00:00:00
let's talk about how to pass the video
00:00:01
interview for
00:00:06
Shell what's up guys it's Mike from job
00:00:09
read English here with another video to
00:00:10
help you get hired today we're going to
00:00:12
be talking about the oil and gas giant
00:00:14
shell popularity of this video in 2022
00:00:17
and 2023 really shocked me I must admit
00:00:20
we don't really cover a lot of oil and
00:00:22
gas companies uh we covered shell we
00:00:25
covered BP and of course you'd have
00:00:27
other massive companies like Exxon or Co
00:00:30
but it's not really in our wheelhouse
00:00:32
having said that sh has consistently
00:00:34
been one of our most popular videos
00:00:37
around the world so we thought it was
00:00:38
time for an upgrade and of course we
00:00:40
always want to deliver content that you
00:00:42
want as our audience So today we're
00:00:45
going to be talking about the first
00:00:46
round video interview process for Shell
00:00:49
I'm going to start off by telling you
00:00:51
five fast facts about shell then I'm
00:00:53
going to talk to you about the process
00:00:54
that you can expect as a graduate to go
00:00:57
through for first round video interview
00:00:59
and then we're going to cover of the
00:01:00
most common questions that came up based
00:01:02
upon our research and how to think about
00:01:05
answering these questions in a no BS and
00:01:08
direct way so let's get started here are
00:01:11
five fast facts about shell fact number
00:01:14
one shell is investing 10 to5 billion in
00:01:17
low carbon utilization Solutions fact
00:01:21
number two shell has built the UK's
00:01:24
first electric vehicle only charging Hub
00:01:28
based in Fulham in London
00:01:30
and it currently has a utilization rate
00:01:33
of
00:01:34
44% fact number three shell Is On Target
00:01:38
to be carbon neutral by 2050 going
00:01:41
through a fre stage process fact number
00:01:45
four shell operates in 99 countries has
00:01:51
44,000 petrol stations and produces
00:01:55
3.7 million barrels of oil per day and
00:01:59
finally fact number five shell breaks
00:02:02
even when crude oil is priced at $30 a
00:02:07
barrel and anything above that sh is in
00:02:10
profit so let's talk about the format of
00:02:12
the video interview that you can expect
00:02:15
and there were a couple of interesting
00:02:16
things about this this is a new process
00:02:20
sometimes when I make Pary interview
00:02:21
videos the companies most of the time
00:02:24
won't really change um the reason being
00:02:27
is companies have to spend a lot of
00:02:29
money
00:02:30
investing into uh a new technology a new
00:02:33
process and then rolling this out across
00:02:36
you know lots of different countes so
00:02:38
most companies will change their process
00:02:41
at best every 2 to 3 years uh that's a
00:02:45
little tip if you're kind of wondering
00:02:46
well is it the same as last year the
00:02:48
answer is probably of course we've being
00:02:51
quite General across the time top 100
00:02:53
graduate companies now shell has changed
00:02:56
their process in what they call the
00:02:58
virtual job triy out which is split into
00:03:01
three parts and we're going to call this
00:03:04
the first part the second part the first
00:03:06
part has two discrete sections which is
00:03:09
a personality test and ranking sjt
00:03:13
questions I highly recommend that you
00:03:15
use job test prep and we're going to put
00:03:18
links to Shell's online tests which you
00:03:21
can practice through job test prep down
00:03:24
in the description below the second part
00:03:27
is an OnDemand video interview where you
00:03:30
can expect as was self-reported free
00:03:33
questions but I would prepare for more
00:03:36
now the really cool thing about Shell's
00:03:38
process for 2023 and probably for 2024
00:03:42
see as have just changed it is that you
00:03:44
can re-record your answers as many times
00:03:47
as possible would this count against you
00:03:50
is this something that they'll measure
00:03:52
and analyze we don't know but what I
00:03:54
would say is you really want to go in
00:03:56
and be prepared rather than go in see
00:03:59
the question and then spend an hour
00:04:01
trying to prepare and re-record it again
00:04:03
I think that is something that would be
00:04:05
measured in terms of how much time it
00:04:07
took you to complete the whole test and
00:04:10
that is an assumption based upon
00:04:12
previous experience let's go through the
00:04:16
six most common questions that you can
00:04:18
expect to find in the Shell video
00:04:20
interview question number one tell me
00:04:22
about a time when you had a different
00:04:24
opinion to somebody else now a lot of
00:04:27
candidates reported that the breakdown
00:04:29
of questions was like two competency
00:04:31
questions and one motivation question
00:04:34
something to always bear in mind is that
00:04:37
processes can change you could get more
00:04:39
questions it does differentiate between
00:04:42
roles very often a lot of the comments
00:04:44
that I don't post and I don't respond to
00:04:47
are people saying yeah but what about a
00:04:49
software engineer in Botswana I don't
00:04:52
know I'm trying to make a general video
00:04:55
for a multinational company to help as
00:04:58
many people as possible but you're
00:04:59
probably going to need to do a little
00:05:01
bit of homework yourself in order for
00:05:03
you to be successful seeing as it is
00:05:07
your job that you're applying to it's
00:05:09
not my job right so with this question
00:05:12
and behavioral questions in general you
00:05:14
want to think about the hierarchy of
00:05:17
experience and I explain this you know
00:05:19
much better in the courses contained in
00:05:21
our shell past the interview pack which
00:05:23
is in the description down below the
00:05:25
hierarchy of experience goes work
00:05:30
extracurricular activities and
00:05:32
volunteering
00:05:34
academic personal why because you're
00:05:38
applying for a job so the most
00:05:40
applicable experience is work experience
00:05:43
then the most applicable experience is
00:05:46
experience outside of studies and
00:05:48
personal life you may not have gotten
00:05:50
paid for it but also it's not something
00:05:52
that you have to do to get your degree
00:05:56
for example then it's academics then
00:05:59
personal
00:06:00
now pretty much everybody watching this
00:06:02
video will have some form of academic
00:06:04
experience so you can use that and you
00:06:06
would only use personal experience if
00:06:08
you had no academic experience so what
00:06:11
about a time when you had a different
00:06:12
opinion to somebody else when using star
00:06:16
to answer these types of questions
00:06:18
situation task action result you want to
00:06:20
think that the majority of your answers
00:06:23
should be in the action so let's talk
00:06:25
about having a difference of opinion
00:06:27
well there's nothing wrong it's just a
00:06:28
different way of doing something so you
00:06:30
have a project a task something that
00:06:32
needs to get done and you have somebody
00:06:34
who has a difference of opinion so what
00:06:36
do you do next um well first of all it's
00:06:39
not about winning it's about being
00:06:41
successful at the matter of hand so you
00:06:44
would try and understand their point of
00:06:46
view where they're coming from what is
00:06:48
the basis for the difference of opinion
00:06:50
is it personal is it professional is it
00:06:52
based on data is it just anex anecdotal
00:06:55
are you just based upon a story or their
00:06:57
own experience and also if you're trying
00:07:00
to get somebody to come around to your
00:07:02
opinion or perhaps you change your
00:07:04
opinion to suit the other person then
00:07:06
you want to explain that process that
00:07:08
you go through by clearly matching that
00:07:11
up with the result that you're looking
00:07:13
to achieve at the end of this
00:07:16
process question number two tell me
00:07:18
about a time when you received feedback
00:07:20
from someone to your benefit this is
00:07:23
super interesting and a lot of people
00:07:26
will have received you know feedback for
00:07:30
academic work um ideally this would be
00:07:33
for you know General work and something
00:07:36
to think about is to your benefit can
00:07:38
actually be just constructive feedback
00:07:41
it could be like hey Mike this is really
00:07:43
good this report that you put in but
00:07:45
actually there's a couple of things I
00:07:47
want to go through with you because I
00:07:49
know that you're new and I just want to
00:07:51
break down the way that we do things
00:07:53
here this is a process that I'm quite
00:07:56
familiar with not just through ones to
00:07:57
ones but also through hiring people
00:08:00
through our businesses and what will
00:08:03
generally happen is when I I try to take
00:08:05
the time uh if a manager is not
00:08:08
available to sit down with somebody and
00:08:10
give somebody feedback and the way that
00:08:12
I would do that is by clearly outlining
00:08:15
the task that needed to be done the way
00:08:18
that we do things I.E the culture the
00:08:20
system the processes and just outlining
00:08:23
the things that they would need to
00:08:25
change and also giving a really
00:08:27
realistic expectation because it takes
00:08:29
people about 3 months to get used to a
00:08:31
new role so something that I'm you know
00:08:34
you're not going to do when you're
00:08:35
giving feedback is be really harsh or
00:08:37
really critical you're always a good
00:08:40
manager or a good leader will always
00:08:41
bring the responsibility back to
00:08:43
themselves and think well have I
00:08:45
communicated effectively is it clear
00:08:47
what you needed to do could we improve
00:08:49
our systems and process it's only much
00:08:52
later down the line you might think well
00:08:53
is this person clearly not fit for
00:08:55
purpose have we made a mistake question
00:08:58
number three why do you want to work for
00:09:00
Shell so I already went through these
00:09:02
five fast facts uh and interestingly
00:09:05
I've been doing a lot of onetoone
00:09:07
consultations where you know uh somebody
00:09:10
will book us a half an hour or 60 Minute
00:09:12
session with me generally through um
00:09:15
watching a video of mine on YouTube and
00:09:17
then clicking one of the links down in
00:09:18
the description and this has been a
00:09:21
question that a lot of people really
00:09:22
struggle to answer and I'm going to be
00:09:24
really honest with you as to why they
00:09:27
struggle laziness it takes 10 15 minutes
00:09:31
to pick out facts about a company now if
00:09:33
it's a publicly traded company like
00:09:35
shell you can just go and look at their
00:09:38
investor relations and then look at
00:09:40
their Media or press packs shell also
00:09:43
does something called an investor day
00:09:45
every year where they share news about
00:09:47
the business and what they're doing it's
00:09:49
so easy to find five unique facts if you
00:09:52
want to make it a little bit better then
00:09:54
you can find one of the facts that
00:09:56
relates to you personally so you can
00:09:58
inject a little bit of personality into
00:10:00
what is essentially a list question
00:10:03
number four what do you do when you
00:10:05
receive negative feedback now negative
00:10:08
feedback is really when somebody says
00:10:10
this could have been better you know it
00:10:12
could be something where you know
00:10:15
somebody is really upset or they're
00:10:16
having a bad day or they're like oh my
00:10:18
God this is awful but I think for most
00:10:21
people negative feedback is just look
00:10:23
this needs to be improved perhaps you
00:10:26
need to go away and do this again or you
00:10:28
just completely didn't understand the
00:10:30
task that was at hand and what you
00:10:33
needed to do now understanding negative
00:10:35
feedback is first of all I always say
00:10:38
when I have received negative feedback
00:10:40
or I give this to somebody else the most
00:10:43
important thing to communicate is number
00:10:45
one what's wrong number two how do you
00:10:47
fix it so if you've received negative
00:10:50
feedback what you're going to be
00:10:52
thinking is okay I know what I did wrong
00:10:56
and then I'm going to ask that person
00:10:58
well how can I fix fix this how can I
00:10:59
make this better now maybe that person
00:11:02
gives you that answer or maybe they
00:11:04
don't you know I've Heard lots of
00:11:06
feedback given to other people where
00:11:07
someone has just pointed out what
00:11:09
they've done wrong and given them no
00:11:11
kind of way to fix that they're just
00:11:14
problem orientated and not solution
00:11:16
orientated so maybe you go away you talk
00:11:18
to your colleagues you use the internet
00:11:20
you go to uh forums where other people
00:11:23
like you are talking about the feedback
00:11:27
that was given and the nature of the
00:11:29
problem of the task that you're doing
00:11:32
and then you figure out a way to get
00:11:35
better at this thing and then you finish
00:11:37
off your answer by explaining and the
00:11:39
next time I did this thing I did much
00:11:42
better cuz I'd Incorporated ABC from the
00:11:45
feedback to improve my
00:11:47
result question number six explain a
00:11:50
time when you have faced challenges now
00:11:54
I would actually slightly modify this
00:11:57
question so that it's easier to to
00:11:59
understand is explain a time when you
00:12:01
faced your biggest challenge now a big
00:12:04
challenge is a big challenge sometimes
00:12:06
when I hear people answer this question
00:12:08
they'll kind of say like well you know I
00:12:11
was a little bit late to work or I had a
00:12:14
deadline and I also had to submit an
00:12:16
essay and I'm like is that the biggest
00:12:19
challenge you faced in your life not
00:12:21
being funny but your life's all right
00:12:23
big challenges for me tend to be
00:12:26
multiple things that have to be done in
00:12:29
conjunction a good example of this is
00:12:32
I'm studying for my exams I have a
00:12:34
part-time job and I also needed to do
00:12:37
something else they tend to be two or
00:12:40
three pronged potentially more hopefully
00:12:43
not more in which case maybe you're just
00:12:45
doing too much what's really important
00:12:47
when answering this question is clearly
00:12:49
outline what the challenges are and how
00:12:52
you sequentially fix this problem a
00:12:54
concept that's come up quite a lot from
00:12:56
my consultations in October
00:12:59
is getting people to understand that
00:13:01
they are not talking they are teaching
00:13:04
and by teaching I mean for example with
00:13:07
a question like this you're teaching
00:13:09
somebody how to face that challenge when
00:13:12
you're thinking like a teacher you're
00:13:14
much more likely to break stuff down
00:13:17
into individual steps to make sure that
00:13:20
it's sequential and logical you're not
00:13:21
going to go oh I had this problem and
00:13:23
then I fixed it and now it's all better
00:13:25
well that's not helpful that's not
00:13:28
helpful for the inter interviewer for
00:13:29
the video interview and also that
00:13:31
wouldn't be helpful if you were teaching
00:13:32
someone be like here's a mass problem
00:13:34
and I solved it right get on with it you
00:13:36
wouldn't do that would you you'd be like
00:13:38
right okay so this is how we think about
00:13:40
this problem and this is the framework
00:13:41
that we would use Let's do an example
00:13:43
together blah blah blah so think about
00:13:46
that with competency questions if you're
00:13:49
struggling to add more to the action
00:13:52
part of star it's because you're talking
00:13:55
you're not teaching question number six
00:13:58
explain a time when you've had to
00:13:59
overcome cultural diversity now this is
00:14:03
an interesting question I liked it
00:14:05
because actually it's it's pretty
00:14:07
relevant and it's quite true in the
00:14:08
workplace so what does cultural
00:14:10
diversity mean it just means
00:14:13
geographically or psychographically
00:14:15
actually dealing with people who have a
00:14:18
different way of doing things you know
00:14:21
culturally as a Brit I have a different
00:14:24
way of doing things to my friend who is
00:14:27
from Kenya to another friend who is from
00:14:29
Belgium to another friend who is from
00:14:32
the United States and this can be
00:14:35
observed through the way that we
00:14:37
communicate the way that we hear things
00:14:40
the language that we use and the way
00:14:42
that we may get things done over time I
00:14:46
think a really important way of
00:14:49
overcoming cultural diversity in the
00:14:51
sense of making sure that we work
00:14:53
together well is having a really clear
00:14:57
plan initially making sure that once
00:15:00
you're you know kicking something off or
00:15:02
getting something start it's like okay
00:15:03
guys um this is the project that we've
00:15:06
got to do it's got to be during 3 months
00:15:08
these are the stages of the project
00:15:10
these are the rough timings this is what
00:15:12
everyone's going to be doing explaining
00:15:14
to those people what they would do and
00:15:16
being very clear in your Communication
00:15:19
in your strategy in checking up on
00:15:22
people in the sense of saying hey how's
00:15:24
it going are you all right do you need
00:15:26
any help is there anything that you do
00:15:28
don't understand I find one of the
00:15:30
biggest mistakes that people make is
00:15:33
that they assume because they understand
00:15:36
other people understand now most people
00:15:39
don't like to say that they do not
00:15:41
understand because they don't want to
00:15:43
look stupid I know that's stupid but we
00:15:48
need to be realistic in that approach so
00:15:51
very often I will consistently ask
00:15:54
people lots of questions and be like is
00:15:56
that all right do you want me to explain
00:15:58
that again is there anything that you
00:15:59
want me to go through um do you remember
00:16:03
that you know while I'm say if I'm in a
00:16:06
meeting and I'm talking to somebody or a
00:16:08
group of people I'll send them messages
00:16:10
at the same time and I always check that
00:16:13
people understand I'll be like is that
00:16:14
okay do you do you understand what I'm
00:16:17
saying to you uh do I need to give you
00:16:19
any more detail questions are so
00:16:21
important to just capture understanding
00:16:24
and also to read people's body language
00:16:27
because
00:16:29
sometimes I'll ask people if they
00:16:31
understand stuff and I just know they
00:16:33
don't um this happens quite a lot when I
00:16:36
have new people join the team because of
00:16:40
you know status and hierarchy even
00:16:42
though we're fairly um flat company
00:16:46
which the people have been with me you
00:16:48
know for years already know but if I'm
00:16:50
talking to somebody and they're new
00:16:52
they're a bit like oh my God he's the
00:16:54
boss I have to look uh intelligent and
00:16:58
one thing that I kind of really
00:17:01
emphasize when when I first meet
00:17:03
somebody or after I've had you know been
00:17:05
been a part of their final interview if
00:17:07
I'm even involved in that process just
00:17:08
say dude look if you don't understand
00:17:10
something just say if you can't do
00:17:12
something just say cuz it's just quicker
00:17:15
like no one's going to punish you no
00:17:17
one's going to shame you no one's going
00:17:19
to say oh my God I can't believe you
00:17:20
don't know that it's just going to allow
00:17:22
us to have a much more accurate
00:17:24
understanding of where you're at so that
00:17:26
we can provide you the resources that
00:17:28
you need to be successful to help us
00:17:31
guys I hope that you enjoyed this video
00:17:33
please if you did uh consider liking
00:17:36
this video dropping us a comment down
00:17:37
below let me know uh how's your
00:17:40
interview um have you got an interview
00:17:42
coming up and how did you get on and
00:17:44
join the many many hundreds if not
00:17:47
thousands of people I think now who we
00:17:49
have helped get hired over the years
00:17:52
good
00:17:57
luck