I asked them what divison it was for, and they said that it wouldn't be for MI analytics (makes sense as that was my third choice) but that I could end up in any other area of the organization, so it's more of a "general" interview.

Wendero

Anyone else who have worked for/with Certus or have any "inside" info?

freeze4real

Wendero you can do better. A lot better.

With your knowledge I don't think Certus is the place for you. I might get slated for saying but I will say it again you can do ten times better.

Look up some trading firms or some IT financial company in Ireland and in UK.. You've got what it takes to work there, working in Certus would be a waste of your talent.

If they hire you make sure they pay you V.well.

Lux23

I worked there when it was Bank of Scotland (Ireland), I really liked it but then it was my first proper job within a decent company so it was a vast improvement on anything else I did.

What I would say though is that communication was poor and there were several eegits who did well because they were great at licking bum! But that's the same everywhere.

Wendero

OK so I had my interview today and it was really really great Like really relaxed, was given enough time to explain my answers - they seemed really impressed How did everyone else get on?

sarzy1305

Hi Wendero, glad ur interview went well. Any tough questions? i have interview tommorow and am so so nervous. How did the presentation go? weird that there's no access to the computers. Are they nice or v serious?

Wendero

No, questions were quite basic - "tells us what you know about certus", "what challenges does certus face", "tell us about a time when you went above and beyond to help a colleague or fellow student".

When you talk about the case study, make sure you have a plan for what to do if your coworkers disagree with you, if someone refuses to go along like - that was my one mistake and I had to think about it for a second.

Wendero

They were superfriendly so don't worry about that

sarzy1305

oh ok brilliant thanks a million, glad that they were friendly, thanks for being so helpful. Did they say when your gonna hear back?

Wendero

Within 2 weeks they said. Interviews are finishing up tomorrow.

sarzy1305

oh ****e, k im gonna have to get up early and do some more prep haha , how long is it? about 30 mins? thanks so much for all your help, hopefully we'll all be starting the grad prog soon!!

Wendero

50 minutes including the case study which is about 5-10 minutes.

You should look up the recent bankruptcy/insolvency legislation changes, they were really impressed when I showed that I knew about those and the implications they have for Certus.

freeze4real

Wendero wrote: »

50 minutes including the case study which is about 5-10 minutes.

You should look up the recent bankruptcy/insolvency legislation changes, they were really impressed when I showed that I knew about those and the implications they have for Certus.

Yea know about insolvency II. Especially the 3 pillars.

This is what separated the exceptional candidates from the good & average ones.

Wendero

I really hope so Because then, I was exceptional

spank_inferno

Hope you folks enjoy Certus.

My wife works there, has done so for the last few years.

I couldnt say she loves it.

They are crazy undrstaffed. They aren't treated nearly as well as when they were part of Lloyds Group & comparing to other places in the financial world, the management dont seem top of their game.

It seems to be becoming an outsource company.... It is unlikely it will ever become a bank again.

The people seem good though & the atmosphere is friendly.

donegal11

freeze4real wrote: »

Yea know about insolvency II. Especially the 3 pillars.

This is what separated the exceptional candidates from the good & average ones.

What Insolvency II? Solvency II is about insurance companies is it not ?