CRU International Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process began with a simple online video interview. Then I had an in-person interview at their office. One of the interviewers asked me questions that were obviously on my resume, which felt unnecessary and too aggressive. After the second interview, I didn't get any feedback and was basically ghosted. All in all, it was a bad and unprofessional experience.

The interview process was smooth, and the interviewer was amazing. He set the tone of the interview and created a calm conversation-like atmosphere. The process was simple: a screening round where you are expected to communicate clearly along with some hypothetical interview scenario questions, e.g., how would you communicate your findings/difficulties to your supervisor/manager? Perform the scenario. Then an Excel interview where they would ask you to make sense of the data (no analysis) and ask you to solve simple to complex problems. In the same interview they asked basic questions such as formulae and their meaning.

I applied online and got asked to do a timed take-home task. It involved looking at market data in an excel sheet and writing a short passage with a graph. I needed to manipulate the data to find a unique insight, which wasn't too hard. Then I had a video call with a manager and HR, they were super nice and asked general questions about my experience and why I wanted to change jobs. They also asked a couple of market-related questions that were pretty straightforward. After that, I had a second interview where I had to give a presentation I'd prepared beforehand to a made-up client. The presentation was about investing in building a mine in Brazil. The same manager and HR were there, plus another team member and a senior manager. This part was really tough; they seemed to want to see confidence, which is tricky when you don't know the topic well. My advice? Just wing it if you're unsure. The senior manager really went hard with tough questions about my presentation and other things, it felt like a grilling, which wasn't fun. I think it would be better if they asked for a presentation on a topic the candidate knows well to really assess their skills.

So, first I got this analysis assessment task by email. It was about working with some data in Excel and then putting my findings into PowerPoint or Word. It was pretty open-ended, not really any right or wrong answers, and I had 90 minutes to do it. After that, I had an interview with a consultant and an HR manager. Right after that, I had another interview with the head of the team and the head of the analysis unit. Since I was going for a Research Analyst role at the entry-level, they didn't expect me to know a lot about the metals and mining industry. Mostly, we talked about the analysis skills I learned in university and from my previous job.