Client Development Intern

Gallup's recruiting process is very structured and rigid. Gallup claims to have created a proprietary recruiting method that takes subjectivity out of the equation and relies solely on statistics and quantitative analytics.

My experience started with your generic online application. Afterwards, I was directed to take an online assessment. The test was comprised of about 100 statements like "I write things down to keep track of them" 1. Strongly agree, 2. Somewhat agree, 3. Neutral, 4. Disagree, 5. Strongly disagree. In all, the test took about 45 minutes to complete.

About 1 week later, I was invited to a structured telephone interview with one of Gallup's strengths analysts. The interview was very robotic and somewhat strange. The analyst would ask questions like, "Do you like to be a leader and why?" and I was expected to give a 3-5 sentence answer. There was no feedback by the interviewer.

Gallup claims that there are no "right" answers to any of the questions, but that your answers are used to build a personality profile which is subjected to analysis to determine if you would be a good match for the specified job. I'm not really sure I buy it, McKinsey, Bain, & BCG seem to get top candidates with the standard case interview approach. My personal opinion is that Gallup just wants to get you into their system and that hiring is still typically done with managers who recruit selectively from top schools.