Red Bull Assessment Centre, Matrigma and Personality Tests Preparation

This PrepPack™ offers Matrigma-style and personality tests, matrices and inductive exercises, assessment centre exercises, interview preparation, guides and tutorials.

Red Bull is well-known as an atypical company with an atypical recruitment process, particularly for the Red Bull European graduate scheme. There are a few different modes of entry into Red Bull and below you will find the main points of the UK recruitment process. 

However, as Red Bull operates in different areas over the world, the recruitment process changes accordingly. Therefore please check your application account to ensure you practise the correct materials. 

Whatever role you have applied for you have to complete an online application form. This is a long and complicated form with many different questions concerning your ability to think outside of the box. 

For example, you may be asked to come up with a plan to run an event that can serve as a forum for Red Bull. How you answer the questions will either lead you forward on your journey or off it. Every role at Red Bull has its own unique set of challenges but on the whole, they have a few key competencies that every candidate must demonstrate in order to be successful. They are:

• Being a self-starter
• The ability to manage complex projects
• High level of lateral thinking
• Ambitious
• The ability to balance priorities

When filling in the application form as well as writing the cover letter it is important that you try to show you are different and that you demonstrate an ability to think outside of the box in a very real way. You should include examples of real-life situations where you have taken charge of projects and had a real impact on their success. As well as this, make sure that your CV is full of examples of these skills.

If your CV and cover letter are up to scratch, you may be invited to take some online tests. The possible tests are listed below. Bear in mind that whilst some schemes require you to take these tests, others do not so it is worthwhile double checking your email correspondence to ensure you practise the correct tests.

This Red Bull test is a 40-minute test with 35 questions. These tests are non-verbal in nature and present you with different matrices where you have to find the correct pattern. Using this, you need to select the correct answer option. Matrigma tests increase in difficulty as you work your way through the test. This is of huge importance to the employer as they can easily discern who has performed to a high level and who has not.

This personality test is timed and you have to complete it within quite a short space of time. Although it is thought to be the case that you cannot practise these personality assessments, extensive research has shown the opposite - the more practice and understanding you have of the test, the better equipped you go into it, thus leading to a higher score. Get your preparation here to ensure that you let Red Bull know that you are the perfect candidate.

The Red Bull interview is the next stage of the application process for most applicants. This interview is mainly competency based where you will have to give real-life examples of when you have performed a task or led a team in some way. Some popular Red Bell interview questions are:

• Have you ever assembled a team and had to deal with a bad team member. How did you go about this?
• What is the most creative thing you have ever done?

Many of those who pass this interview are asked to take part in a video interview. Here you will be asked quick-fire questions and given 90 seconds to answer them. Make sure you have some answers prepared in advance because you are only given this short space of time to answer. Some example questions are:

• Why should Red Bull hire you?
• Who drives for the Red Bull racing team?
• Other questions depend on the division you are applying for.

If you do well enough on this stage of the application process you will be invited to attend the Red Bull assessment centre.

The Red Bull assessment centre is comprised of a set of different group activities. All the candidates meet up the night before to get to know each other before the tasks start in earnest the next day. This social event is an opportunity to get to know more about Red Bull and what they are looking for in their applicants ahead of your assessments.

You will be split up into groups of five or more and given many varied and different tasks. These can be anything from building a car out of cardboard to designing a new business strategy. When in a group activity setting, you have to know how to adapt to the challenge. This means having the goals and core values of the company not just on the tip of your tongue but also in your every action.

For this part of the Red Bull assessment centre, you will be given some information about a certain business plan for the company. This case study will depend on the field that you have applied for. After going through it and analysing the necessary points, you will have to present your findings and ideas in the Red Bull presentation. Prepare for the case study with the practice exercises.

In this part of the assessment day, you will have to present your findings and ideas on a pre-prepared presentation to two assessors. They are looking for confidence as well as your lateral thinking ability.

The last activity will be an interview that has questions of both competency and motivational style. Most of the competency questions are repeats of ones you have already answered, so make sure you have fine-tuned those answers. As well as this, the interviewer wants to see that you have the drive and ambition to succeed and fit seamlessly into the company.

If you succeed at all the relevant stages in the recruitment process, you will be offered a job. As Red Bull are only looking for the  cream of the crop, you have to ensure you do your best at every stage of the process. Good Luck!