Episode 78 – How to Get a Graduate Job with Mars

November 20, 2018 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the 78th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, and boy do we have a goodie for you today as have part 2 of my 2 part special delving into the exciting graduate opportunities available with global confectionery and food giant Mars. Last week in part 1 we were joined by Fabio Alings who shared his experiences on the Mars Leadership Experience graduate scheme, and his 10 year journey from fresh faced graduate to Global Director for one of their biggest brands. After whetting your appetite last week, this week we explore exactly what you need to do to get a graduate job with Mars, as I am joined on the show by Andrew Sharp, European Head of Early Talent at Mars. In our detailed interview we dive into all aspects of the application process for the Mars graduate schemes and exactly what you need to do to bag that graduate job. We go step by step through the application process, from the grades you need to apply to how to stand out in the online application. We cover the different stages from the Skype interview to the online tests through to what to expect in the assessment centre itself, with its case study and face to face interviews. You’ll learn insider secrets for how you can stand out and put yourself head and shoulders above the other applicants, as you learn how to avoid being one of the 40% of people who fail at each step of the process. No matter if you have listened to episode one, or not thought in the past about applying to Mars, this is an episode that you won’t want to miss.  Now don’t worry about trying to remember everything you hear today, as a full transcript of today’s show and all the links we discuss can be found over in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Mars2. From there you will also find links to all of the other 77 episodes of the show which cover every aspect of getting a graduate job, from help with interviews, assessment centres, to specific companies, to finding a job you love, to dealing with stress as you look for a graduate job. If it’s graduate job related, I have an episode on it. And If I haven’t got an episode on a subject, let me know and I will record one.

And don’t forget to check out today’s sponsor who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. No matter what graduate job you apply for you’re going to have to face some type of verbal reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. You can practice these at CareerGym.com. Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • How to get a graduate job with Mars
  • What to expect throughout the application process when you apply for a graduate job with Mars
  • How to impress in your online application
  • The secrets for standing out in the Mars graduate assessment centre
  • Exactly what Mars are looking for from their graduates
  • How to impress in the Skype and face to face interviews
  • Learn how and why 40% of applicants fall at each stage of the application process

SELECTED LINKS INCLUDE:

IF YOU LIKED THIS EPISODE, CHECK THESE OUT:

Transcript – Episode 78: How to get a graduate job with Mars

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, recruiters, coaches and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute-ish show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had a decade ago when I graduated.

Hello and welcome to the 78th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, and boy do we have a goodie for you today as we have part 2 of my 2 part special delving into the exciting graduate opportunities available with global confectionery and food giant Mars. Last week in part 1 we were joined by Fabio Alings who shared his insights on the Mars Leadership Experience graduate scheme, and his 10 year journey from fresh faced graduate to Global Director for one of their biggest brands. After whetting your appetite last week, this week we explore exactly what you need to do to get a graduate job with Mars, as I am joined on the show by Andrew Sharp, European Head of Early Talent at Mars. In our detailed interview we delve into all aspects of the application process for the Mars graduate schemes and exactly what you need to do to bag that graduate job. We go step by step through the application process, from the grades you need to apply, to how to stand out in the online application. We cover the different stages from the Skype interview to the online tests through to what to expect in the assessment centre itself, with its case study and face to face interviews. You’ll learn insider secrets for how you can stand out and put yourself head and shoulders above the other applicants, as you learn how to avoid being one of the 40% of people who fail at each step of the process. No matter if you haven’t listened to episode one, or not thought in the past about applying to Mars, this is an episode that you won’t want to miss.  Now don’t worry about trying to remember everything you hear today, as a full transcript of today’s show and all the links we discuss can be found over in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Mars2. You will also find links to all of the other 77 episodes of the show which cover every aspect of getting a graduate job, from help with interviews, assessment centres, to specific companies, to finding a job you love, to dealing with stress as you look for a graduate job. If it’s graduate job related, I have an episode on it. And If I haven’t got an episode on a subject, let me know and I will record one for you.

Before we start let’s have a little message from today’s sponsor who are who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. Now if I said to you, are you ready to do verbal and numerical reasoning tests for the job of your dreams right now? I bet most of you would say no, well graduate employers don’t hang about; some of them give you as little as 2-3 days’ notice before you have to do the tests! So you need to make sure you are ready and willing to do the tests at a moment’s notice, so start practicing now, which is where Career Gym comes in. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. The bottom line is that no matter what graduate job you apply for, from global giant like Mars, to a small company round the corner from you, you’re going to have to face some type of verbal and numerical reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. As you’ll hear later in the episode Andrew’s advice for passing these tests is to ‘practice practice practice’, well you can practice these at CareerGym.com. They are all produced by testing experts, and exactly the same as the ones you will see in the real graduate job tests. You can just practice them as you want, or you can do them in exam mode, under time pressure, and they come all with detailed explanations and solutions, and you can track your progress and see how you compare against your peers.

If you’re applying for a graduate job will have to do them, so don’t put it off, pull your finger out now and start revising straight away to make sure you don’t fall at this first hurdle. I’ve been recommending this site for years to the clients I coach and it comes very highly recommended. What’s even better is if you use the code GJP, you will get 20% off of all of their tests. It’s a very small price to pay to make sure you don’t fall at this first hurdle. So, head over to http://www.CareerGym.com that’s CareerGym.com and use the code GJP to get 20% off and start practicing today, as practice does make perfect. Now, on with the show.

 James Curran: I’m very pleased to welcome to this show, Andrew Sharp, European Head of Early Talent at Mars. Andrew, welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Andrew Sharp: Hi, James. Great to see you.

James: And today, we’re going to explore the graduate opportunities that Mars has available. So, why don’t we make a start there? So, Andrew, Mars is such a huge, huge company across the world. Tell us some of the graduate opportunities that you’ve got available here in the UK and also in Europe.

Andrew: Great, yes. So, Mars has a great range of opportunities both across the UK and in Europe. Right now, in the UK, we run five rotational graduate programs, and they span a number of different functions. They have finance, engineering, management, technology, procurements, and also R&D.

So, we’re in five trainee programs in the UK, and those functional focus areas also are available in Europe too in a number of different countries: Poland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, just to name a few. So, definitely a good range of opportunities that hopefully will align with a number of different graduates’ interests and admissions that they think about in their future career.

James: Excellent, and with those five functional programs, do you apply to one specific one or does it rotate between the different programs?

Andrew: Yes, so you would need to choose which program that you would want to apply, so definitely think carefully about which one because you can only apply for one. Of the programs that we run, one of them is more of a general management program that’s called the Mars Leadership Experience. And in that program, you can rotate between functions because, ultimately, that program is all around, I suppose, building our future linked into our future managing directors or general managers, as we call them, of our future business. So, you could rotate from sales, marketing, to maybe working in our factory, or maybe in our procurement team.

So, the breadth of opportunity there is very big, whereas if you, as a graduate, are very clear on the direction you want to take, now clear on your functional focus, then those other four programs is where you can actually built some real depth early on. Still rotate, yeah, and get some great experiences, but you rotate within the function, you’re involved across the functions. So, I think whether you’re after a real breadth career or a real depth career, we do have options at Mars for you.

James: And listeners, if you’ve not heard my previous episode, definitely listen to my interview with Fabio Alings, who talks about his 10 years at Mars and starting on the Mars Leadership Experience, and he’s had a brilliant career, so you can see where you might end up if you do choose to join the Mars Leadership Experience. And Andrew, of the schemes, are they all the same length of time? Is it two, three years that you’d be on the graduate scheme for?

Andrew: Yeah, they’re all the same at the time. So, it’s a three-year experience and you would do three rotations. So, it would be each rotation would last 12, 15 minutes, and the intake would be every September. So, you would apply in the autumn probably before you wanted to join Mars, you’d get your offer around January, February, March time of the following year to then join in September. And then from that September start, three 12-month rotations before finishing the scheme. Yes, that kind of three years later.

James: Excellent, and how many people are you looking to recruit this year?

Andrew: Through the UK, probably around 30. So, we at Mars really think about quality of the experience. So, we’re not a big employer of graduates in terms of the volume of hires that we take, but we make the experience count. So, we’ve always prided ourselves on being an employer that really focuses on great line management, great placement.

And with that, we are truthful around the number of opportunities we provide, and that’s always been a great recipe for success. Obviously, you mentioned earlier, Fabio, he’s just a great example of some of the amazing experiences he had. We don’t want to dilute that experience for making this a very, very large program because we think that will detract from the experience we can give.

James: And where, geographically, would graduates be based?

Andrew: So, in the UK, we have a number of offices and factories. As far as north as our Leeds factory and as far south as our Plymouth factory, and everywhere in between. So really, a number of different opportunities across the UK, across 10 different sites. So, hopefully there’s a location near you if you are attracted with — yeah, we’ve definitely got some good focus and breadth of location across the UK.

James: Well, if you’ve got a factory in Leeds, you can’t be going far wrong. So, I think that’s the one that’s — my local hometown. I think that’s the one where graduates want to be aiming for.

Andrew: Oh, very good.

James: And what would their career progression be like then? So, three years on the scheme. What sort of roles can they expect to then progress into?

Andrew: The acceleration is rapid of the program, so by the time you come to the end of your program, you could be a senior buyer for an organization, you could be a senior brand manager working on one of our best-looked brands like Mars, or Snickers, or Pedigree, or maybe be one of our national account managers working with one of our big grocery accounts that we obviously work with very closely.

So, the seniority and responsibility that you get on the program continues well beyond the program finishing. And so, we have some expectations of our graduates, and with the expectations comes that responsibility, and I think as you come off the program, as the graduates come off the schemes, we do see that acceleration and that pace development continue.

We hope, five, 10 years after the program, that you are joining management teams, becoming a senior leader in our organization, becoming a marketing director, sales director, a future managing director. So, I think we have got evidence of that happening with many, many graduates that come onto and sign up our programs going into those roles, and that’s the ambition that we have, and we feel that we’re doing quite well in that area of making sure that that happens for many of our graduate trainees.

James: You mentioned about expectations from graduates. Do you have any in terms of great expectations, or is it minimum 2:1, or any particular universities that you focus on more than others? Are you open to the type of degree that people do and things like that?

Andrew: Yeah, we ask for a 2:1 degree. Depending on the program that you’re applying for, it depends on whether there are any discipline requirements. So, only really in the technical areas like R&D and engineering, where you’re focused on a specific discipline. So, in R&D, more in the sciences, in engineering, obviously more engineering disciplines. But, in the other programs, we purposely and try to ensure that the disciplines that we look for is as broad as possible.

So, in many of our programs, we will accept applications from students in any background because we really do believe that, actually, in those areas, it’s much more about the skills, the leadership skills, and the behaviors, that actually set your success at Mars, less around the degree of that one.

James: That’s very true. Maybe then if we dive into the application process. What does the application process look like? Does it start with initial online application and then filling in questions where you’ve got 100 words to talk about your competencies?

Andrew: Yes, so you’re absolutely right. So, you start with an online application. So, you would visit our careers website, and I know there’s a section there on early careers, and yes that’s where you would register and start your application form online. At that point, we would be looking for your — apart from the standards, kind of basic questions, biographical questions, background, also, yes, we’re looking for your responses to three questions around competencies that are important for Mars and the program that you’re applying to. If you’re successful at that, you then go through a couple of other stages before you reach the final assessment center.

So, you would do an online test and then an interview, and that will be comprised of a digital interview and a Skype interview followed closely by the assessment center where you would come in and meet some of our existing trainees. You would get to hear from them around their experiences, good and bad and different. We want to provide you with an honest view of the experiences you could have here at Mars. But, you would also then be joined by senior leaders. Yeah, senior leaders from the business function that would put you through your papers on the day, and if it’s successful on that, you would then be offered a role on one of our programs.

James: Excellent, and if we could just maybe break those down in turns. So, with the online application, what makes a good application stand out from others? What is it that you’re really looking for when you’ve got in those three questions?

Andrew: So, being a graduate myself, I know the challenges around the job market, and I think many graduates take a different approach to a role. Some go for the kind of place for many, many employers and hope the best, and others really give maybe a handful and apply their best focus. My advice would always be with the latter option because I think when we come to screening the applications, I think it can become very obvious very quickly as to those that really are committed and passionate around Mars versus maybe are just adding Mars to a list of a set of employers.

I mean, sometimes you’ll even see examples of where candidates actually mention another employer. [crosstalk] mention Mars so you can quickly — it’s been a bit of a copy and paste, and that’s never a good start. So, I think give it focus and really make sure Mars is there, having your kind of preferred list of employers, and really then be really clear on why Mars and why the program, and be really articulate around your motivations. That’s something that’s important in the application form, irrelevant to the program you apply for.

And then I think the other advice I would give is really think about how — and there’s probably a couple of competencies here that are really important, irrelevant to the program. One is around how you get and deliver results. That is very much around how you take into ambiguity, really kind of overcome against the odds, overcome setbacks and road blocks that might get in the way in your personal and professional life today, and you’re about overcoming those. That’s an important skill and trait that we’d be looking for.

And then I think the second one is their relationships. Mars is a relationship-driven organization. We take the relationships that we have with ourselves, with our teams, and with the business very seriously, and that’s how we get things done. It’s through great collaboration and how you work with others, how you work together to achieve, like I said, goals and objectives. That’s also another competency that I think you would see come through the application process because it’s so important for success at Mars.

James: You make good points there, and completely agree about the copy and paste method and the scattergun approach of, “The more companies I apply to, the better my odds.” That’s completely the other way around. You just need to really focus down and — I’ve seen that as well when I was looking through graduate applications and you’d see people just copy and pasting other names of the companies, and it just goes straight in the bin. So, there’s no coming back from making mistakes like that on the initial application form. What percentage of people, do you think, fail to get past that first initial stage?

Andrew: I would say it varies by program and by country that we run, but I would say, overall, probably around 40% of candidates get through the initial application stage, that 40%. So, it is a quite — if I think about the overall process, we probably passed through 40% through each stage, on average, through the process. 40% would get through, then another 40%, and then a 40% as well as we work through the process. Average is 40\. It can be higher, it can be lower, depending on the stage, the program that you applied for or that you’re applying for, and the country. But overall, that’s about the average.

James: Any advice, then, for the next stage for the online tests is to practice, I guess?

Andrew: Yes, you stole the words out of my mouth, James. Certainly, practice, practice, practice. The tests that we use are what we call adaptive tests at Mars, and these are basically designed to almost — the questions that you get are dependent on the answers that you give and the speed at which you give them. So, they’re mostly designed around you and designed around the individual.

So, they’re not timed, but they give you an opportunity to basically answer a multiple choice question, so you get a number of answers to choose from. The quicker you are and the more accurate you are, the harder the questions get more quickly, if that makes sense. And so, some people may find that they’re only answering 10 questions, some people might find they’re answering 20. And certainly that puts you up. So, that’s the intelligence of the test, almost kind of factoring in the responses that you give in to date.

So, please do practice. Don’t worry if you only got to answer five questions as you get to their test. And my other advice is to probably think about if you have any technical issues, I think choosing the right browser is always a good troubleshooting tip. Because, sometimes some of the online tests out there, they can sometimes have some challenges with, let’s say, Microsoft. So, maybe think about — sorry, not Microsoft, with Windows. So, maybe have a think about using Chrome. It’s always a tick that I think has often got candidates or maybe any technical gremlins that are coming or getting in the way.

James: Excellent, and also, I guess, have a decent internet connection. Don’t be doing it on your phone while you’re on a bus or the tube.

Andrew: Yeah, I would definitely recommend doing it at home with a laptop, PC, or a tablet is probably best, yes for sure.

James: And then would that be what? Verbal, numerical, working style, or whichever test could people expect?

Andrew: It depends on the program, but I would be expecting either logical or numerical.

James: Excellent, and listeners, yeah practice does make perfect with those tests. So, make sure you put the effort in. Dig out those old GSCE notes and make sure you can remember how to do your percentage increase and decrease and good stuff like that. So, moving on then to the interview. Starting with a digital then a Skype interview. So, what are you looking for at this stage?

Andrew: So, with the digital interview, this is a new tool that we’re going to introduce this year, and I know a number of other employers are also introducing the tool in recent years, and the content of a digital interview is relatively new. It’s where, ultimately, you as an applicant would, first of all, you click on the link, you would hear from Mars, so you would hear from some of our trainees, some of our senior leaders, actually from me. Yeah, I’ll be on there to you, so you can put a face to a name, and we’re basically just framing the business at that stage of the process to make you feel comfortable.

You would then hear some questions from us, three questions in total. They do vary depending on the program that you’re applying for, and then you would some times where we’ll quickly respond. And that would then be reviewed by a member of a team, by a member of the Mars team, at a later point before you would ever find out your outcome.

So, in terms of what we look for in that interview, I think there’s a lot of competencies that we will be particularly diving into. One is around dealing with ambiguity. We live in a complex world and Mars is an organization where you have to work through organizational design, you have to work through how to get things done in the organization. Sometimes, you have to look at the formal channels, and the informal channels to get things done.

And sometimes, the task ahead is not always clear, and then how you then take into that ambiguity, how you deal with it, cope with it, or perhaps even embrace it. It’s something that would be really important for us to understand this in terms of how you would deal with that.

Because, ultimately, as a graduate on one of our programs, you would be dealt with very complex, very ambiguous projects, and it’s up to you, you have to find a way through mostly with the support and the coaching of the business, of your line managers, of your mentors. That goes without saying. But ultimately, the responsibility still rests with you to reach out, to find the answers, to find the support, to work through the organizational design that we have at Mars.

So, I think that being in ambiguity is definitely one. I think the other one is around what I would call standing alone. So, standing alone is how you sometimes are faced with a challenge, a conflict, or a difference of opinion, or actually, you strongly believe that Mars needs to take in certain areas.

Obviously, we empower all associates at Mars, including our graduates, and how a graduate, when they have something that they truly believe in, how do they stand up for that and fight the cornice for what, actually, they believe is the right outcome for Mars or for the stakeholders around us.

And sometimes, that can feel uncomfortable, and sometimes that keeps us awake at night about how do you, as a future, potential candidate at Mars, how do you deal with that and how do you cope with being able to stand alone. I think that is another competency that we would like to hear more from you around in the digital interview.

James: Excellent. Some really good pointers there for you listeners. And Andrew, is that a one-take only thing? So, you get the question, and then boom you’ve got two minutes to talk about it? Or, is it time limits or how does it work?

Andrew: Yeah, so ultimately, there is — it’s one chance there. It’s almost trying to mimic almost like a real-life interview in many respects. Sometimes, when you come out of those back-to-back interviews, sometimes you might wish, “Oh, I wish I could have my time again,” but the reality is you don’t. It’s that moment in that interview, and therefore, the additional interview that we have, additional assessment, it’s the same.

So, there’s a minimum and a maximum. So, you have between one and five minutes to record your response. I would always recommend, where possible, that you maximize your use of the time, and that’s purely because we want to gather evidence. We want to look at all the bright things, and the experiences that you’ve had, and maybe too some great examples that you’re giving. We want to find something out about you. We want to find out about what you can bring to the organization and what’s important to you. And the only way that we can gather that evidence is through hearing from you.

So, my recommendation, my advice to you would be try to use as much of that time as you can. Obviously, don’t waffle, don’t repeat your points, don’t duplicate your answers. If you’ve managed to talk through your response and you feel comfortable that you’re given the full spectrum of information that’s required, then close it, of course. But, I would always recommend you end closer to the five minutes than the one minute. That would be my advice.

James: Excellent. Now, that makes complete sense. And then they would move on to the Skype interview. So, is that a video interview or just a telephone call?

Andrew: So, that’s a video. It’s a Skype interview, so what you would get is you would get an invite from the team, and that Skype interview would then be with a senior manager in Mars, and more often than not, in most cases, what we are setting in that Skype interview, which usually lasts probably 30 to 45 minutes, that Skype interview is really focusing on your learning.

Well, it’s three things, actually. First of all, it’s your learning. So, how do you learn from your mistakes, how do you learn from the experiences that you’ve had in your life, and how do you take those and use them as an opportunity to improve? Because, when you think about the program and the experience you’re about to get in the next three years on the program, the learning never stops, and it’s as much around development at Mars, and in general, it’s as much around learning from your mistakes, but actually then applying those learnings to improve your approach in the future.

So, that concept of learning and then doing something about it is something we would focus on in the Skype interview alongside where relevance and appropriate functional technical assessments. So, if you’re applying for the R&D program or the engineering program, there will be some questions in there that really look at your knowledge, skills, and understanding of that functional area.

So, there’ll be some questions in there that specifically call out that, and perhaps they’re going to be testing you or maybe some of your modules that you might have studied at university, for example, and there’ll be an opportunity there so you can really demonstrate your capabilities around the functional area that you’re applying for. So, those are kind of the two areas that certainly would be a focus for the Skype interview, and maybe some others too, but those would definitely two that I would call out.

James: Excellent. And again, really good pointers for you listeners. Just sticking with this Skype interview, Andrew, what are some of the main ways that people tend to let themselves down at this stage?

Andrew: I think when it gets to the Skype interview, I think being prepared for some of the more competency-led questions, I think, is always key. Just sometimes, our senior managers can run the Skype interview or will actually, on that occasion, they didn’t really have any good examples of where they worked well as a team or where they overcome a challenge, or they didn’t really have a good understanding of where, maybe, around what their development needs are or where their strengths are. Sometimes, I think, certainly from my period of being a graduate or applying for programs, I was always told, “Make sure that you have some that you have some of those practice examples to have.”

So, sometimes those that maybe do click off and don’t have those examples at hand, and so it’s difficult to gather the evidence then. So, my advice would definitely be think about their competence and capabilities that are important to organization like teamwork, collaboration, life, being able to deal with conflict, influence, negotiate. These are all skills that are important in the workplace.

So, really have a think about where you’ve done that at college, at university, maybe previous work experience that you already had, and be really clear in your examples around what the situation was, what you did, and then what happens and what was the outcome. I think it’s always good in an interview scenario. I always recommend using the STAR technique.

So, the STAR technique, S stands for situation, so really explain the situation of the example that you’re giving, what was the context, T is the task. So, what was the challenge ahead to either you or those involved in that particular example. A is for action, so what happened, and actually what did you do, what was your personal role in that action. And then finally R for results, so what was the outcome.

And I think if you apply that STAR technique to your answers when you’re being asked to provide examples of when you’ve demonstrated a certain skill or competency, then I think that will stand you in good stands because you’re actually giving a good interview response.

James: That’s great advice as well, and just with the STAR technique, just make sure that when you are giving an answer, and if you’re talking about a team, example at university, that you’re talking about what you did as opposed to what the team, that you’re the person who’s been hired, so make sure you don’t — or you do shine a light on the work that you did as opposed to being too coy and not talking about your own skills and what you’ve brought to the table.

Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.

James: So, moving on then to the final stage of the assessment center. You mentioned some of the different aspects that people can expect there. Does it tend to be a full day or is it half day that people can expect?

Andrew: Yeah, it tends to be a full day. Usually, it’s three or four activities, depending on the program. They do vary by program, but if I were to say what are the most likely four types of activity, then the first one would be a case study. So, this is where you have to read through some complex information to be able to then process it, analyze it, and come up with a recommendation.

The second type of activity you may do is around a group exercise, so where you are together with other candidates that have reached that stage of the process to work through a scenario, a challenge and come up with a solution together. The third one may be a roleplay, particularly a similar functional programs where you may — I don’t know. I’ll use a procurement program as an example where you’ll need to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer, and you’re buying products and services from suppliers, and actually how you face into that negotiation conversation. Same as being in sales roles. How do you front into the customer conversation when you’re negotiating a business plan for the year at Mars? So, a roleplay’s definitely a good way of testing that kind of putting yourself in the shoes of a day in the life, almost, of what you may be doing whilst you’re on the program.

And then the fourth, of course, is the interview, and that usually happens at the end of the day for Mars, and the reason why we run the interview at the end of the day is because we like to gather all of the evidence in the previous exercises, and then we like to tailor the interview to really deep dive on any areas that we would like to focus in on so that we feel comfortable, so that we’ve gathered all of the necessary evidence. I talked about collection of evidence earlier.

It’s really important for us to make sure that we’ve gathered the evidence that we need at some point during the day so that we feel comfortable and confident that we’re making the right decision. The right decision for Mars and the right decision for the potential associate joining us. Those are probably the four main types of exercises you may experience when you go to a Mars assessment center.

James: Sounds like a challenging day. Starting with the case study, would they get the case study in advance or is it just one that they get on the day to get into?

Andrew: So, you would get it on the day and you would usually have, depending on the case, you tend to have 45 and 90 minutes to prepare. So, clearly there’s a lot of information in the documents, and it perks the designs to be complex. So, my advice when you pick up that case study and you open it, don’t panic because everyone’s probably thinking the same thing like, “Oh my god, I’ve got like 30 pages of information to read, and I need to not only read this, take it in, analyze it, but then I also need to do a presentation at the end, I need to present my recommendation.”

My first advice is don’t panic, and my second piece of advice is to really break down the case study into its component parts and always go back to the brief. So, what is it that we’re asking of you, and really kind of cut through the noise of the detail because that’s what you need to do in the workplace is you’ve got lots of tasks, lots of things going on. How do you make choices and how do you prioritize the necessary work or approach, or in this case, the necessary information. So, it perks the design to see how you make the complex simple and how do you almost declutter your mind and really then be articulate with what is the way forward.

Please don’t panic, please break down its component part, and make sure that you are keeping that brief, and don’t let the level of information in the case study pack distract you from what the original brief was.

James: Brilliant pointers there, and one that I’ve also found is true for the group exercise is often people, groups will forget or lose track of what the original question was of what they’re asked to do, and go off down on tangents. So, moving on then to the group exercise. How do the best candidates stand out in the group exercise?

Andrew: Group exercises, James, are always interesting ones. I see many group exercises, there’s many in my time of my career, and I think this is often the case where, sometimes, a candidate can inadvertently be the person. The most likely chance where this is the exercise where the candidate is most likely to inadvertently be the person they think we want them to be rather than just being themselves.

First of all, be authentic, be you is really important in this because more often than not are senior managers and our leaders that are on that day are all too familiar with what is authentic and what is not. So, be yourself is the first point. With the group exercise, more often than not, most employers clearly are looking for how you work together as a team, and hopefully you’re going into that recognizing that that’s one of the big competencies that we are trying to gain evidence of.

One thing I think that’s really important to call out, a couple of points: one is a general point around style, and all of us are introverts, extraverts, and that’s who we are, and that’s who you should be at Mars, and what we recognize is that, actually, introverts and extraverts can play a different role in these group exercises. And what we absolutely are not expecting is people to shout the loudest. That is not good evidence of teamwork and that’s not good evidence of leadership.

Ultimately, people have different values and bring different benefits and shapes to a team and the success of a team, and that applies in the workplace as much as it does in this group exercise environment. So, be you, don’t feel the need the need that you have to shout the loudest. Of course, you have to contribute and please don’t say — we have cases where candidates have just said nothing for 30 minutes, and if you don’t say anything, we can’t gather any evidence in that competency, and that’s not going to be a good — that won’t lead to a positive outcome.

So, please say something, but think about when you contribute, how you want to contribute. We recognize that introverts may take some time to warm up, and therefore, it’s about your overall contribution across the whole, let’s say, 30 minutes, and it’s not about the person that speaks first, or speaks the longest, or has the most airtime. It’s about just the right contribution at the right time with quality rather than just quantity. So, that would be on tip.

And then I think the second tip, which is very relevant to Mars and very much around what does success and what does leadership look like in group exercises. And I think they still vary by sector and by employer. I do see differences. At Mars, we measure the success of our developments by the success of those around us.

It’s a really important phrase, it’s a really important mantra that has been with Mars for many, many years from the founding family members, and it’s something that we live through every day, and it’s about being great support, great team players, great collaborators, great line managers for our teams. And if we can help them grow and we can support them, then we are certain to prosper here as an associate.

So, demonstrating role models, inclusivity, collaboration, team work. It’s not about being the best and getting the right answer and you be seen as the winner. It’s more about how you involve others, how you get the solution, and the recommendation. That is what we’re looking for. It’s not about someone winning the task, and certainly not winning it in a way which is to the detriment of those around the group. So, definitely a tip when you’re thinking about applying for Mars, that’s what our culture is all about. That’s really important to us.

James: That’s brilliant advice there. I do think that the Apprentice has a lot to answer for with people sort of watch episodes and think that’s the way they need to perform during a group exercise. But, yeah it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Andrew: Absolutely, yeah. Do not take lessons from the Apprentice when applying for Mars.

James: So, the next stage is something I’ve not actually done personally myself. Again with the roleplay then, what separates the candidates who get through from maybe the candidates who struggle.

Andrew: So, I think it’s about being assured. Being assured and confident with your approach and your style. With roleplays and particularly in the function that they’re used, it’s usually used to determine how you cope with conflicts or how you cope with the need to influence others. Actually, your way of thinking. It’s very common in sales, very common in the procurement program, so buying things. You’re ultimately in the workplace and you will get challenges every day from suppliers and customers saying, “No, I don’t agree to that,” and actually at this end, on the Mars side, you can’t agree to their recommendation either, but you need to find common ground.

So, I think how you cope with conflict scenarios and how you push back in the right way, you have to find commonality, common ground. I think it’s key. So, obviously the two extremes is where you kind of hide in the corner, for want of a better word, and you just accept the views of the person on the side of the roleplay. That’s not a good response because we need you to represent Mars and represent Mars well in those conversations instead of representing the acquisition.

On the other extreme, it’s almost that fight-or-flight as you fight back and you go almost on the offensive that why does it really frustrate, annoys, ultimately does not lead to a productive, collaborative environment, and people could, in that instance, walk away, seem very unhappy with the conversation. That’s not going to lead to a successful partnership or sustainable relationship with that customer or that supplier.

So, it’s finding that middle ground around how you manage conflicts or differences in opinion in a way that is a win-win. It’s finding the win-win, and that’s where you need to — my advice would be, “How do you find the commonality, what do you agree on?” Actually, if you disagree on X, Y, and Z, let’s call out, first of all, why are we here? Well, actually, let’s take the procurement conversation. The supplier wants to provide a great service to Mars at a cost which is commercially viable for them.

And what does Mars want? Well, actually they want a good supplier that has got good governance, that has great environmental credentials, that supports their principles as a way to do business. But, also we also need to do that in a way which is efficient and actually creates value for Mars. So, the desire for me to value and mutual benefit is an example of where there is commonality. How we then decide what that looks like, that’s something that will need to be worked through through the conversation.

But, it’s about finding that middle ground and the commonality, and that’s the sweet spot which shows recommending you all would think about. Don’t go to either extreme that I mentioned earlier. That wouldn’t be seen as a good response. That’s a particularly challenging scenario that you’re being presented with.

James: That sounds, again, really quality advice. So, we move on to the final stage that’s standing between the listeners and a graduate job with Mars. The interview at this point, it’s been a long day, feeling quite frazzled, I’ve had three challenging exercises. How can they stand out when it comes to the final interview?

Andrew: I think at the interviews and the final assessment itself, our assessor team are our senior leaders in the business. So, these are managing directors ourselves, sales directors, finance directors, which is the leadership team that you’ll get to meet, which is a great, obviously, opportunity to connect with the leadership team, to learn from them, but also to ask questions around the program and the schemes of course.

When you think about our leaders in that final interview that you’ve reached, they all know kind of in their minds they are thinking, “Right, okay, can I see this individual as being in my role one day?” and that’s what they will have in their minds, “Can I see this person 10 years from now, 12 from now coming to that program and being in my role?” Because, that’s the aspiration of the program. In a very accelerated period of time that you will be in these positions.

So, I think at this point around really being clear on your leadership, what is your leadership style, your offer, and making sure that’s authentic. It’s looking at what you stand for as it relates to leadership. I think that’s an important kind of one that I would try to reinforce or share in that interview is what you stand for, what you believe in, what your kind of leadership focus is.

I think the second area is around aspiration. So, being really clear on why you’re here, and why you’re applying and where you want to go. Because, what you need to remember, and I think this applies to many graduates’ employers, the people in that final interview won’t always necessarily see your application form, additional interview. So, those are those outputs they won’t necessarily see. They’ll have an overview and they’ll walk into that room understanding your profile, understanding where we want to cover, what questions we want to ask.

They will have that, but they won’t necessarily have the responses to your questions in the application form. They’ll probably have them written down and they’ll have some insights, but it’s really up to you to really hone in again on what you want them to leave the room thinking about: you.

So, don’t worry about repeating an example, or a scenario, or a question that you may have covered previously in the application process. Our assessors at that final stage trust that you are all at this stage for a reason and trust the assessment benchmark and process. So, now it’s just, “Okay, what’s important to me? Leadership, your ambition, your aspiration, which I’ll talk about now, and then finally potential, which I’ll also talk about.”

So, going back to your original question, James, what are they looking for, yes it’s leadership, what’s your sense of leadership offer and style, the second is around motivation and aspiration. So, why are you here, why Mars, why this program, where do you want to go, and how do you feel that you’re going to get there. So, being really articulate around the journey that you feel you would need to go on and the support that you would need to get along the way. Being really up and clear about that will be seen as a very positive factor. That’s the second one.

Third one, as I mentioned, is potential. So, the point of entry, as we call it, at Mars is around great performance. So, when you are in those placements, on those three rotations, you’ll be given and agree your objectives with your line manager and you’ll be expected to deliver, and probably go up the learning curve quicker, and deliver some great results to Mars. And that’s almost a given.

And we have many, many, many great experiences, and tasks, and projects that you can get your team into that can prove that you’re a strong performer at Mars. What we’re whispering around is around actually how do you take those experiences and use them to accelerate your development over time. We’ll go back a bit to the question earlier, James, that you asked about in the Skype interview around that kind of, “Have you learned from your mistakes, have you learned from the experiences that you had?” and then apply them in the future.

So, I always think this is a bit of a test or an opportunity for you to say, “Well, how do you kind of know what to do in a scenario when, actually, you’ve never experienced that scenario before? How do you know what to do when you don’t know what to do?” And that’s taking all those experiences that you’ve had from your time personally and professionally and playing, actually, with that experience, previously, “I can connect the dots, I can make some assumptions, and I can move forward quickly, and I can make a decision, and I know who to speak to, how to get the information, and how to push forward.” And that is, in the eyes of leaders who are in that interview, a great example and evidence of potential.

So, in summary, the three things that I would call out: one is around leadership and what your authentic leadership style is, second is around ambition and aspiration, and the third one is around demonstrating your potential more than and other than just performance.

James: Wow, Andrew, thank you. There’s so much brilliant advice there for anyone who’s applying to Mars. Just, when they get to the interview station now, they know exactly the three things that they need to be talking about. So, thank you for that. Time is, unfortunately, running away with us. So, maybe just one final question before we finish. What one tip would you give to someone who’s applying to Mars this year?

Andrew: So, for me, it’s around being curious, and by that it’s around being curious around Mars and being curious around what we do, why we do it, being passionate about the sector you’re applying to, being passionate around Mars and what we’re doing, and hopefully, bringing in all the research and experience that you gathered as part of your preparation to the application process.

It’s also being curious about you and what you can get from the development experiences on our programs, what the support model looks like, being curious around how you could cut benefit from feedback and coaching, and being curious around what, maybe, you might need to do differently to accelerate your own development journey. And it’s about being open and suggestions open to, maybe some challenging feedback that you might get.

But, definitely to your respect, be willing to kind of open up those blind spots about you, your development, and what you ultimately need to do differently to be successful. And then I think curiosity around actually the willingness to kind of think ahead a s graduate. So, we have got a big challenge ahead of us as an organization, but as a sector, more generally as we embrace digitization, as the consumers, customer landscape changes, fundamentally, and actually it’s early talent, community, it’s our future leaders, it’s the millennial generation that can come in and help us as an organization right with the status quo and help us almost think about our business of the future.

And being curious, willing to push down the barriers, break down conditional ways of thinking, bringing those into the conversation during the assessment process, I think, if it would be really important for us right now at Mars because we are on a journey of change driven by some external factors as the landscape evolves for us externally and internally. So, I think that curiosity is a theme that I think can span a number of different elements and areas, and I think that will help us stand out as a candidate over and above the rest. So, that will be my overall message is to be curious as you go through the process and demonstrate that curiosity in every single conversation you have.

James: Andrew, thank you. That’s a lovely point for us to finish the interview on. Thank you so much for appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast today. What’s the best way that listeners can find out more about Mars and the graduate opportunities?

Andrew: So, you can get in contact with Mars through our social channels. We’ve got Facebook, and Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. So, give us a search and you can find lots of great content on there not just about our programs, but also around our business: our office environment, our culture, some of the great initiatives and activities that we’re currently getting involved in. So, do a little bit of search and we look to connect in with you and have a conversation.

James: And all the links to everything we discuss today, including all the links to Mars and all the different streams can be found on the website at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Mars. Andrew, thank you so much for appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast.

Andrew: Thanks, James. It’s been great to have a good fair conversation today, and for those of you that do decide to apply, good luck.

James: So listeners, there you go, part 2 of my 2 part special on the brilliant graduate opportunities available with Mars. Many thanks to Andrew for his time and also the insights that he shared. If you’re applying to Mars make sure you listen back to this one a few times and do check out the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Mars2, as Andrew has laid out everything that you need to do to succeed. Applications are open now, so don’t hang about. The shownotes have a full transcript and links to everything we discussed today. It is also a treasure trove of other episodes which will help you no matter where you are in your job search. Whilst you are there don’t forget to head on over to graduatejobpodcast.com/subscribe and sign up so that you don’t miss a thing, despite my best intentions I know I can be sporadic in getting episodes out to you, so it’s the best way to stay up to date of what I’m up to. I’m also developing a brilliant course on how to get a graduate job which will distil down all of my years coaching into one place, so subscribe to make sure you don’t miss the launch details for that. If you have any questions, need some help coaching or with an application, then do drop me a line, again at hello@graduatejobpodcast.com. Right that is everything from me, join me next week when I am joined by Emma Rosen who shares how she tried 25 different careers before the age of 25! It’s a cracker. I hope you enjoyed the show today, but more importantly, I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week!