Tesco is one of the best known multinational retailers and graduate employers in the UK.
Tesco is one of the world’s best-known supermarket brands, and the third-largest retailer in the world, with over 450,000 employees.
Tesco believes in recruiting candidates at the start of their careers, offering them progression and training opportunities, and nurturing talent. It actively seeks candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Tesco offers graduate placement schemes in seven different areas:
Graduate salaries at Tesco typically range from £28000 to £32000, and so, although there are plenty of opportunities at Tesco for graduates from all sorts of backgrounds, placements are snapped up quickly.
Tesco’s graduate recruitment process operates on a rolling basis. Between September and August, you can apply for one graduate placement only. So it is advisable to apply early and choose a placement that genuinely motivates you and aligns with your career goals.
Tesco’s graduate application process is relatively informal but still thorough.
Although the company website emphasises that the process is two-way and an opportunity to learn about the business while they assess your suitability, only 40% of applicants will be invited to video interview after the games assessments.
Tesco’s online application requires you to submit your personal details and an up-to-date CV.
You will also be asked to answer a series of short essay questions. These will assess your drive, integrity, decision making, and how customer-focused you are, as well as allowing you to detail any professional or academic successes you feel are relevant to the job.
Once you have submitted the application and it has been reviewed, you may be sent links to Tesco’s games-based assessments.
Tesco’s psychometric tests are integrated into four fast-paced games that can be played on your own phone, tablet, or laptop. These tests can be taken anywhere you choose.
Even though the Tesco psychometric tests are delivered in a game format, like any psychometric testing process it is worth preparing for them. The games test your cognitive abilities at the same time as your capacity to work under pressure, and so you should be used to answering questions accurately at speed by the time you take them.
There are four games:
The tests take a total of 15 minutes to play through.
Cognitive ability assessments are designed to evaluate a candidate’s general mental ability. This means that the questions will shift between subjects, covering verbal, numerical and logical reasoning.
Most roles at Tesco require a broad range of professional skills, and Tesco looks for candidates who are willing to develop in multiple directions. The cognitive ability assessment game gives a snapshot of a candidate’s general ability to perform day-to-day business tasks under pressure.
The questions might include problem-solving challenges, reading tasks, and pattern spotting, extracting business information from tables, or reading memos and correcting them. The questions chosen will depend on the business stream to which you have applied.
Although the level of the questions might relatively simple, the pace of the game and the speed at which questions are answered accurately will make or break your success.
These questions are similar to standard psychometric tests, and assess how well you might be able to work with a team of differently minded people or react in challenging work situations.
Each question contains a short paragraph describing a workplace dilemma or challenge, with a series of potential responses beneath. Candidates must choose the one which best describes the way they would react.
As this is such a fast-paced test, there is no time to consider what the best way to react might be, and so the games-based assessment ensures Tesco builds an honest and accurate picture of how a candidate might work in a team environment.
Tesco’s numerical reasoning game presents questions that are roughly at GCSE maths level, but the complexity of the test will depend on the specific role you have applied to.
These are presented in addition to the cognitive reasoning tests, as many business tasks require a high level of numeracy, especially in accounting and strategy roles.
In these tests, a graph, chart, table, or equation will be presented on the screen, with a series of questions appearing underneath it. Candidates will have fewer than 45 seconds to answer each question.
The test is therefore to see how well you can perform mathematical tasks under pressure. The questions may contain tricks designed to distract a candidate under pressure.
The abstract reasoning questions on the Tesco games-based assessment are equivalent to an IQ test. There are no words or numbers in the questions, just shapes, and illustrations which follow patterns.
As the questions go on, the patterns become more and more complex and abstract, and the shapes change in less discernible ways.
These questions can feel rushed, as they also need to be answered in 45 seconds.
Once you have completed the 15-minute games, you will be given feedback straight away. If you pass the test, your results will be sent to the recruitment team, and you may be invited to interview. Only 40% of all applicants pass this stage.
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Tesco’s video interviews record responses mapping to Tesco’s leadership behaviours:
The video interview is recorded at home, and questions are assessed by an AI before they are assessed by a human. This is to ensure that bias does not factor into the interview process, but humans assess all videos which are not passed automatically by the algorithm.
During the interview, candidates will read questions on a screen, and then record video responses. Ahead of the interview, you will be sent a series of technological checks to ensure the interview process will not be interrupted or disturbed unnecessarily.
You can request reasonable adjustments to the video interview. Candidates are asked not to dress too formally, but it is advisable to dress smartly nonetheless and ensure you are in a clean and quiet environment.
Candidates who pass all three of the initial application stages will be invited to a discovery center by Tesco.
This is a day of activities in which candidates have the opportunity to learn more about Tesco’s business, values and philosophy, as well as to meet and be assessed alongside other candidates for each role.
Candidates who are invited will be given some light preparation reading in advance of the assessment day. They must arrive having read this carefully. Being aware of their motivations, drive, and values that drew them to applying for the scheme, and arriving prepared to articulate these, is an important part of preparing for the day.
The assessment centre will be guided by business leaders who will run introductory and ice-breaker activities. They will be led through three different activities depending on the graduate scheme they have applied for.
These could include:
In the presentation exercise, candidates are asked to prepare and deliver a 10-minute presentation on a business topic. Candidates are provided with a pack of information on the topic, and then 40 minutes of silent preparation time.
After the presentation has been delivered to a panel, there will be ten minutes of questioning time from business leaders.
The in-tray exercise is a test in prioritisation. An AI evaluates how you will monitor and evaluate your workload on any given day. Candidates are given a mock email inbox and asked to prioritise tasks within it, whilst also receiving new communications.
Candidates may be invited to take part in a role-play exercise as part of the discovery center. Working alone, they are invited into a simulation of a workplace scenario, in which the other participants are Tesco’s business leaders and also assessors.
This tests how well a candidate can work with people they may be very different from or junior to, cooperating and collaborating whilst also making insightful suggestions and taking initiative.
Some candidates may be given written exercises as part of the discovery center. This is to assess how well they take workplace decisions based on written information, and how well they can communicate in writing with colleagues.
Candidates might be asked to respond to mock emails, write memos, or write short excerpts of mock business reports.
The group exercise of Tesco’s graduate discovery days evaluate a candidate’s ability to collaborate on a problem, whilst also adding unique, insightful and useful suggestions.
Each candidate is given a paper prep-pack, and then thirty minutes of preparation time. Then they are given 30 minutes with a group of other candidates to discuss and create a solution to the given problem.
Sometimes different groups compete against each other to come up with the best solution.
At the end of the discovery day, some candidates may be invited to interview with a panel of business leaders from their sector
The unique aspect of Tesco’s interview process is the 3DCV: a presentation of your CV in front of a panel. Before candidates are asked traditional interview questions, they must present an engaging, honest and accurate summary of their experiences, successes, interests, and communication style to the pane of business leaders.
This is the final chance for candidates to make themselves stand out, as well as Tesco’s final vetting opportunity and test for integrity.