Application Process & Interviews at REA Group

Fairly quick response

We had one interview day with 3 hours of interviews before that there were multiple video and text rounds

In depth for graduates. Pre screening logic test, written application, recorded video interview, live teamwork interview and live technical interview

about 3-4 rounds of interviews, mostly text responses (again due to covid) and some video pre-recordings, final interview was a technical/cultural fit interview that was over zoom with 2 interviewers

Interview process was pretty good with consistent communication from the hiring team about where I was at in the process.

graduate program hiring was smooth. we were given clear instructions before each state

Had noticed every step of interview process, very accountable

As a grad, the first step of the process was to complete an application with simple questions about our experience and one question at the end to get us thinking. Next we had a video interview with 6 questions which was recorded and sent to REA. Finally we had to complete an assessment day in the office which involved a group activity, a cultural fit interview and a technical interview.

Depending on position after expressing interest your resume would be overviewed . If deemed a suitable candidate then there may be a phone interview. For developers following that we normally conduct a coding pairing interview to see how you work and solve problems in a team and finally a team technical interview to meet the potential team you may join and ask further domain knowledge based questions.

After the application process I submitted a video of myself addressing a wide range of non-technical questions. Then I had both technical and cultural interviews.

The process involved an initial application - answering questions and submitting a resume. This was followed by a set of testing, then an additional questionnaire incorporating video responses. A final round was held at the offices in Richmond, involving a technical interview, cultural-fit interview and group exercise to assess teamwork.

- Early Feb - Apply online with CV and maybe some questions, I can't remember - March - Take an online aptitude test - March - Online video where you answer a bunch of questions, now that we work from home I think this wouldn't be as foreign as it was when I had done it 2019 - Late April - In person interview, presented to me with a design challenge. Called Assessment Day, there were 8 prospective Design grads battling it out for the 2 roles. Day consisted of breakfast and chats, then a group game while being watched by about 20 people from REA, then you do a design challenge and work independently while employees are walking around the room (pretty chill, not daunting), then you present your design challenge solutions and dive into behavioural + situational interview with 2 senior designers.

Standard video interview + games + good in-person interview day with a group activity, cultural, and tech interviews

More general value questions

Typical interview questions tailored for REA's values. Describe strengths/weaknesses. Which REA value most aligns with you, which one the least. What would your friends say is your best quality.

mainly about your previous experience/study, how passionate you are about tech and the work itself, and how you overcome obstacles and challenges.

Why do you want to join the grad program? When was a time you failed and how did you handle it?

Technical: How would you sort circles, squares and triangles Behavioural: many

In our application we were asked one question outside of the normal info about our experience and education, "If you could build anything you wanted at an REA hack day, what would it be?". Our video interview involved some questions like "What's the most creative thing you've done", "How do you keep up with the latest technologies", "How do you give back to the community". The cultural interview was lots of experience questions, like "Talk about a time when..." kind of questions. Finally in the technical interview, as a grad it wasn't super technical. We were given a problem statement to discuss and solve with our interviewers, "Build a system to sort shapes into quadrilateral, circle or triangle".

I was asked to describe how I would react to various scenarios, mostly to determine if I was a good cultural fit. For the technical interview we were asked to describe our approach and suggested architecture to solve a well defined problem.

The technical interview involved solving an algorithmic problem in high-level detail - describing a solution to the problem and walking through it on a whiteboard. The cultural interview featured questions about personal experiences, often drawn from my resume, as well as situational ones geared at assessing how I would interact with team members.

Questions were primarily based around very standard behavioural and situational line of questioning around 'Can you describe a time where you did X and the outcome was Y'. Most questions could be answered with examples from university group assignments, or (hopefully) work experiences. Nothing was out of the ordinary. It was really up to you as the interviewee to have engaging answers.

Most questions aimed to find a cultural fit Tech questions were exploratory and open-ended, not seeking hard facts or the single best solution

just be yourself

Practice communicating, it is a very valuable skill at REA

Be yourself, be genuine and be willing to be flexible in the technical interview.

Be yourself and do some tech side projects if you dont have the experience yet - practice some typical interview questions about overcoming challenges at previous work etc.

Take a look at the REA values. Culture is very important so they are looking for a good culture fit. As a grad, they're also looking for someone who is keen to learn.

be honest about what you're like

Practice how to present yourself a lot

Be who you are and soft skills matter

My advice is to be yourself, REA Group embraces the weird and loves it so don't be afraid of that. To prepare, definitely a good idea to think about some experiences you've had, whether at uni or work that would be great to discuss in interviews. Things like difficult situations you've overcome.

If a developer take time to study up on SOLID developer principles as well as TDD (test driven development)

For the cultural interview just be yourself. For the technical interview try to spend some time thinking about the pros and cons of your approach and also how you handle change in requirements.

Think about how you would react to different situations related to your field and experiences. If you've written on your resume that you have experience resolving conflict in teams, make sure you can recall times where you've needed to use that skill. Don't be afraid to talk about your interests, hobbies and so on even if they aren't directly related to the responsibilities of your role. What you're like as a person if a big part of what REA is thinking about when considering whether to hire you, not just how skilled you are - especially in the case of a graduate.

After getting the job, I had to investigate why I was chosen over the other candidates. At this stage, there are so many applicants and the assessment day is such a hard decision as any of the top 8 on the day could work there. It's really about not freaking out, and just being yourself. In addition to coming with your own brand and personality, I think it's important to show the interest in learning about UX Design. It's a relatively new thing in Australia, and showing self-driven initiative to learn more about the industry and the work allows for great conversations with those interviewing you, as you can just ask more about the job itself and speak to examples of a) where you've tried certain software, b) not understood how to get X experience when you would need to be in the job for it, etc. Passion projects and small design work you've done can go a long way in an interview to highlight interest and passion.

By becoming someone people want to work with