Modern Day Recruitment Process
Personally, I can remember sending CVs out by post, from my little room in Cambridge. I can distinctly remember hand writing my cover letters and typing, then photocopying my CV. This was a long and laborious process, and of course, the dinosaurs were walking around at the same time, but what happened next was simple, compared to the challenges you face right now. At the time, once cover letter and CV were sent to the company applied for, there would be a letter confirming receipt of the documents. Sometimes this letter would ask us to wait for further news, and sometimes it would be what we called “ding” – a rejection, which we would throw, physically, into the waste paper bin, making a noise that sounded very much like a “ding”! Occasionally, the letter came that said “we would like to invite you to an interview”, and this, of course, created much excitement, a bit of preparation, and off we would go, on the train to London, to meet someone from HR in the company we were dreaming of. From there, just like now, successful applicants would move on to assessment centres, and then final interviews. I was lucky enough to participate in over ten assessment centres, and to receive seven offers, from companies as diverse as BA, Marks and Spencer, the Swire Group (which I took!) and the BBC. I was good, but not academically exceptional, but you know what the value of extra-curricular activities is now, right?
我记得当年在剑桥的时候，我还通过邮寄来投递简历。我可以清楚地记得手写每一封求职信，然后把简历一点一点地输入进电脑并且复印它们。这是一个漫长而艰辛的过程，但是与你现在面临的挑战相比，当时后面的步骤就简单多了。当时，一旦求职信和简历发给你申请的公司，你就会收到一个确认信。有时候这封信会要求我们等待进一步的消息，有时则是封拒信（我们称之为“叮”，因为当你把这封拒信丢进垃圾桶的时候，会发出类似“叮”的一个声音）。
偶尔的会收到“我们想邀请你参加我们的面试”的信，这当然是非常激动的，这时就要做一些准备，然后乘上去伦敦的火车，与你梦想的公司的人力资源的人见面。从那时起，就像现在这样，成功的申请者就会进入到评估中心，然后进行最终的面试。我很幸运能够参加十多个评估中心，并拿到了七个公司的offer，这些公司有：英国航空BA，玛莎Marks and Spencer，太古集团 the Swire Group（我去的公司）和BBC。我当时是优秀的，但并不是在学术上很厉害的，但你知道课外活动的价值所在了吧。
Now, until a couple of years ago, the process was not so very different from what I went through, as email replaced letters and online application forms replaced paper. Other than that, the thinking behind it was very similar. There was the addition of online tests, though, as I recall, in the assessment centres I attended, there were many tests, of a very similar nature, just done on paper, and in situ. This was all quite easy, and Chinese/overseas candidates adapted quite easily.
现在，直到几年前，这个申请过程与我当时经历的都没有太大的区别，只是邮件取代了信件。除此之外，都大同小异。不过，我记得我参加的评估中心还增加了在线测试，有很多测试，性质都非常相似，只是是在纸上和现场做的。这些测试很容易，中国/海外的申请人都很容易适应。
The order was predictable –
Send us your application
If we like your application, we will invite you to do online tests
If you pass the online tests, we will invite you to first interview (usually by phone)
If you pass first interview, then we ask you to attend an assessment centre
If you succeed at AC, then we invite you to meet a senior person(s) and then offer is made.
Just a couple of years ago, a big sea change started to happen. It was confusing for all, not least us coaches, and many were caught out by it. We may not like the changes, but they are clearly here to stay!
申请顺序是基本固定的：
- 提交申请
- 如果我们喜欢你的申请，我们将邀请你参加在线测试
- 如果你通过了在线测试，我们将邀请你参加初面（通常是电话面试）
- 如果你通过了初面，我们将邀请你参加评估中心
- 如果你通过了评估中心，我们将邀请你参加终极面试（与一个高级职员面试），然后发送录取通知。
而就在几年前，一个非常大的变化正在悄然发生，当时不仅我们导师，乃至非常多的人都开始困惑了。我们可能不喜欢接受改变，但是事实终究是事实。
The digital world allows for a very different way of assessing candidates. There are many advantages to this, especially for the recruiting companies: reduced costs, less interaction between humans, and avoidance of bias caused by CV details, such as gender, schools attended, race, etc. Now a company can take your application and process it with almost zero human intervention until an assessment centre stage. This is something that they are all pretty happy about. Much cheaper, and much quicker. Also harder to prepare for…
数字世界给我们提供了很多评估申请人的不同方式。这有很多优点，特别是对于招聘公司来说：降低成本，减少了人与人之间的互动，并且避免了因简历细节（如性别，学校，种族等）造成的偏见。现在的公司可以做到在评估中心之前的招聘阶段都几乎没有人为干预。这是他们都很高兴的一件事情，成本更低，更快捷的招聘流程，但是却更难以准备。
Many companies, including EY, KPMG, Alphasights, Bank of England, GSK and more are now using what they call a digital interview. These come, after a candidate has passed extensive online tests, which can include not just technical, but also personality-based tests, up to six of them. On passing all of these, a candidate is invited to the digital interview, often with as little as 48 hours’ notice.
In the“interview”, there may be just some questions flashed up on the screen, which do not vary much from what used to be asked by phone (competency and motivation type), or there may be scenarios, essays to write, videos expressing opinions and ideas to record. The scenarios may require calculations and expertise, or they may simply be looking for a particular personality profile. There is much less scope for preparing for these, and that is a common feature. Employers are trying to find ways to get past rehearsed answers to known questions, and to see the real “you” in their interactions with you.
What is more, some companies have gone a step further and are carrying out this process on a platform that analyses not only your answers, but also your body language, your vocabulary, your speed of reaction and more. You are on film from the moment you log in. One supplier of such platforms assesses over 15,000 characteristics, giving an automated response of success or failure within less than a minute. This can be disconcerting for the unprepared, especially as it can be hard to accept that a rejection be made in the space of only a few moments!
许多公司，包括安永，毕马威，Alphasights，英格兰银行，葛兰素史克GSK等，都在使用他们所谓的数字面试。在申请人通过各种各样的在线测试（不仅是技术类的测试，还有性格测试等最多六种测试）之后，申请人会被邀请参加数字面试，这通常只会提前48小时通知你。在“面试”中，会有一些问题显示在屏幕上，它们与之前的电话面试的问题（能力和动机问题）很相似，或者会提供一些情景分析，写文章，看视频表达意见和想法等。这些情景可能会需要计算能力和专业知识，也有可能只是在寻找有特定个性的申请人。因此，做准备的空间相对要小一些。雇主试图找到一些方法来避免一些排练过无数遍的答案，并想在与你的互动中看到真正的“你”。更重要的是，一些公司会在某个特定的平台上进行这个面试阶段，不仅可以分析你的答案，还可以分析你的肢体语言，词汇量，反应速度等等。你从登陆开始就会被录下来。这样的平台评估超过15,000个特性，并且在不到一分钟之内自动相应成功或者失败的结果。这可能是令人不安的，特别是只在几分钟的时间内就遭到拒绝是很难以接受的。
Subsequent stages of the process remain somewhat similar, though these are also in evolution. Whereas before the typical scenario was: assessment centre and then final interview, many companies are attempting to bring these two together, in order to shorten the process, and make more cohesive decisions. This will no doubt continue as a trend.
该过程的后续阶段就都很类似了，尽管它们也是在慢慢进化中。典型的情况是：评估中心后终极面试，许多公司试图把这两个阶段结合在一起，以缩短流程，并做出更有凝聚力的决策。这无疑将成为一种趋势。
Whatever happens, you need to understand that these new methods are more about making things convenient for the employer than they are for your comfort. The process is designed, wherever possible, to get you to be natural, and this means you had better be prepared and flexible in your thinking. The biggest challenge for you as
a candidate is that of knowing so much about yourself and your fit with the company, that you can just talk about it naturally, with a flexibility that covers everything from doing some analysis and sums, while being filmed, to expressing how you see the world in twenty years’ time! Time to get to work on every aspect of your process, and particularly to your “flow”!
不管发生什么，你需要明白的是，这些新的方法更多的是为了方便雇主，而不是为了方便申请人。这样的流程的设计，为的是让你更自然、更灵活地呈现自己。你作为申请人最大的挑战是充分了解自己是如何适合公司要求的，并且在被录像的情况下很自然地去谈论它，从你做过的分析和总结谈论到你这二十年来看到的世界。好了，是时候去好好分析你的过程的每个方面了。