Online Application
You are asked to fill in personal details. The CV was uploaded with an optional cover letter upload, I chose not to upload a cover letter as my past experience speaks for itself in relation to skills required for the role (Data analysis, selling strategy etc). There are further videos to watch based on the company values, worth watching to gauge a feel of working environment and culture
How to respond for success
I tailored my CV further by laying out all my modules, the role requires academic based strength, my modules highlighted this. I tried to also think creatively about how my past experience could be further expanded to highlight spotting trends and providing solutions. For example, using my experience in retail to speak about product placement and stock turnover. I also tried to pick out experiences in which there was a customer focus e.g customer service based etc
Expect a 7-10 day wait before advancing to the next stage.
Video Interview
From when you receive the video interview invitation, you have 10 days to complete it. The video interview consisted of 4 questions, in which you have varying times to prepare for each. All preparation time was between 1-2.5 minutes. You then got 3 attempts to record your answer. The whole process takes between 15-20 minutes overall
Example
These questions were a mixture of personality based and strength based. The purpose of this is for them to understand your motivation towards the role and working style, and less about technical ability.
Example questions:
“Please introduce yourself and why you are fit for the role”
“Why Pepsi-co?”
“Tell us about a time where you had to collaborate”
How to respond for success
My advice when conducting a video interview is trying to present strong confidence and passion. The smaller things such as good lighting, a camera at eye level and a plain background make all the difference! Additionally, giving well structured answers throughout gives you a huge advantage. Focus on explaining how your actions or decisions gave quantifiable results. In terms of the actual answer content, I feel it is very important to be honest in your responses. When speaking about your experience try and link unique experiences for your answer. Hiring managers are looking for someone different, so if you can talk about hobbies and interests, that will set you apart. Additionally, bare in mind the company values.
Expect a 4-5 week wait before advancing to the next stage.
“Please introduce yourself and why you are fit for the role”
“Why Pepsi-co?”
“Tell us about a time where you had to collaborate”
How to respond for success
My advice when conducting a video interview is trying to present strong confidence and passion. The smaller things such as good lighting, a camera at eye level and a plain background make all the difference! Additionally, giving well structured answers throughout gives you a huge advantage. Focus on explaining how your actions or decisions gave quantifiable results. In terms of the actual answer content, I feel it is very important to be honest in your responses. When speaking about your experience try and link unique experiences for your answer. Hiring managers are looking for someone different, so if you can talk about hobbies and interests, that will set you apart. Additionally, bare in mind the company values.
Expect a 4-5 week wait before advancing to the next stage.
Assessment Centre
The Pepsi-co assessment centre was virtual and lasted 3 hours. This contained 3 tasks: A group task, A competency-based interview, and a presentation (prepared previously). For me, there were 9 other candidates. There is also an opportunity to ask current undergraduates questions during a break. Use this as a chance to ask questions about the role itself in a non-assessed environment.
Group-task:
The group task split the candidates into two groups. In your group there is a case study task to complete. You will have 20 minutes to discuss and come up with a final list, you then may be asked a few reflections questions by the assessors. The purpose of this is not to analyse your ranked list but to understand how you work as a team to arrive at a solution.
A competency-based interview:
This competency based interview lasted 40 minutes and had two assessors. Questions were mainly focused on skills and strengths linked for the jobs and require you to call back on past experience. You may choose to call on experiences at university, work experience or other hobbies. To prepare for this, I ensured I had a great understanding of the role and picked out skills I assumed could be called upon. Additionally having understanding of current pepsi initiatives etc can allow you to speak about the company with confidence.
Presentation:
This is a task sent to you 2 weeks previous to your assessment centre. It takes the format of a presentation task focused on you innovation and creativity, researching ability and data manipulation skills. You are also assessed on your delivery, level of engagement and passion. Overall you have 15 minutes to deliver your presentation and 10 minute Q&A. My presentation was to a single assessor.
Example
Group-task:
You and the other team members are asked to rank survival items in a post plane crash scenario. There will also be unexpected given mid-way through the task to assess your ability to work under pressure. As mentioned before, the purpose isn’t to create the best ranking order, it is to assess your ability to work as a team.
Competency interview:
“Tell us about a time where you have had to make a decision with limited information”
“Tell us about a time where you have had to face challenges, how did your resilience affect the overall outcome?”
“Tell us about a time where you had to manage a large workload, how did you manage this effectively”
Presentation task:
The task that was set for me was to create an innovative new way to achieve pepsico’s sustainability goals. You had £100,000 to invest in one of pepsi’s uk brands. Prompts included: a go-to market strategy, data breakdown, financial breakdown and the modification or creation of a product.
How to respond for success
Group task
One key thing I did to stand out was to focus on bringing out the strengths of other individuals and the team as a whole. To do this I continually asked questions of others after they have contributed, allowing them to share thoughts further. Additionally, bringing results together by continually progressing, providing summaries of tasks completed already and keeping an eye on the time. It is also vital to ensure you include all team members and not to interrupt others. This is more difficult than you would think!
Competency interview
Ensure you have a solid understanding of your previous experiences. Be ready to speak about a number of experiences with varying contexts. Often one experience can be manipulated in various ways to match various contexts, so go for quality over quantity. It also helps to have a strong understanding of both the role and the company. The STAR (Scenario Task Action Result) method to structure your answers, don’t forget the outcome of your actions.
Presentation
The first thing to consider is to focus on creativity and innovation over feasibility. You still have to consider financial viability, however the focus is more on thinking outside-the-box. When thinking about sustainability goals it was important to take a long-term perspective while also taking into account current industry trends. Another key thing is the overall delivery of the presentation, this means practising your presentation multiple times. Be prepared to know Pepsi’s current sustainability efforts for the second part of the presentation
