QBE Business Analyst Interview Questions
& Process

After passing the initial video interview, I was invited to an Assessment Centre (AC) for five different roles, with about 25 people attending. We were seated at tables according to the role we applied for, with roughly 5 people per table. First, HR gave an overview of the company. Then, we had to answer two questions about our most resonant values and how we'd demonstrate them at work. This was super rushed; we only had 5 minutes per question for the whole table, meaning each person got just 1 minute to speak, and going over time was not an option. Next was a group activity involving two unrelated case studies. We had 50 minutes to prep but only 10 minutes allocated for each stage like choosing a case, brainstorming, selecting an idea, developing it, and planning the presentation. Midway, two people from each table were moved to different ones due to restructuring. This was a bummer as I was leading and developing ideas with my team and got moved to a group that hadn't even picked the same initial case. After 50 minutes, each group had only 3 minutes to present, which is barely 40 seconds per person if everyone wants to contribute. The cases were presented simultaneously in corners of the room to two reps. After a break, the fourth activity was an individual case: a 15-minute SWOT analysis followed by a 2-minute presentation. Again, this meant less than 30 seconds per segment for an overview and recommendation. Overall, it felt incredibly rushed. I didn't get to speak during the group presentation and couldn't even finish my SWOT speech, despite feeling like a strong candidate. I don't understand why they structured the AC this way; it was a terrible experience.

Interview was set up by a recruitment agency, Streamline Connections Ltd. I had an on-site interview with a senior manager and a senior analyst in business support. It was a good conversation, not a standard competency-based interview, though they did ask some competency questions at the end just to tick a box. Both interviewers were experienced, and I got to ask them plenty of questions too. After about an hour, they asked me to do a short technical test right there at their desk to show I could do the job. I thought the interview went really well and that they'd get back to the agency with feedback quickly... but after a few days... a week... another week... nothing. No feedback at all. The account manager at Streamline told me QBE just didn't respond to them about any of the roles their candidates had applied for. Who knows for sure, but it's not very polite!

I had a really nice informal chat with HR and the manager for the role. They told me all about the company, described the work, and introduced themselves and how they got to where they are at QBE. I then introduced myself, and we talked through my CV concerning different parts of the job. I got a verbal offer the same day, followed by a formal email. I was really impressed with the talent team at the company; they did much better than other places I was interviewing with that lost out because they took three days to get back to me.