Pareto Sales Specialist Interview Questions
& Process

I went through an assessment day with Pareto Law. It started with an intro, then two group activities and a presentation. There were 10 of us total. The group tasks involved deciding who to 'vote' off a raft after a shipwreck and ranking survival items. For the intro part, they asked about Pareto and their clients, so definitely get ready for that. Before the assessment day, the recruitment consultant sent details on what to expect and prepare, like non-academic achievements and a presentation. They were pretty clear about their expectations. The recruiter called a few times to prep me for the assessment day, but honestly, they weren't that useful and often missed calls or called late. The main goal is to 'sell' yourself effectively. It's not about winning the group activities, but about showing you're dynamic, capable, and convincing. My take is that people who didn't get chosen either had unimpressive non-academic achievements or presented them poorly, so this part is crucial. It doesn't have to be sales-related; they seem to value success in competitive sports. After the assessment day went well, other Pareto recruiters reached out with potential job opportunities.

Applied online, got a phone call from Oliver McCleery, who ran through some questions and prepped me for the assessment day, wasn't explained that this was an interview day, to be put into their process, travelled 300 miles as it was explained that it would be better to go the interview session near where I'd be working rather than near where I was currently living. Went through the process, was advised on the phone that there would be about 5 people there, there were 15. Spent the day there- not really sure what we achieved that couldn't have been achieved in far less time. I'd applied for a client relationship manager role, but it transpires this role doesn't really exist, at the interview stage they asked which industries I'd prefer to work within, I chose Media as a preference. The day consisted of introductions, two team challenges, and then a presentation before being told you were successful. I was selected as a successful candidate- all the successful candidates were then taken into a room and were asked whether we'd read the bad reviews of Pareto interviews online, whether we'd seen short skirts, and slicked back hair today, and whether the day was like the bad reviews, we were then asked to leave positive reviews about our experience. Moving on from the assessment day, I was contacted the next week with a job opportunity, it was in a completely different area and industry than I'd requested, however I went anyway, I pulled out of it after the first stage as it wasn't a good fit, and had none of the requirments I'd outlined in the interview (city centre, young atmosphere, more than 20 employees), I then went to another interview which out of four Pareto candidates was the only one to get through the first two stages, pulled out when it transpired there would be a further two stages, as I was travelling 300 miles for these interviews. Didn't hear anything from them until 5 months later when they asked whether I would be interested in a Bathroom Salesperson role.

It was a completely shocking experience. I took a day off work for this train wreck of a company. First, there was a phone interview, after which the recruiter, who doesn't even work at the office I was interviewing at, told me I was a perfect fit and should attend a recruitment day. They said I'd give a short presentation, followed by an interview and one-on-one time with the hiring company. That's not what happened. I was in a room with about 50 people and we were left to our own devices for over 5 hours. There was also an hour-long, pointless group exercise where we had to pick a famous person and justify why they'd be on a life raft. My group devolved into a shouting match, which is way too unprofessional for me. Then, I gave a 3-minute presentation. After that, I just waited and waited with no communication. I never spoke to the actual hiring company, and neither did anyone else. The people in the group were nice and chatty, but their backgrounds were all over the place. It felt like they were just trying to inflate numbers for their client. The whole thing took almost 8 hours: 5-6 hours of waiting, 1 hour for lunch, and 1 hour for the pointless exercise and discussion. If they'd respond, I'd invoice them for my time and lost earnings because I completely wasted a day under false pretenses. Seriously, if you're invited to a recruitment day, don't go! You'll waste your time, and I guarantee it won't be what they told you on the phone.