IBM Business Consultant interview questions

Filled out online application form, which involved interview style questions. Then completed cognitive assessment tests, which were very difficult. About a week or two later I was asked to an assessment centre down in London. They do reimburse travel/accommodation which was a bonus. Assessment centre a half day and if you pass the first half, you are put through to the afternoon session. I didn't make it to the 2nd half. But first half consisted of two group work activities - one logical and one presentation. A lot of waiting around, we were there for about four/five hours and only assessed for 90 minutes. On my assessment day only 2 people out of 21 got through to the afternoon/interview stage, which was pretty brutal, and as they weren't in my group, I'm not sure where the rest of us went wrong.

IBM works with a few stages you have to pass in order to be offered a position at the company: 1) Online application with IBM's specific form you have to fill in with some specific 'interview style' questions you have to fill in (e.g. Describe a time you displayed excellent client focus in less than 80 words) 2) You may then be invited to take the IPAT test. There were two parts to this with the first being number sequence problems and the second part was a numerical competancy type of assessment. This test was quite challenging, less because of the level of the questions but more due to the time constraints - you are given 1 min 45 sec to answer each question (if I recall correctly) so you only have one chance to get the answer right, especially with the numerical section, and then you may be forced to simply guess. 3) If you pass the IPAT test you will then be invited to one of IBM's assessment centres (IBM will cover all reasonable travel expenses of up to 150 pounds). The assessment centre day is broken up into two parts: the first consists of two group activities (4-5 people) aimed at assessing you drive, teamwork, leadership, problem sovling, client focus, etc. The one was attempting to solve a problem with limited information and the other involved the development of a business idea and a short presentation of this idea. If you are successful with the first half of the day, you will then be invited to partake in personal and competancy interviews. 4) There will then be a final interview. Once you are at this stage you are almost guaranteed a position as this interview is mainly aimed at finding where you might specifically fit within the company based on your competancies, interests, goals etc.