During my time at Murex, I had to recruit quite a few people and I faced different profiles, so have a read, smile and relax. For an interview you need to be prepared and at your best. So here are some pitfalls you can easily dodge.

Murex Interview – The Test

There is a test! Yes, it’s best to revisit your finance/programming/math lessons so everything is fresh and handy in your mind. You have 1 hour to do your best.

I think I have to give the golden crown to one candidate (to whom I already told there was a test): he came in, sat in the room and I left him to work on his test. 10 minutes later, he came out, handed me back the test (nothing written on it, not even his name, perfect to give to the next candidate). “I don’t think I’m suited for this role”. At least he was honest.

Second place goes to someone we ended recruiting because that person is actually really good. But when asked to give a simple definition, there was actually a fair bit of writing. 1 page! In small characters when 1 sentence could have sufficed. Know that we discuss with you the answers you give and we can easily tell if you understand or not

Last place goes to the bullshitter. Answers were very generic and could not make much sense out of them. When asking him for more details, he told us that he did not believe that it was so important to know things in details, you can always talk your way out. Well, he managed to talk his way out of the interview.

Murex interview – Presentation

Job interview is a two way street, you discover the company and people who are looking to recruit BUT they also discover you and who you are.

Once we had this candidate who was just looking at the table, did not even look at one of us once. And his answers were short when not single worded. Not matter what we tried to get him to relax, we failed miserably and we could not get him to open up. As many Murex roles are customer facing, being comfortable talking to people is important!

When you present yourself, it’s important to explain why Murex is of interest to you and especially on the longer run. Some people (yes it happened more than once) were upfront enough to mention that they were looking at Murex just as a stepping stone in their career. Definitely not a smart move!

Murex interview – The good surprises

But sometimes you get good surprises. The feeling (usually straight away) that you found a gem, someone that would fit perfectly the bill. And the interview/test will effectively confirm it.
I often pondered if it was simply the first impression that decided how an interview would go but I do believe that the Murex test makes things actually fairer. Someone with very good presentation but lacking knowledge would effectively be at a disadvantage after the test. Someone not so good at presenting can gain some confidence and feel more on familiar ground thanks to the test.
After that if you’re not good at presenting and don’t know much, maybe it’s better not to take the interview!