BNP PARIBAS PERSONAL FINANCE RECRUITMENT TEAM TOP TIPS

2019-06-13 13:31:46.0

Recruitment managers Suzie Shanks and Sophie Egan open up about the journey they take when on the lookout for top talent and share how you can impress when it comes to applying and interviewing for your dream job.

Finding a new job can be an unsettling experience, with multiple considerations to bear in mind – from ensuring you are well prepared to completing any pre-interview assessments beforehand. Throw in to the mix finer details such as preparing your outfit and making travel arrangements to ensure you aren’t late, it can easily become stressful and overwhelming.

Here at BNP Paribas Personal Finance, we aim to use the interview process as a natural form of conversation in order to get to know the candidates better. We place a really high value on discovering if the potential employee will be a good match for both the position and the company culture and values.

Recruiting at a company of more than 800 employees, recruitment can sometimes be a challenge, and many companies can often fail to find the right person. Typically, we have two kinds of role that we need to attract the right candidates for – customer focused Operations roles, such as our contact centre colleagues based in our Solihull and Belfast offices, and corporate roles such as IT or marketing that require more specific skills.

Regardless of the role, we always ensure that we are here to help and guide our candidates through the interview process. A positive experience can encourage good candidates to apply and they will be more likely to accept your job offer, over another company that provided a negative experience.

For each applicant we meet we strive to ensure that they are well prepared and in the best possible position prior to their interview. The way we treat our candidates during the hiring process, mirrors the way we treat them after they have been hired. Quite simply, we always want to give the best possible impression at every stage of the journey.  We provide candidates with all the necessary information they need, such as who to ask for when they arrive and what they need to bring with them. We also ensure that our candidates have clear expectations on what to expect from the interview and what the next steps will be.

For our Operations roles we’re predominantly looking for someone with a positive attitude and enthusiasm; someone who we would feel confident that they have the skills necessary to excel when we put them in front of customers on the phone.

We see a diverse range of applicants applying for these positions. From first jobbers coming straight from college, to those not far off retirement looking to secure a position that they can comfortably remain in for the next couple of years. We really we can tell a lot from an initial telephone interview. It gives us the opportunity to share a bit more about the position and find out about the candidates background, therefore establishing their reasons for applying.

The most successful candidates are able to excel at competency-based interview questions. This gives them the opportunity to showcase occasions when they’ve demonstrated a certain skill or ability, and this is a key part of the assessment process here at BNP Paribas Personal Finance.

This is also key for our corporate roles. Here we’ll also be looking for presentation skills and a good personality fit to ensure they’ll fly when they join the team. For corporate roles, we also like to introduce candidates to their potential Senior Director. While this may seem daunting, it’s usually very informal and a great way for the candidate to get to know the senior staff members they will work closely with should they be successful.

Here at BNP Paribas Personal Finance personality, passion and enthusiasm are the most important qualities we value. We have an amazing, diverse, talented team and strengthening that with like-minded people is the best way we can ensure we maintain our culture and provide an environment for people to achieve their potential.

 

SUZIE AND SOPHIE’S TOP FIVE INTERVIEW TIPS

1. Make sure you do your homework on the company by visiting their website and following their social media accounts. There are many companies within the BNP Paribas Group so it’s important to understand more about our business at www.bnpparibas-pf.co.uk
2. Tell us about what YOU did, not other members of your team. Always refer to ‘I’ not ‘We’
3. Keep your answers concise and to the point, referencing strong examples with honesty
4. Present your answers in line with the ‘STAR’ technique, evidencing a situation, task, action and resolution. This will enable you to provide the interviewer with a clear story of your accomplishment
5. Be yourself – We want to get to know you as a person and what makes you tick so we can see how you might be able to fit into our team and whether you feel we’re right for you. Honesty and good humour are also important qualities that can take you far in an interview.

Head over to our careers page to take a look at our current opportunities.