Prepare for your B&Q Assessment Day, Numerical and Verbal Reasoning Tests and Interview

The offered PrepPack™ gives you various practice tests, including all the relevant Talent Q-style questionnaires (numerical, verbal and logical) and other useful tools.

B&Q offer between 20 and 40 places a year on their graduate retail management scheme, but there are more applicants than that following the process. The recruitment process will test you on many skills, always with a focus on teamwork. It is a long process, so you must have the stamina to get through the process. You will have to be at the top of your game throughout, and preparation is the key to ensuring that you fulfil your potential. JobTestPrep has the resources you need to prepare for each stage, and this article has highlighted the best ones available to you. In this article, we will go through each stage of the B&Q graduate recruitment process. The recruitment process will differ for different B&Q jobs, but look for the section relevant to your own recruitment.

The first stage of your application to the B&Q graduate scheme is the application form. The application form is your time to introduce yourself to the recruiters, and your aim is to sell yourself so well that they have to progress your application to the next stage.

As part of your application form, you are asked to upload your CV and other supporting documents. Remember that your CV should be tailored to the job you are applying to.

All of the B&Q jobs have certain criteria for their applicants. Employees at B&Q are a close-knit team and are expected to collaborate with each other. Therefore, it is important that you try to show your teamwork skills throughout the application. Use the application form to indicate that you are aware of this and happy to do so.

The application form is also assessed against the following B&Q values:

• Attitude towards customer service
• Customer and people oriented
• Approach to new challenges on a daily basis
• Flexibility at work
• Commercial awareness
• Open-mindedness to change

You have to demonstrate your abilities against these criteria at every stage of the application.

The B&Q online application also includes a detailed questionnaire that is essentially a situational judgment test, or SJT. The reason for this test is to make sure that your work ethic fits with the company. You are presented with a work-related situation and must choose your most likely and least likely response. Learn to tackle this stage with our practice SJTs or try our sample situational judgement questions.

If your application is taken to the next stage, you are invited to take an online verbal reasoning test and numerical reasoning test. B&Q’s psychometric tests are provided by Talent Q.

The B&Q verbal reasoning test examines how you understand, analyse, and interpret information in a text to be able to answer questions on the text itself. In a Talent Q test, you are given a passage of text to read, and asked a series of questions on what you have read. Each question is multiple choice with a range of possible answers listed below. Each question in the test is individually timed, placing you under pressure, and measuring your accuracy when you are stressed. Practice is key to ensuring that you are feeling confident when you take the test. JobTestPrep can help you prepare for the test with our Talent Q-style verbal reasoning test practice packs.

The B&Q numerical reasoning test assesses your ability to interpret information in a numerical format to answer questions based on the information available. In the Talent Q test, you are given information on a table or graph to interpret and answer questions on the information. Each question is multiple choice, with a range of answers below. There can be up to answer 10 choices per question. Each question is timed, with 90 seconds for the first question in each section, and 75 seconds for each of the remaining questions. The B&Q numerical reasoning test contains features different to some of the other tests you will have taken, so it is worth practising with JobTestPrep’s dedicated Talent Q-style numerical reasoning tests. 

If you have passed the first two stages you will be invited to have the B&Q telephone interview. This lasts about half an hour and is motivational and competency based. You need to show that you have a complete understanding of the business as well as the motivation to succeed. You are also asked various competency questions. These are mainly based on your ability to work in a team as this is the main focus of B&Q. This interview is crucial as it determines if you make it to the next stage of the B&Q assessment day. Before the interview, prepare examples that you can use to answer questions, especially about teamwork, and practice answering different types of questions. Use the STAR method to help structure your answers as this presents your skills in the best way possible. The best way to practice is to answer questions in a mock interview. JobTestPrep’s interview preparation package offers this opportunity, as well as a trained assessor who can give you feedback for you to improve ahead of the real thing.

Some of the B&Q questions that have been asked in the past include:

• What kind of person are you in the work environment?
• Name an organisation from which you’ve received great service and explain why you thought that they had delivered.
• What are your long-term goals?
• Describe someone you aspire to be like.

If you have completed the telephone interview successfully, you will be invited to take part in the B&Q assessment centre. There will be three stages in the B&Q assessment day: a group activity, an interaction test, and a presentation.

In this part of the assessment, you are split into three groups of four people and given a task such as building a tower. You are given various materials to complete this task. However, what is most important here is your teamwork skills; you are being assessed on your ability and ease of interaction between you and your fellow candidates. You have to be assertive, but respectful of your peers. It is a good idea to look back at your personality test results if you have taken one and try to match these results to your performance on the day itself. Try our practice group exercises to give yourself the preparation you need.

Here you have the chance to go to the shop floor where you are given various tasks involving interaction with the customers. The assessors may not be with you the entire time as they can assess you from the security office where they have access to a bank of CCTV monitoring options. Therefore, you must be aware that even if no one seems to be watching you, you are still being assessed. This is a crucial part of the hiring process so it’s important to do your best. Review the B&Q key values, visit your local branch and speak to B&Q employees about how best to relate to customers to help you through this challenge.

This presentation is in the form of a role play where you have to sell a product to a team of assessors. Show the assessors your skills and your belief in the B&Q product. Remember that in this profession this is something you will be expected to do on a daily basis. Make sure you are able to present the product in a positive light and you can learn more about presentation exercise with JobTestPrep.

The B&Q assessment centre is the final stage of the recruitment process, after this, you can expect a job offer. Therefore it is crucial that you prepare for each stage of the B&Q assessment day. 

B&Q (also known as B and Q) is the biggest home improvement retailer in Europe with over 30,000 employees. Having great benefits for their staff as well as many different, varied jobs, B&Q is a great place to work. As a result, B&Q receives a lot of applications for the graduate scheme and has established a recruitment process designed to test you at each stage. It is a long process, so you must have the stamina to get through the process.