I met Ernst and Young at the university careers fair in March 2011. They seemed reasonably friendly. However, the person who I talked to in Assurance seemed a little vague to me about what she does there.
The next day I submitted my online application form to Ernst and Young. About two weeks later, I received a call from one of their HR staff, inviting me to come in for a whole day assessment day in April.
The HR staff were friendly to me, which was positive. They also requested that I take a psychometric test prior to the assessment day, which meant getting it out of the way. It consisted of ability testing and a personality test etc.
I arrived at the Ernst and Young office, feeling nervous. It was also a terrible day - cold and wet. Thankfully, everyone seemed friendly when I arrived and all the applicants had to put their name tags on.
First up for me was a 45 minute behavioural-based interview - two people asked me plenty of probing questions like "Tell me how you have managed conflict?" etc.
After the interview, everyone had lunch and I got to meet some more EY staff, who seemed nice.
After that, I got taken with my group for an office tour, which pretty cool - the graduates were friendly and down-to-earth.
Lastly, was a group assessment which involved discussing a case study. I went alright, and there was no conflict.
At the end of the day, we got invited to come in for some office drinks and mingled once again.
Two days later, I received a call from one of my interviewers saying that I had come up short, which was unfortunate and demoralising at the time. She told me I needed to be more specific and make eye contact, plus a few more things. Overall, the experience was positive, as I learned from what the interviewer had tole me. However, I thought some comments were a little harsh - but if they say it, then you know that you need to address that.