Ah, be careful with grammarly, like many of these things it can get suggestions wrong.
As someone with a lot of recruitment experience, I’m going to stick up for Monzo a bit and say feedback is really hard when you don’t want to crush the person you’re giving feedback to.
Canned responses may feel that way because they’re not getting to the crux of what you did wrong, but sometimes that’s the best you can expect when sensitivity is taken in to account.
Tone of voice is a big one to Monzo, and in fact grammarly would not have helped you with that. (Tone being about how you communicate something, balancing the key message you need to convey with the way you say it).
Tone comes easier when you have sound writing skills, (and a good understanding of a company’s value system) but it’s actually a complex skill that a software programme can’t help you with.
Just wanted to add as well; think of this as a learning experience and try not to let it put you off. If Monzo is the company for you, I’m certain they will welcome future applications from you.
Just wanted to add, that while Brenda’s blog is awesome, it’s only partially reflective of our general hiring experience in that she (as is written in her blog) was part of our “Hiring Megaday” last fall where I believe we had about 40-50 candidates in (I can’t remember the exact number) and we went through the entire hiring flow with all of them in one day, including group tasks. We then made decisions on everyone within the space of about 24 hours.
I was actually one of the staff involved and did about 8 interviews back to back that day.
It has some things in common with our regular applications and others were probably a bit more unique due to the pacing.
We do these kind of assessment days when we need to recruit more quickly than usual
This was the point though. There wasn’t any opportunity for me to apply again in the future, it was just good luck with the future.
It was just a canned response which didn’t make sense. “Sorry you were not successful based on the strength of other applicants” would have been perfect
Not something that wasn’t true.
Monzo isn’t the company for me. And I’m not for them!
I’ll stick to being a customer this is all in the past, and it’s actually worked out well that I didn’t get it!
(the grammerly thing was a joke as well… Never would have done that)
It took me two tries to get hired, so don’t just give up! Work on the feedback you have been given and address it all in full, and give it another try in the future Perseverance pays!
If you don’t mind, what was the role you applied for? Generally grammar errors could be taken as unprofessionalism or sloppy work since it is important to be accurate and communicate effectively. I know I wouldn’t like to be speaking with a COps who had a lot of grammatical errors in their texts. It is difficult to let someone down gently and I guess they did give you additional feedback you can take as a learning point for next time! There are hundreds of applicants and I’m sure you not getting through is not indicative of you being unqualified for other jobs, they might just have a really wide choice of people to pick from and could afford to be more picky.
Honestly it’s fine. The job actually wouldn’t have worked. But thank you all!
I applied for the COop role. I’ve never one said that their reasoning was unjustified. Once I emailed and asked for feedback, and got told about grammatical errors, I totally understood. This almost stopped me applying in the first place.
I might have tried again, I might have gone on an English course and observed all my previous COop conversations.
However, after all that happened, I would never ever apply at Monzo again! (I’m sure they wouldn’t want me to either)
Funnily enough, I actually looked back at my assessment and thought “why did I answer everything in that tone?” and completley agreed that it didn’t seem very “Monzo”
Everything happens for a reason
I’ve also read an article, where Tom actually says “we hardly ever employ anybody from banks”
I’m pretty sure that they’ve said that they’re looking for fresh thinking, which is trickier if you’ve spent a while in a bank doing things a certain way.
This isn’t true. We have a fair few members of the team who have worked for other banks! I think Tom’s point was more in relation to the type of people we want to employ in terms of their perspectives and approach to work matching up culturally. The pace and direction at other more established high street banks is sometimes quite different to this environment (depending on which department you’ve worked in) so it’s maybe not as common to find people who are comfortable adapting to this after many years. That’s not to say we don’t ever employ people who have worked at other banks though - they’re just an especially talented bunch!
Looks like there’s no point in me applying for any roles as a soon to be Graduate with very little experience. A shame since I love what Monzo are doing and want to be part of changing the future of banking.
Monzo definitely gave entry level roles like any other company, likely to be in ops but sometimes can be found elsewhere in the company. Would definitely recommend keeping an eye on openings and be ready to jump when something suitable comes up.
For people that have applied for jobs at Monzo, how long did you wait for a response after submitting the take-home task? It’s been almost 4 weeks now without hearing anything I’ll send an email on Monday, but was just wondering whether this was normal
A general piece of feedback for Monzo - I applied for a position and had a phone interview just over a month ago.
Communication with Monzo had been great up until that point, and the hiring manager was very accommodating in picking a time that worked for both of us.
I was told I would receive an answer either way within 2 to 3 days, but one month on and I haven’t had any follow up communication.
I sent a couple of very polite emails within the first couple of weeks asking for an update, but obviously received nothing back - all return communication completely ceased.
I can only assume I didn’t get the job - that’s fine, these things happen.
However it does fall short of the great recruitment experience that Monzo say they’re aiming for.
If I hadn’t been through a phone interview I wouldn’t necessarily have expected an answer - but following any kind of interview it’s a poor show not to get back to the applicant.
So this feedback is intended to be constructive - Monzo, please get back to all of your applicants regardless of outcome.
this is all in the past, and it’s actually worked out well that I didn’t get it!
Perseverance pays!
I’ll send an email on Monday, but was just wondering whether this was normal