ODI Interview Questions

Interview

Application followed by personality questionnaire (basic resilience questions) & a group (with 6 other candidates) and individual interview (with a panel of 3 people, including HR). Group interview focused on the dynamics of working in a host country government.

Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at ODI (London, England) in June 2020.

Interview

Shortlisted applicants were asked to attend an interview (online due to COVID) and prepare a presentation about a given topic.

The interview was reasonable, and the panel explained the next steps of the process clearly, saying that they'd communicate their decision in the beginning of the following week. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, instead they told me two weeks later and after several follow-up emails from my side. They didn't apologise for the delay, nor they explained the reasons why, which I found unprofessional and disrespectful of my time.

Finally, the HR person told me I didn't get the job via what was obviously an email template (ie "we won't be progressing with your application further") and no specific feedback. In my experience, I've always received feedback on the interview and/or task when I got to the final stage.

Although this company seems to be doing some interesting work, these were some red flags to me and I was somehow relieved I wasn't offered the position.

Application

The process took 3+ months. I interviewed at ODI (London, England).

Interview

The whole process has been three months, from applying, interviewing and then never hearing back.

Interview: 30 min test to be presented during the interview. They lost the USB I saved it on and I had to present from memory. The interview panel was different from those listed in the email and did not include the line-manager.

After: they said I would hear back about a second interview in the next week, but despite chasing them a few times, two months later I haven't heard a response.

Application

I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at ODI (London, England) in August 2019.

Interview

Applied online, was sent a test (mainly Excel) to complete a day before the interview (had one hour and a half to complete it) and then attended a 45mn interview.

Never heard from them after that, not even to say I was unsuccessful.. I contacted HR but they never got back to me, so unprofessional and disappointing from such a reputable organisation!
I've always been offered feedback from every single interview I've had in the charity sector, even from very small and short-staffed organisations, so I wasn't expecting a bigger organisation with an HR department to not even take 2 mns of their time to follow-up with an email after the interview...

Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at ODI (London, England) in April 2019.

Interview

Contacted via email following an online application on the company recruitment platform.
I was sent a short test to complete (45 mins), and expected to create a small presentation for the panel.
Communication for the test was confusing and unclear that it had to be completed during working hours.
No feedback at all was provided following the process--not even information stating the interview was unsuccessful

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at ODI (London, England).

Interview

There were two parts. The first one was a group discussion in which the participants were confronted with different situations that could occur during the fellowship. We were supposed to discuss and present our views and opinions. The second part was a personal interview with two ODI staff members and two external economists who asked economics-related questions.

Interview

Very informal and chill. Applied through school. It was unstructured. Interviewer was really friendly and made clear what projects I would be able to work on. Did not ask any technical questions.

Application

I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at ODI (London, England).

Interview

I applied on their website and received an email for an interview about 3 weeks after making the application.
I was asked to complete three pre-interview tasks (1. Excel task - finding errors, updating the sheets and explaining what sort of changes you made and why 2. Prioritisation - giving you a list of tasks and ask you to number them in terms of priority 3. Email draft - writing to a contractor who hasn't submitted his work for a while) remotely for an hour before the interview.
The interview was with a panel of 3 - line manager to be, a senior manager who'd work closely with a selected candidate and a programme manager who will be your colleague in the same team.
They all seemed nice and it was quite average - competency based questions, tell us about your experience, what skills do you have to do this all based on the job description. No challenging or provoking questions. They also went through my CV and asked me to explain further about some relevant experience.
Something I found a bit odd was that, during the interview, the programme manager who could be your colleague in the same team asked me my current salary & salary requirement for the role. That could be quite awkward for your colleague in the same role as you in the same team to know your salary.
About a week after the interview, I got an email that I didn't get the role.

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at ODI.

Interview

Consists of group exercise and panel interview. Group exercise presents different situations you may face with at work. Panel interview is more technical and focuses on your economic knowledge.
Each exercise takes 30 minutes, but might take few hours of waiting in between depending on the schedule arrangement.

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at ODI (London, England) in October 2017.

Interview

I applied on the Overseas development institute website, got invited to an interview two weeks later. It was a Panel of two. Backgroud and competency based questions, written test afterwards