Contacted by professional search firm (whom where referred to by an ex-colleague of mine from a previous company). After a catch-up session with the head of the search firm they submitted my resume to BAT Korea. The resume review took around 1 week or so and informed of a full day assessment. The assessment involved 3 stages. First stage was "In/Out box exercise". An envelope with various issues, emails, situations were shown. My task was to get my head around the items and issues shown in the envelope and rank them in terms of urgency. I was give around 20 minutes to complete this task. i was left alone during this time and when completed, I sealed the envelope and informed the HR personnel outside the room. Next stage was "4P presentation". A case study was provided and my task was to develop my best strategy for the issue presented. It has been 5 years since I took the evaluation so the case study is a bit blurry, but it involved a shoe company and it was to decide whether to keep producing ourselves or merge with a competitor. I was given around 30 minutes to prepare using pen and paper (on my own). The results were presented to two interviewers. They asked questions in between. The last case study was "HR issue". Another case study was provided for me to read. Then two interviewers acted out a role in the case study. The objective of the case was to see how decisive I am as a manager to objectively evaluate subordinates. If an action is required I needed to act upon it and be stern. After this full day evaluation, it took BAT around 2 weeks to get back with the final interview date. They also requested for referral letters from an ex-line manager, ex-colleague and ex-direct report (if any). The final interview took around 30 minutes and it involved questions about previous challenges I had overcome, reason for looking for another job, how others might evaluate me, my leadership style etc. This was the final stage and then I was hired.

Initial interview with the manager and another manager from human resources. After a couple of days you are invited for a full day of assessment. This involves an 'in box' exercise, sales pitch exercise and human resource issue handling exercise. The 'in box' is done personally and submitted in a closed envolope but the others involve preparing a short presentation and presenting to the interviewers as well as role playing with one of the interviewers. The final step is a customary meet and greet with the Head of marketing. The overall process took around 1 month but the delay was due to travel plans of the final interviewer. My overall impression of BAT Korea was how serious they took each assessment. This was true after I joined but the overall tone and manner of the culture are more casual and relaxed.