Initial online application followed by video interview, and then an assessment centre in Solihull. The assessors at the assessment centre were very helpful, and made us all feel very relaxed and at-ease.

Process was simple: Initial online application Online testing phases Video Interview Assessment Centre - 4 elements: Solo interview, group exercise, written exercise and a product pitch The video interview was simple enough - you pre record yourself answering a selection of 10 questions. You have 30s to prepare an answer to each question that come up on the screen and have 1 minute to give an answer. The questions they ask are fairly generic and you can generally think of examples before hand and to some extent guess a few of the questions that will come up - things like: Tell us about a time you delivered excellent customer service Tell us about a time where you have had to communicate complex information in an easy to understand manner etc etc 1-1 interview - the interviewer himself was really friendly and made me feel relaxed. I was dreading having my interview at the very beginning of the day but actually, the interviewers are so nice they actually steadied by nerves The first part is a strengths based section with questions similar to the video interview E.G Tell me how you would deal with a customer who is complaining to you about a member of staff they have previously been dealing with - how would you approach the situation? Would your friends and colleagues say you take ownership of everything you do? Tell me how you would effectively manage a busy schedule? Why are you suited to this scheme? What is effective service? Motivational section: (talk ALOT about Lloyds core values here!!! CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH) Why Lloyds bank? Why this Scheme? What can you bring to the role? Technical: (toughest section of the interview) Tell me about risks facing UK banks in the near future? - they will press you on this further depending on what you say Tell me about developing trends that will continue to effect banks in the next 2 years What initiatives have Lloyds bank developed that separates them from competitors? Should banks be responsive to change and how has lloyds done this? The whole interview lasted about 50mins or so and really wasn't that bad at all - I came out of the interview feeling really at ease. The biggest tip i can give is simply to be yourself, they can tell straight away if you're genuine and thats really what they looking for. As long as you're happy, smiley and engaging then the interview should fairly straightforward - show genuine interest and do a little research and you're laughing. Next I had my Written exercise - this was exactly the same as the situational judgement test you have to do when you first apply. You have 20 mins to write a response to 6 scenarios - just bullet point you're answers. The scenarios are things like: You've been doing well on a particular project and your manager thinks you are ready to take on more complex tasks you've not done before. You're concerned that your knowledge is not developed enough but do not want to shy away from the challenge. How do you approach this? group exercise You sit around a table in groups of 4/5 and have to discuss a serious of information cards related to banking products, services, developments and concepts. You have 1 min per card and each have to contribute information without overshadowing one another or failing to speak at all - there are 9 cards in total Following this there is a general group discussion about lloyds bank and how they can continue to be the best bank for customers related to the topics discussed on the cards. Topics included: Big data, security, branch service networks, community outreach programmes, digital technology etc After a general discussion in line with lloyds values (always bang on about these and relate everything back to them) the group must select 5 of the most important card topics and deliver a 5 mins presentation where each person must contribute. The final exercise of the day was the pitch - this was actually really simple and straightforward. You have to pitch an innovative product or service to just 1 interviewer. The pitch is 1-1 and you don't even need to stand up to deliver it, just treat it like a normal conversation The best general advice i can give is to do your homework and really brush up on the lloyds values, research digital technologies and current banking crisis - other than that just be your usual happy smiley self and that gets you a long way GOOD LUCK!!