Application Process & Interviews at WSP New Zealand

Interview was rescheduled 5 times, couple times less than an hour prior. Urgency due to other job offers was not communicated to hiring manager. Team leader didn't attend my interview or contact me at all until the day before I started.

Psychometric test was challenging and may not be the best way to weed out candidates. Graduate interview day was enjoyable.

My hiring experience was good, but when I have done interviews for interns not all of the provided questions were relevant.

I was hired out of sync with the graduate intake which made the process streamlined. I had an hour zoom call and a coffee catch up meeting with my team lead then was offered the job.

I did an online application to submit my CV, cover letter and answer questions. After that, I was invited to do an online recorded video interview, which involved recording my responses to questions. The next stage was an in-person interview and assessment centre at the WSP office, which took half a day. I did not feel very prepared for the in-person interview as I had no idea what role I was being interviewed for and who my interviewers were. The assessment centre involved collaborating with other candidates on a problem solving activity and giving a short presentation on the findings and solution. I liked interacting with the other candidates as it simulated a real life team problem solving situation. The interview process and assessment I experienced took place in early/mid 2021. I believe the current interview process and assessments may now be done slightly differently.

Application, online test, in-person interview

The interview was conducted well, but in hearing I got the job it would have been nice to have a phone call rather than an email - these days you get emails for everything and if I wasn't looking out for it I would have missed it.

To be honest, that interview was much easier than I imagined. (also compare to other interviews I got before) The interviewer (also my current manager) was quite nice.

For graduates: Online application -> Video interview -> Offer of place

interview process is good, but it took a while to get feedback from HR

Not too daunting which is good

Provide a very good interview process.

Causal meetings with real people where you are encouraged to be honest about abilities and expectations.

WSP had one of the more smoother application processes among the companies I applied for post graduation. I initially ?lled out the online application form. A few days later I got an email that I had advanced to the next stage which was to record some videos for a one way interview. There were 3 question prompts where I was then given a timer of about a minute to record my answer. I really appreciated WSP giving you the option to re-record your answers. With other company applications, there were instances of only having one take to record your answer where if you made a mistake you couldn't retake it. A few days passed where I then had a direct video call interview with my manager and a member of the team who I would be working with should my application be successful.

Seems pretty standard. You send your CV and cover letter. If you make the following stage, you get sent a link to do answer two questions via video where you don't know the question till you start recording and only get 1 re-attempt (a bit cruel for those who panic but it seems to be an easy way to get a feel of people without having to organise anything). The ?nal stage if your video goes well is the interviews which is the standard hiring questions, but WSP do have an interviewer guide/ key point to follow with a score card with descriptions while interviewing. This makes interviews more consistent despite having di?erent interviewers.

Graduate perspective - typically begins with a review of academic transcripts by HR team prior to hiring managers seeing the applicants. This is generally followed by selective interviews.

Interview process was very informal

Slow, unorganised, and seem disinterested much of the time. Had to follow up. Almost didn't accept offer.

Typical behavioral questions.

General problem solving/team work questions

Open ended situational questions.

My interviews took place over nearly 2 years ago and I cannot recall the exact questions. However, I remember being asked questions that related more to my character, personality and attitude, rather than technical questions.

General interview questions about di?cult experiences, con?icts, hobbies etc.

How would you deal with conflict? Give us an example. What do you believe is most important in a work environment? Where do you see yourself going in your career?

Past experience, they cared more about the person I am rather than the technical experience I had

Behavior questions. Previous projects.

I received a lot of pretty typical interview questions of "Tell me about yourself", "What do you know about WSP" and "When was a time you struggled and overcame it". A question that was not expected for me I received in my interview was "What would you be doing if you didn't have to worry about money."

The ones I remember were vaguely like this: What was something very difficult you have experienced that you worked through? What are things you do in your free time?

What are my areas of interest? What tools am I familiar with? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses?

Mainly around what work interested me and what my goals were for my career

Who I am, what I do, more a discussion than specific questions.

Research the company and projects that they are working on that intrigue you. Always ask questions at the end, and use multiple/ different examples when answerign interview questions.

Research the role and the company and do your best to answer the questions presented in full.

Research the company and talk to anyone who you know that works there for insider knowledge.

Be open-minded about the role you are being interviewed for because the industry is constantly changing (so roles change) and a lot of learning is done on the job. Even if you didn't take the subject at uni or don't have previous experience in the area, you may find yourself really enjoying the role/projects and adapting/learning quickly.

Do the work and prepar - Understand what the company is about and what the role might entail and prepare responses for the most commonly asked interview questions

WSP gives a preparation sheet (from memory).

Keen an open mind when applying for jobs. Although the role title can sound very fixed, there is lots of opportunity to collaborate with different teams within the sector.

dress properly

Don't be afraid to be different and out of the box with your replies, be unpredictable

Be yourself.

Do at least a little bit of research on what the company actually does and have an idea what sector you want to eventually work in. Feel free to ask your interviewer some questions as well! They will be happy to talk about the company culture and what team events they may do. One way video interviews were pretty common during my applications so I would recommend a decent quality camera, whether that would be a webcam or the camera attached to your laptop.

You will know very little coming in. WSP will use you to fill in gaps they have. You will just do the work that's available and get used to navigating their resources to learn software and other works. Be prepared to have very little work to begin with and use this time to ask other colleague what you need to know what software/ training content you should go over to be up to speed.

Following your online application, try meet with the hiring manager to actually make a personal connection and prevent your application from simply being a name on paper. Prepare by critically thinking about where your strengths are. Demonstrate you are willing to learn and be willing to acknowledge where your knowledge gaps are/areas of focus.

Prepare some good questions for your interviewer about the company and about anything that interests you or that the company may be able to help you progress with

Be yourself.