The application process for the graduate scheme at MDS Ltd was the most complicated and slowest process I have ever completed. I applied on their website on 21st July 2020, and the form included lots of questions about why I was applying. On 24th July, I received an email saying I’d been selected for a telephone interview, which was on 4th August. During the telephone interview, I was told I’d hear back within a few days but over a week later I hadn’t heard anything, so I sent a follow-up email and received an out-of-office automated reply. Over a month and a half after my telephone interview, on 17th September I received an email saying I have passed to the final stage of the recruitment process, which included a formal interview, a personal video presentation, a group task with a group presentation and a talk with one of their current Trainees - all virtual due to Covid-19 and all of which had to be prepared for 14th October, so in less than a month. These tasks required an excessive amount of work, which I had to complete alongside my full-time job. For the personal video presentation, I had to record a 10 minute video of myself describing situations which demonstrated my leadership skills, ability to cope with pressure, teamwork, and how I manage when things go wrong. For the group task and presentation, I had to arrange virtual meeting times and attend virtual meetings with other candidates to imagine that we were opening a food truck. In these meetings we discussed what we would sell, ingredients and recipes, prices, marketing etc, so the meetings were thorough and time-consuming, requiring me to sacrifice a lot my downtime from my busy full-time job. We used a Google Docs presentation to share our ideas informally and also had to create a professional-looking Google Docs presentation to present on the assessment day. On the assessment day, we did our group presentation, had a Q&A with a current trainee then I had a formal interview where I was asked about my work experience, how I would cope with moving around the UK, how I would manage a team of Eastern European workers who may not speak fluent English, and what the biggest problems are that the food industry is facing at the moment. I was told I would hear back a couple of days later, and on that day the two other candidates in my group task sent messages in our WhatsApp group within five minutes of each other saying that they were offered places on the graduate scheme. When I hadn’t heard anything by the end of that day, I was pretty sure I didn’t have place. I received an email a week after the assessment day, on 21st October, with a very generic message saying I had been rejected and that I should contact the office for feedback. This was extremely disappointing and unhelpful, especially as it was from someone who I had had my telephone interview with, and who conducted my formal interview and watched my group presentation, so she was a key person in my application process and could have provided useful feedback. I replied via email asking for feedback but heard nothing. Two weeks later, I called the office to request feedback, and was told that I would be called back. Three weeks later, I still hadn’t heard anything so I gave it one last try and rang the office, who told me to send an email and when I said I already did over a month ago, they told me someone would call back, of course no one did! Thus I had a very disappointing application experience for the MDS Ltd Graduate Scheme. After an excessively time-consuming application process involving more tasks than any of the other graduate schemes I applied for, I didn’t receive any feedback regarding why I was rejected, even after following up several times. To anyone considering applying, I would say don’t waste your time. There are plenty of incredible companies out there , much bigger ones with more applicants who make an effort to give feedback to applicants and who value people’s time - MDS Ltd is definitely not one of them.
