After finishing university every graduate asks himself: how do I get the job I really want?
Well through this blog entry I will try to give you some insights into what my way to RB looked like. Maybe it could  become your way, too.

1st step: The application.

Find your own style but be aware of the local formalities.

Formalities: The first look is always at the form. Take a look at letters you got from serious companies. You will realize that the format is serious as well. Take this as an example. Colleagues from the HR department get hundreds of applications. So be aware that there are no bigger mistakes within your formalities. A good website for any German readers is this one which gives very good insights into the formalities of applications in Germany.

Your own style: Be unique. Take care of the formalities but within those  find your own way. When I was younger sport was a big part of my life. In every application you will find something about this part of me. In addition I love other countries, other cultures.

So find a way to express yourself. E.g. I always mentioned that I am a son of the sailor and that this might the reason for my passion for different cultures. Take a look at your life – what makes your heart beat faster?

2nd step: The telephone interview.

Be prepared but be yourself – do not prepare whole sentences or words for the talk.

The preparation: Take a look at the company website. I found a lot of information about RB by looking on theirs and thought about how I could fit in to this culture.
Search for press releases. Visit YouTube and watch some of the company adverts:

After that I made a list of things which might be important. Strengths, weaknesses, goals in 5 years, goals in 10 years, why do I want to join RB, why should RB pick me, questions?

The call: Wiebke, the Senior Human Resources Advisor of our business in Germany called me that day. From the beginning I had a very good feeling.
I was in the city that day where Wiebke grew up. A good start. Something like this is good to stay in mind. Maybe Wiebke had 10 calls that day, but I am sure she remembered that I was the one who was in her home town when we talked.
Ask the interviewer personal things. If the topic is sports or hobbies, why shouldn’t you ask the interviewer about their passions? Maybe there is a connection. The Boston Consulting Group offers some good interview tips as well.

3rd and 4th Step: Personal interviews.

At RB I had two personal talks. The first one was with Wiebke and Benno, our Head of Field Sales and Head of Trade Marketing. The second was with two marketing managers. That first day we had two topics: a case study with an analysis and the personal talk. The second day included “only” a personal interview.

The case study: Again preparation comes first. It was my first case study ever. So I searched the web and found this very good site by McKinsey where you are able to practice cases.
Take your time and go through the steps. It helped me a lot to understand what a case study is all about. In my case the study had a lot of numbers about market shares, turnover, net revenue and so on. My first thought after my first look? – Ok, I will leave NOW!
In this situation, stay cool. I read it again, made notes. The topic can be about everything. E.g. the company want to join a new market or want to launch a new product. How are the action steps?
So, I made my analysis. I focused on the things I understood and I put my action plan up on the flip chart: but I was too late. Five minutes before I finished Wiebke and Benno entered the room. My thought was it is over now.
But again: stay cool. No one will cut your head off!
I finished my paintings and presented my ideas. I am sure not everything was correct but I had my plan and answers to the questions. If I did not understand everything – no problem. Benno explained it to me. Everything was very fair.

The personal talk: The tips and tricks are almost the same here as I wrote above within the part about the telephone interview. Most important thing again: be yourself! Benno told me afterwards that after the talk he had the feeling that he really knew who I was.

When I look back at the whole application process I recommend one most important thing: be yourself and always start the talk with a big…

…smile.

The RB Graduate Program was mentioned twice last week on this blog – Eva talked about her international secondment and Verity revealed how British comedian Eddie Izzard would be a perfect RB graduate.

So I want to talk about one of the “entrance doors” into it: career fairs.

Almost all big companies looking for new and young talent have stands on university career fairs, so hurry up! Opportunities are there and if you really want to take one, you’ll need to work on it.
It’s not enough to just turn up and leave your CV with someone. If you want to stand out from the crowd you need to be proactive.

Making yourself visible amongst others is not an easy task in a career fair, but there are things you can do to ensure you are properly prepared.
Have a look at this video about career fairs:

Do your research: Know exactly what the companies do and the roles they offer (for example, Reckitt Benckiser’s jobs website).

Talk: Spend time talking to company representatives instead of just leaving your CV (they might just remember you!). You have nothing to lose and it can really make the difference.

In the video you can also see some things you shouldn’t do, like worrying too much about companies’ free gifts, which from my personal experience of career fairs, can be a bit annoying.

If you want to investigate further, read this short piece focusing on “5 job fair mistakes recent graduates make” – which offers some really interesting tips.
And if you think you are ready for the challenge of a careers fair, you can find out which fairs RB will be attending all over the world on the graduate events page of our jobs website.

As you may have seen, RB Spain will be at ESADE Business School career fair on February 10th with the objective of finding candidates for the Graduate program assessments.

See you there!

Five years after going through the RB Graduate Assessment centre myself I participated as one of the Assessors yesterday. It felt odd being on the other end of the process but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it gives me great satisfaction to know I’ve inputted into this year’s intake.

We deliberated hard on a couple of the candidates (in this photo) but we found what we were looking for.

I have to say it really is a gruelling process for the candidates to get onto the RB grad scheme. Before this final RB assessment centre they all had to go through a telephone interview and previous assessment centre with our recruitment agency, and this day was very stretching.

From 9am to 5pm the day was back to back with a mixture of assessments, both group and individual exercises and interviews. Each exercise is designed to test a specific RB competency and the day is scheduled to allow all the assessors to see all the candidates to ensure a fair decision is made.

It’s critical that we get the highest possible calibre of graduates into the business as we are looking for our future senior leaders so expect to be really pushed!
If youre coming to an RB assessment centre my tips would be:

-Relax, it’s your time to shine and we want you to succeed, so don’t let nerves get the better of you.

-It’s a cliché but be yourself and act naturally. Its very obvious when candidates try to second guess what we are looking for and then ‘perform’ to deliver, and it always goes against them

-The harder you find it the better youre doing as we will keep challenging you to see how you perform under pressure. Take it as a compliment and thrive under the challenge. You shouldn’t find the day easy!

-Take each exercise as it comes and again, try not to second guess the competency being tested. Some candidates yesterday second guessed and then underperformed. It was a shame as had they not had this in the back of their mind they would have excelled

-You’ve worked hard and achieved a lot to get to this stage, enjoy it!

I was on the edge of my seat for two weeks awaiting the verdict of whether our proposal was accepted by the Board…and it wasn’t. I only had a few minutes to feel disappointed and then in true RB style now working at lightning pace to deliver a new initiative (to meet the winter cold & flu sales peak) in a few weeks that would normally take a year to develop.

What’s great and different about RB is that although we have internal processes, if it means we have to get round them to be first to market, we’ll find a way. Working in Marketing means youre championing all the brand projects so you have to be the one to find shortcuts and convince people to go out of their way to make your priority their priority. So this week this week will be especially challenging and I need to tap into all the people skills I have!

On another note, its been 5 years since I went through the Graduate Scheme Assessment Centre myself and this Thursday Im going to be assessing my first one. Finding outstanding graduates is key to the future success of RB so Im really excited to be contributing to finding our future leaders. Looking forward to meeting the candidates and hopefully welcoming them to the team in Sept!