I applied through Capital One website. Interview process included (in order):
1- Phone screening
2- Technical screening
3- SHL Personality Assessment
4- SHL Verbal Assessment
5- SHL Numeric Reasoning Assessment
6- Two hours on-site interviews.
As an ex-engineer, I thought I should ace these, I graduated with a 3.5 GPA, worked in the engineering field for over a decade, so how bad could these assessments be?
I never turn away from any sort of challenge and I always prepare. So, I really prepared for these SHL assessments and I took:
1- Full practice assessments provided by SHL
2- Full practice assessments provided by third party sites
3- Example questions provided by SHL
4- Pre exam practice test provided by SHL
I did well on every practice assessment listed above. By now, I was at least 7-8 hours invested in assessments, not including Phone and Technical interviews.
I FAILED the SHL Numeric Reasoning assessment and was STOPPED from continuing with the interviewing process despite doing well on all the rest.
The actual assessment was nothing like any practice, not even close to what SHL provided in their full practice assessments.
These SHL assessments are really awful. As an ex-engineer, I did not find them hard but rather extremely lengthy (wordy) and convoluted. You have just about 01:38 per numeric question and 00:37 per verbal reasoning.
The way the questions are structured and timed, the pressure is too high. You must complete 18 questions in 25 minutes. Each question has less that 1:38 to solve. it will take at least 1/3 of that time wrapping your head around the question and less than a minute to solve the question - you will need a calculator to do all of your questions. Almost every question had a table, others had charts. They were nonsense, full of financial jargon and useless.
As Scrum Masters and managers, I can't imagine how any of these assessments (except possibly for the personality traits one) could ever be an indicator of fit or potential for success.
I don't know what kind of person sitting at Capital One making decisions like this. This speaks volumes about management at that place. It must be bad in there.
This was a complete waste of time and resources, such an awful experience.
I had seconds thoughts about continuing with the interview process when I first heard of the requirements, but like I said, I never turn away from a challenge and I liked how the technical screening had gone.