I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Glencore (London, England) in Sept 2020
Interview
Bizarre. Assessed drinks evening followed by a test the following week. For an interview strangely the current employees enjoyed talking about themselves. Many follow up interview rounds after. Didn't offer to pay for travel which is unusual.
- CV Screen
- Invite to complete tests
- Invite to 'assessed networking' event
For some reason you're invited to the networking event before they marked your tests which seems like a poor use of time given you might get screened out after those.
Networking event was quite odd but fun. Initial presentation on grad scheme and event, then drinks/networking. Had to give out 10 business cards with your name on to Smart Global representatives and Glencore FO. - Don't bother giving it to HR people they said themselves this will not help you in the process.
Also, whilst they recruit you into either Ops, Risk or Trading analytics for the first year or so of the program, don't be too keen on the first two because ultimately they are trying to identify talent who would make them money as Traders, saying you want to work in Risk or Ops is probably not a good signal of appetite/talent for trading.
You're also tasked with finding a specific person who will have some sort of link to your background (went to same Uni, worked in your domain or at your old company etc.)
Not really sure what this allows them to see in candidates. Lots of very bright and very nice candidates I talked to displaced by the standard obnoxious target student who would ask meaningless questions just to get the attention of staff/recruiters.
Glad I did the process, learnt some stuff along the way but definitely not a your usual grad scheme application.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What do you want to drink?
What skills do you have that would make you a good hire?
Are you impatient?
Where's your tie?
I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Glencore (London, England) in Oct 2018
Interview
Long, challenging and interesting process
Process included meetings for different stakeholders (HR, Traders, assessors), in addition to group exercises & trading simulations
All steps are fair & well organized
Requires several trips to London
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why oil trading?
Why you?
What challenges is the industry facing today?