The interview process with Hays involves a 4 stage programme by which they assess your suitability for the role. This includes: 1) A telephone interview with an internal recruiter, assessing what you know about the role, the company, your motivation to work at Hays etc - fairly standard questions. Once deemed that you have the drive and knowledge, you progress to the 1:1 2) This is a more in depth look at your CV, your background and your research and understanding of the company as a whole. It involves some situational role plays at the end, requiring to think on your feet and get a positive outcome. 3) Then comes the assessment centre. A gruelling 3 hour session by which you are tested and analysed on your ability in a variety of tasks. These included: Selling yourself as a Hays consultant A business development call with a client Analysing CV's and picking a candidate for a particular role, then selling that candidate to the client Writing a job description 4) Finally comes another face to face interview with the Director for the region and the branch manager you are applying to work under. This lasted about an hour for me at the Lancaster office. Unfortunately, I fell down at the fourth hurdle. Having put in a great deal of hard work to get to this stage including: 1) Writing up and learning speeches 2) Studying in great detail candidate CVS to assess suitability for a given role 3) Practising client calling and responses to likely questions 4) Researching Hays in great deal, from company statistics, full history, individual specialisms 5) Attending 2 interviews that I had to commute an hour and a half for each way with train fares including full days out of work for time/distance requirements As you can see from the above, this is a great time and money investment for something which yields experience but without use of application. Following feedback from the final interview, I was told the following: 1) The director and branch manager "really liked me" 2) I struggled with the competency based answers 3) I didn't articulate and sell myself well enough I appreciate I was well liked, of course, but I make no exceptions in saying if its a competency issue, this should have been ironed out in the first interview, or at least, second?? Competency implies holes in my CV, or forecasting a lack of ability in the role, each of which had been meticulously tested in previous stages. As for selling myself, we had the opportunity to do this three times at the assessment centre, where I was deemed able enough to progress with. It raised quite a few questions and concerns for me about the recruitment process Hays offer, including: 1) The number of interviewers a candidate passes through before reaching the end of the process, and how differently each interviewer measures potential and "good answers" to questions. 2) There needs to be more integration and contact between different lines and stages of recruitment so each are fully aware of the ability and background of the candidate to ensure the assessment centre (which requires a huge deal of commitment, research and confidence) isn't a wasted trip. 3) I genuinely feel that in a different office, I may well have been offered the job. I completely understand why the process is undertaken the way it is - because at the end of the day they are after recruiting experts - but to a candidate who is feeling confident, excited and positive about the experience after good support and progression through the different stages, to reach the final hurdle and fall due to everything you thought you excelled at....*sighs* The nerves, the waiting, the late night research and practising I've had to go through for the last 3 weeks of my life has not been worth the experience I've got out of it. Unless either... - The 4 stage process gets consolidated/restructured or - You have experience applying within recruitment/ similar role previous to this ... I'd advise against applying for a trainee role within Hays. I'd offer a special thanks to Lauren Shaw - an absolute credit to the company, so helpful with excellent feedback throughout.