Societe Generale Numerical, Personality Tests, & Assessment Centre Preparation

The following PrepPack™ combines Talent Q Aspects & Elements-style numerical, logical and verbal tests, as well as situational judgement and personality tests, interview preparation, guides and tutorials.

Societe Generale serves over 32 million customers in over 70 countries, making it one of the largest financial institutions in the world. Worldwide, they offer a two-year graduate programme to approximately 1,000 graduates.

As Societe Generale offers many different and varied positions, there are different steps depending on the position you are after. On this page, the common stages of the graduate recruitment process are outlined, but applicants to other positions will find the information useful for their recruitment.

This first step in the application process aims to fish out the best of the applicants. You need to provide your basic details and academic history. Following this is the additional information section, which is the long-answer section of the application, where you must give a 250-word answer to 4 questions:

• What are your motivations for wanting to work for Societe Generale?
• What are any particular personal achievements or extracurricular activities you are proud of?
• Tell us about a time when you successfully overcame a challenge or difficult situation using your initiative.
• Give an example when you used a persuasive argument, which resulted in a mutual outcome.

This application isn’t timed so give yourself plenty of time to come up with smart, clear answers. You can use the STAR method to help you stay on track.

Following the submission of your application, you may be contacted by the recruitment office to verify details on your CV. This is an excellent opportunity to sell yourself, highlighting relevant details from the information you have given them.

Before submitting your application, make sure to review the Societe Generale competencies so you know exactly which of your skills and abilities to highlight. These key competencies include:

• A high level of communication skills
• The ability to work under pressure
• Analytical skills
• Teamwork skills
• A high level of initiative
• Flexibility

Some candidates may be asked to complete the Societe Generale psychometric tests, provided by Talent Q. it is important for you to get enough practice under your belt before completing the real thing.

In this test, you are presented with various forms of numerical data, such as tables and graphs. You are asked multiple choice questions related to the information and you need to answer these questions as quickly and carefully as possible. There are a total of 18 questions to be answered in just 25 minutes, so time is of the element. You can excel at this stage with the offered Talent Q-style numerical reasoning tests.

In addition to the numerical and verbal tests, you may be asked to complete a personality test. This is to see how you work, what your strengths and weaknesses are - and overall how you will fit with Societe Generale. During this test, you are given a statement and need to rate (usually between 1 and 5) how well this statement applies to you.

It may seem strange to prepare for a test of this nature, but by familiarising yourself with the questions, you are more likely to understand them and give more accurate answers. Get the personality practice tests to do just that.

In this Societe Generale telephone interview, you can expect a mix of competency and technical questions. The technical questions ask you about the various aspects of the job that you have applied for and how you are qualified to do so.

Review the job description when thinking about how you can answer this. For the competency questions, go through Societe Generale competencies and think of personal examples you can use. Incorporating these skills into your answers is highly recommended; structuring your answers using the STAR method will impress the assessors by showing yourself in the best possible light.

Some Societe Generale interview questions include the following:

• What skills do you possess that make you an outstanding candidate for this role?
• What do you want to do in the long term?
• What do you know about Societe Generale?
• Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure.
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a communication conflict.
• Tell me about a challenging project that you took part in.
• Describe a time when you had to show integrity and professionalism.

These are just some typical questions that you could be asked in your Societe Generale telephone interview. Ensuring you are fully prepared not only in content, but also in demeanour, is your way of showing that you really want this job and that you have the requisite motivation to do well.

If you come through these stages successfully, you will be invited to further interviews with Societe Generale.

There are various activities that you will face in the Societe Generale assessment centre. We will go through all the possibilities below. Even though this assessment centre can take place in Hong Kong, Paris or London, there is a basic set of tasks and exercises that you will have to do to get through it. 

The assessment centre can include any of the following activities:

• Group Discussion
• Presentation
• Interviews
• CEB SHL Numerical Test

If you are applying to the Inspection Programme, please see our dedicated page.

In this exercise you are grouped with other applicants to the same programme (i.e. all investment banking candidates are together) and given a brief pertaining to the position or graduate scheme you have applied for. Along with the brief is a related task, such as how to invest money for a client. Working together as a group, you have to come up with viable solutions and recommendations.

The main goal is to come up with a suitable answer as well as various subtasks relating to it. Assessors are looking at two things: the first is your ability to come up with a suitable solution to the problems. The second, and more important aspect, is your ability to interact with a group of your prospective peers.

You need to show that you can listen to other opinions, debate in a productive fashion and show that you are goal oriented by demonstrating that you want to come up with a suitable solution that everyone in the group agrees on. Plan out your group exercise success strategy with our practice pack.

Following on from the group discussion, your solution needs to be presented as a group to a number of assessors. This is not a long presentation and you need to split the various steps of the presentation between all members of the group.

Following this presentation, you have to answer some questions relating to your decisions. Keep in mind the key competencies for the job and try to incorporate these into your answers. By doing this you are showing that you really care and are completely motivated in your application to Societe Generale.

The main part of the assessment centre is the interviews. You can expect two to four interviews with various representatives from the company. The interviews with HR is very similar to the Societe Generale telephone interview that you have already come through.

The main difference is the length with the typical time being about 50 minutes. Make sure that you are familiar with all the competencies and are able to provide full and detailed answers to any questions that may come up. 

You can expect up to two interviews with line managers in the department that you are applying for. In order to come through these interviews it is recommended that you be fully aware of all the different possibilities that your future job can entail, how the company works and where you hope to be able to fit in.

Study the Societe Generale website as it contains lots of information that you will be expected to know. In order to fully prepare for this interview why not check out our Interview package as this gives you the complete preparation for any interview.

At the assessment day, you may be asked to complete a numerical reasoning test. This test is in addition to the test you previously took and is performed in order to verify your scores. Review your maths skills before the day with our SHL-style numerical practice tests.

As we have seen, there are numerous stages in the Societe Generale recruitment process, both for the Societe Generale graduate schemes and for other positions. This page has provided guidance and preparation materials to help you pave your path to success. We hope you have found this helpful. Good luck.