15-minute maths test. GCSE level, a mixture of topics, 5 pages, no calculator. Pace yourself as it was quite a lot.
Then I was taken to a medium-sized conference room to have the first round of interview with one engineer and one analyst whom I would be working with. Very friendly conversation-style interview. Typical interview questions: why TPP, why my course, and which module I valued the most. Then two Google questions which I will put below. Followed by a short translation as I was applying for the Mandarin speaker job. It was a paragraph of system description. It seemed that they were quite happy with my performance as I was directly progressed to have a second round of interview with senior level managers.
I was taken to a massive conference room with two senior managers sitting opposite of me. They apparently had not read my CV or cover letter as one of them was vigorously reading through my CV and asked me, with slight ridicule, what one of my modules was about. That was the first question. No self-introduction, no briefing, that was the first question. Then the other manager asked me about my dissertation and dug deep my methodology. Apparently, my explanation was not to this manager's satisfaction as the response expressed unfiltered sarcasm. I was also asked opinions on some political news regarding China.
Then I was given mental arithmetic and statistics probability test. The manager set two rules: no excuse - e.g., "I haven't done maths in a long time"; and no apologies. And I was asked to repeat these rules to make sure I understood.
I failed to work out the square of a double-digit number. I requested to use paper and pen but was denied. The manager taught me how to do this calculation eventually. Followed by that was a statistics probability question: throw two dice, what is the probability of getting two fives. I was asked to repeat the question to ensure comprehension. I got it wrong by one detail. The manager then asked me to think out loud, and walked me through each step of my thinking, compared to the correct answer, to show me where I got it wrong, and how I got it wrong. I admitted that I made a mistake, and apparently this manager was happy about me saying that.
Then I got to ask them questions. To be honest, after being schooled like an elementary school pupil, I would have rejected this job anyways so I did not ask anything concrete. I just wanted to get it over with.
I must mention one detail:
During the entire interview with these two senior managers, one of them kept chewing a candy, even when he/she was talking to me; and the other was constantly rubbing his/her face, or supporting his/her head with both hands on the cheek, accompanied by his/her random complaint about how bright and hot the conference room was. I shared this observation with my friends and we all conclude that this manager was probably having a hangover.
In summary, the entire interview experience would have been great if not for the second round with the senior managers.
Three thoughts I wanted to share:
1. Reflecting on some of the extremely low ratings here, I can see where they are coming from when they mentioned that the staff who made a mistake have to document their mistakes in detail and email it to everyone in the office, and that the staff were asked to apologise in the middle of the office.
2. In the first round of interview, I was told that there was no pre-session training - all was on-the-job and with the peers. This is irresponsible to new on-boards because TPP recruits people from all backgrounds. How would they expect good work from no training?
3. I was also told TPP promotes people by raising salary, but not by titles. Imagine after 3 years and you are still "Graduate analyst" on your CV. It'll take quite some explanation to your next employer. This is inconsiderate.
