The application was very easy and the video interview was better than a few others I had done.
I got through to the assessment centre and this was when I got a bad feeling about the company. Even though Vodafone is a huge, multi-million pounds corporation they still did not offer to reimburse any money whatsoever towards travel expenses. The day cost me £100 because the day started at 10am and because my university is far away I had to stay in a hotel the night before and the train was very expensive because they only gave less than a week's notice. This meant that I could hardly even afford food for the next few weeks. Vodafone could have just offered to pay a just £20 contribution and I'd have been happy. I have done interviews with tiny startups and they have always reimbursed a part of the travel expenses. This suggested that Vodafone would have been a pretty stingy company to work for.
The assessment day itself was exhausting and brutal. They had a group task to start with where you were expected to read around 50 pages of notes in 5 minutes and then discuss this with your group. The group had around 8 people and a few boys wouldn't stop speaking or let others speak - it was very difficult to get a word in edgeways. We then had to give a group presentation on a very complex issue with virtually no time to prepare.
The individual presentation and interview were okay, except they concentrated far too much on examples of customer satisfaction when the role I applied for would have no interaction with customers - very odd.
5 questions asked, fairly straightforward and easy. Then asked to complete two online assessments afterwards which didn’t take long. Got to re-record answer and was given two minutes
Why Vodafone, why this role etc
The Assessment Centre had group, individual then a 1 on 1 interview.
Each task lasted around 45 minutes in total, with plenty of breaks in-between. My session started in the morning with lunch provided after. Great experience all-round.
Same as other large company interviews. Based online, interviewees were asked about their past experiences and then proceeded with a section on games focused on finding patterns. The process itself was not difficult or time-consuming, however, I would prepare some practice questions before attempting-- to sound confident and prepared.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a situation when you had to make a quick decision based on limited information. What action did you take and what was the result?