The process was quite odd and gives you a lot of false hope and leaves you feeling they reject you based on purely personal reasons. Of course this is only the perception. Here's why. You apply for a graduate programme which has no closing date and no stated number of positions and so they assess you as you go. I took time to submit their detailed application and was contacted quite quickly (1 working day) to state 'CONGRATULATIONS' you have been selected for the next stage. This expressly implies that they have screened your application and gives you the strong impression you have successfully been sifted. This is not the case at all. To top it off, they send you a survey at this point to ascertain what you think of the recruitment assessment. A bit early I thought but you feel obliged to submit something positive because hey, you only submitted an application a day ago and they are saying congratulations for going to the next stage. Hardly an ethical research control sample in which to base sound conclusions about genuine feelings about the recruitment process! Funny how they don't send you one much later in the process. I would surmise, that the reality is they have just checked that you have the required qualification and nothing more, which is an absolute joke as the next stage you are invited to the highly difficult and time consuming online assessment. You feel keen and motivated to complete this because as mentioned you are left with the impression they have sifted you and are interested in you. So I then got invited to complete the IPAT which is IMB's quirky IQ maths assessment. The questions were really difficult and so if you struggle with maths you will absolutely struggle with this. There is just no way to prepare either and they give you questions which they call 'exotic sequencing' which have no logical pattern or solution I would say (for an average performing brain anyway! I am sure it identifies high functioning people). It is however multiple choice and so you can, with the benefit of some logical narrowing down find an answer you feel confident with through elimination. Due the IMB's confidentially agreement and copy write, which I will respect, I will not give examples of the questions. It does include advanced algebra, simultaneous equations and such like though. To my relief and yes a little surprise, I was congratulated again as I was informed I met or exceeded the required score on the IPAT! Going by what it says online I then expected an assessment centre bit It was at this point they drop the news that NOW they will look at your application to basically decide if they are interested in you or not? Quh? So despite them giving the impression they have reviewed your application and so have invited you do the test. You pass the test and have the required qualification to apply; two days after the test I discovered that stands for nothing as I received an email to essentially state they do not want to take my application further. No explanations, just the standard lines of we are too busy and don't care to provide you with any feedback and so you are left concluding they reject people purely on personal grounds. For me I feel it was because I am a mature graduate after slogging for my degree later in life. Again this in only my perception as in all their literature about the graduate programme it all focuses on young people straight from traditional universities, featuring largely the same type of people with similar personal characteristics. I was almost deterred from seeing that none of the graduates represented backgrounds similar to my own but was encouraged by IMB's seemingly outward looking and diversity respecting values.