Online application
I was asked to submit my CV and a relatively short form about any previous experience or personal details. It was very straightforward and didn’t require any planning or skills. Questions were quite basic.
How to respond for success
Personally, I don’t believe that my CV had much of a purpose in the application process, as you are advanced to the first online assessment upon completing the forms. Though I do believe that keeping my CV condensed, by emitting any unnecessary details, was helpful. Making my CV as easy to read and neat as possible is helpful, since it’s the first impression you’re going to give. I didn’t have much tailoring, though I did include some information on extracurricular scientific activities that I had attended.
Expect a 1 day wait before advancing to the next stage.
Online Assessment
This stage was titled The World of GSK online assessment. It included examples of workplace scenarios, where you would have to give your opinion of how you would handle them and explain your answers in low detail. It took under 2 hours and didn’t require much preparation as a lot of the questions were based around common sense, focussing on how you should interact with colleagues and deal with situations like stressful conditions, or rude staff members.
Example
Questions were not about any specific skills, like knowledge of excel or writing emails. They were only focussed on testing how you would go about situations which were applicable to practically any workplace, and to see how you felt it was appropriate to act.
How to respond for success
As long as you take your time to answer the questions and make sure to read through each scenario carefully, you should have no trouble at this stage. This stage will be used to look at your behaviour, rather than your skillset, so answer truthfully and with integrity. Practice shouldn’t be required, and you won’t need to record yourself at this stage as all answers are written or multiple choice.
Expect a 3 day wait before advancing to the next stage.
HireVue
This stage lasts about 45 minutes and takes place on HireVue, where you have to record yourself answering questions. I found this to be the most difficult stage, and it requires substantial preparation. It plays out like a one-sided interview, so studying the STAR (situation, task, action, result) format will be useful beforehand.
Example
You will answer several questions, perhaps about dealing with colleagues, writing emails, planning and time management, and even about your hobbies. These questions were largely standard strength-based interview style questions.
How to respond for success
I could not recommend a good grasp of the STAR format more, as well as making use of the practice questions that you are allowed to use beforehand. I made a page of notes of different details about myself and the company that I wanted to include which I kept by myself during the process for prompts during recordings, as you can only take the recordings once. I’d recommend dressing professionally if possible. The more practice for this section the better, as it determines whether or not you will progress to the Assessment Centre. Also, you can make use of any of your hobbies if you know how to use them. For example, I talked about playing multiplayer video games, to turn into an example of leadership and teamwork.
Expect a 2-3 month wait before advancing to the next stage.
HireVue
This stage lasts about 45 minutes and takes place on HireVue, where you have to record yourself answering questions. I found this to be the most difficult stage, and it requires substantial preparation. It plays out like a one-sided interview, so studying the STAR (situation, task, action, result) format will be useful beforehand.
Example
You will answer several questions, perhaps about dealing with colleagues, writing emails, planning and time management, and even about your hobbies. These questions were largely standard strength-based interview style questions.
How to respond for success
I could not recommend a good grasp of the STAR format more, as well as making use of the practice questions that you are allowed to use beforehand. I made a page of notes of different details about myself and the company that I wanted to include which I kept by myself during the process for prompts during recordings, as you can only take the recordings once. I’d recommend dressing professionally if possible. The more practice for this section the better, as it determines whether or not you will progress to the Assessment Centre. Also, you can make use of any of your hobbies if you know how to use them. For example, I talked about playing multiplayer video games, to turn into an example of leadership and teamwork.
Expect a 2-3 month wait before advancing to the next stage.
Assessment Centre
The final assessment is the Assessment centre, of which mine was virtual. This one is the most like a traditional interview, where you will talk to different hiring managers. In my case, multiple candidates were added to a Teams meeting, where we introduced ourselves before moving onto 4/5 different activities. The assessment took multiple hours from beginning to end, so make certain you have a water bottle on hand. I researched the company extensively before the assessment, researching any recent news about the company and asking questions about it to prove my interest.
Example
They included a simple online pipetting exercise, questions about selecting a supplier for the company (a question similar to those from the earlier stages), a regular strength-based interview, and a 5 minute presentation on a topic I had to prepare in advance.
How to respond for success
I believe that knowledge of the company is very important at this stage, and that confidence in front of the camera is key. Be honest in your interview answers; your answers do not have to all be related to science. I wore a blazer and a smart shirt for this stage, which should be acceptable attire.
