1st stage: Networking evening at the Mayfair hotel. It will be from around 6-9pm.
When you get to the hotel they will give you an envelope, inside there will be 10 business cards with you name . The objective is to hand all your Glencore business cards out to as many Glencore/ Smart Global representatives as possible.
There will also be a name of someone you have to speak to inside, this person is from Smart Global Limited and will be your main assessor throughout the process. Top tip - go on smart globals website and learn about their employees, this year the assessors were: Amanda, Andrew, Tony and Neil. They're all really nice, mainly ex BP traders but make sure to stand out to them.
Know you're entrepreneurial skill, why glencore, glencores values, and why commodity trading.
I believe around 120 people get to this stage.
Second stage: a formal interview at Glencores offices in London. This will last for approximately 45 mins and the interviewers will be 2 people from Smart Global and one person from Glencore's HR team. Ive written some of the questions down below for you guys. Overall they're quite nice and its not that much of a difficult interview.
I believe around 60 people get to this stage
3rd stage: 5 interviews in succession to one another at Glencores office. Each interview will last 15 mins and will be with 3 traders, head of Risk, head of HR Analytics and or Head of HR. Generally quite easy once again, all quite nice (questions written below).It was obvious that they weren't part of the HR or recruitment team so its less formal interviews. Just once again be honest and they will all ask you what entrepreneurial skills you've showed and why you want to be a trader.
All the interviews focus on soft skills and mental math, nothing too outrageous.
I believe around 30/40 people get to this stage
4th stage: The assessment day. This is from 9am-5pm, at another hotel. When you get there you will be given a 1 hour lecture on trading, followed by a trading simulation.
The first trading simulation is flat trading simulation. There is no point in trying to find online simulations to practise on, as their software is very good. There will be a news screen which will update with a news article every 15 seconds, and you have to trade depending on whether you think the news article will influence the market, essentially interpret the info assess if supply/ demand is restricted/ increased hence will affect the price.
TOP TIP: articles come through every 15 seconds so you have to be very quick in assessing them, but only around 4/5 articles will actually be relevant to the exercise. DO NOT OVER TRADE THE MARKET you will loose money, believe in what youve seen and how itll affect the market price. 10 trades max will be fine on this simulation.
Second trading simulation is spread trading: on the same software with tip of not overtrading the market.
3rd Negotiation Exercise: there will be 4 teams of 4, each with their own briefs. 2 teams will be buyers and 2 sellers. Lets say you're a buyer in your brief it may say you need to buy this much oil per month and need 50000 barrels today, you will then need to negotiate this with a seller team for a discount on the barrels. The seller team however will be trying to sell to you at a premium.
Overall it was a nice experience, everyone was lovely but I got rejected at the last stage (assessment centre) and i dont think its fair to have this stage last as it means going to London 4 weeks in a row and takes a lot of effort and time away from studies