The 25 toughest job interviews

Tough love ... candidates who have been through the recruitment process at the toughest job interviewers say positive experiences outweigh negative ones. Photo: Rob Homer

If you want an easy ride into a job then don’t go looking in the consulting or tech sectors.

That’s the word from social recruiting outfit Glassdoor.com, which has published its list of the 25 toughest job interviews based on the experiences of people who’ve actually run the gauntlet.

The list is littered with multinationals, giving Aussie job seekers confidence that if they go for a position with any of the businesses ranked by Glassdoor they’re likely to face a pretty full-on process.

But don’t fret, apparently job hunters who’ve put themselves forward for scrutiny by these kings and queens of the tough interview say that the positive experiences outweigh the negative ones for all companies on the list.

As for the toughest of the tough, for the second year running that title goes to famed consulting house McKinsey & Company, which pipped rivals Boston Consulting Group (No. 2), Oliver Wyman (No. 3), ATKearney (No. 4) and ZS (No. 5) to the top spot.

But while consultants grabbed the first five places, it’s technology companies that dominate the list with almost half the entries.

Not surprisingly, there are some crossovers such as tech consultancy ThoughtWorks, which comes in at No. 6, as well as familiar faces such as Google and Facebook, which are renowned for tossing prospective engineers curly questions.

The local arms of few entrants on the list – Google, Juniper Networks and ThoughtWorks – also made BRW’s list of Australia’s Best Places to Work for 2012, perhaps backing the view of candidates on Glassdoor that tough interviews can create positive experiences.

As for the 25:

1. McKinsey & Company (consulting)
2. The Boston Consulting Group (consulting)
3. Oliver Wyman (consulting)
4. ATKearney (consulting)
5. ZS (consulting)
6. ThoughtWorks (technology)
7. Bain & Company (consulting)
8. Shell (energy)
9. Google (technology)
10. Unisys (technology)
11. Rackspace Hosting (technology)
12. Cypress Semiconductor (technology)
13. SIG Susquehanna (finance)
14. Bazaar Voice (technology)
15. Procter & Gamble (consumer goods)
16. Teach For America (education)
17. LEK Consulting (consulting)
18. Juniper Networks (technology)
19. Sapient Corp (technology)
20. Stryker (technology)
21. General Mills (consumer goods)
22. Progressive (finance)
23. Headstrong (technology)
24. Facebook (technology)
25. Amazon (technology)

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