I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at Caterpillar (Peterborough, England) in Feb 2019
Interview
Very arduous application form, loads of information required and asked competency questions. From here a phone interview, also competency based, received an email saying I'd passed about half an hour later. Invited to assessment centre after this.
Started with a hilariously incompetent presentation on the company, riddled with IT errors, horrendous public speaking and PowerPoint slides citing Wikipedia as sources.
From here a basic group exercise, building an arch of specified dimensions out of Lego bricks with time, labour and financial constraints.
After this, a briefing on a presentation you had to prepare in 90 minutes then present at the end of the day. 5 minutes on a group project you'd been a part of, detailing your objectives, role, challenges, solutions, reflections and success.
2-on-1 interview, again almost entirely competency based. Endless competency questions, then a couple of basic interview questions and weird "technical" questions like "what do you expect to see on the factory tour?" and "how are goods moved around a factory?". No questions at all that I'd actually describe as technical, but nothing too demanding either.
Tour of the facility which was quite impressive, finishing with your presentations.
Staff were quite nice and friendly, tried to make you feel relaxed throughout. Assessors were entirely "pale stale male" but they were all helpful, encouraging and approachable. The staff running the housekeeping and procession of the day were the most hilariously new-school over-the-top business types I've ever met in my life, basically a real life Stewart Pearson from the The Thick Of It.
Overall a decent enough assessment centre. It's almost entirely competency based with hardly any technical assessment, which I thought was weird but the staff do a good job. Travel expenses covered up to a point too, which is always good.
Received outcome about two weeks after by email. You were able to phone up and get more feedback on your performance too but I'd already accepted another offer at this point so didn't bother.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Describe a time your communication skills helped a situation.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Caterpillar (Belfast, Northern Ireland) in Feb 2019
Interview
1. Telephone Interview to discuss motivation for applying and knowledge of the company
2. Assessment Centre (group activity, individual presentation on a project, interview with an HR member and head of the manufacturing team)
3. Decision on outcome of assessment centre.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The company is changing its supplier of bolts which are used on the fix the product onto a rolling conveyor. What considerations must be made before the new part can be used in production.