Steer Consultant Interview Questions
& Process

After my CV and cover letter were assessed, I had a virtual interview. I was excited about this company because they are employee-owned, diverse, work on interesting projects, have lots of contact from HR, and seemed to want the application process to be smooth and clear. But the interview process gave me the complete opposite impression. The interview started off poorly – the hiring manager was 5 minutes late and then we spent time figuring out what the other interviewer and I had already talked about. I've had other interviews recently, but this was the worst in terms of interviewer attitude and questions. Both interviewers had spent almost their whole careers at Steer. I've done a lot of different things in my career, and I felt they saw this as a negative, perhaps thinking I'd leave if hired. They didn't seem very interested in what I said, and their tone and questions suggested they didn't want to be there. I'm sure they had many applicants, but as I said, I've never gotten this vibe from interviews at similar consultancies. One question was about why I left my first job after university two years ago (more than ten years back). While this can be a valid question, it felt more like an interrogation than an interview. Then, a random question was thrown in: 'How many bus stops are there in London?' I understand the goal of these questions is to test thinking under pressure, but usually, you get some clue about what they're looking for (e.g., should I explain how to find the answer, estimate, or do a combination showing my work?). Or at least some guidance. It turned out they wanted a calculated answer, considering things like estimating stops per route, but this only became clear after a lot of trial and error, which dented my confidence and made it hard to think. After finding out the interview result, I asked for feedback, but HR was completely silent and gave no feedback. Overall, a pretty bad experience. I think the interviewers could have used some training on how to conduct interviews, and even if you don't want to be there, remember it's an hour of my day too, and I did a lot of prep to get this far. A more positive attitude would be helpful!

Submitted CV and Cover letter. Then, I completed timed maths and verbal reasoning tests, which were quite difficult. After that, I had a 30-minute virtual interview. Although they said it was informal, it felt quite formal. Then there was an assessment centre: first, an individual task to prepare and then give an oral presentation to a panel about bus companies and routes. After the presentation, I had an interview with two senior people about economic development. It was okay; they asked follow-up questions and technical questions about consultancy and Steer ED consultancy, but no competency or strengths-based questions.

The interview kicked off with a combined session featuring a senior consultant and an HR representative. It was split into three main sections. First up, a series of behavioral questions, mainly handled by HR, which seemed to be the main focus given its duration. Then, the senior consultant guided a short debate on a topic related to the transport industry. Finally, there was a quick brain teaser, which felt like it had the least importance based on how fast it was presented.