Citi Hiring Process, Assessment Centre & Aptitude Tests (SJT, Numerical, Verbal, Logical) Online Preparation – 2024

What Is Citi?

Citi, known formally as Citigroup, is the holding company for a handful of subsidiaries including the customer-oriented division Citibank. Citigroup is the product of a merger between Travelers Group and Citicorp in 1998 with its headquarters in New York City. Now, they are a global investment bank and financial services company whose growth has made it a part of the Big Four banks of the United States. Their range in the financial sector means they have diverse opportunities in fields such as:

• Private Banking
• Capital Markets
• Advising
• Securities Services
• Commercial Banking

Citi has opportunities in 160 countries and territories across the world and employs over 223,000 people. Their employees enjoy benefits such as:

• Health and Wellness Insurance Programs
• Child Care
• Retirement Savings Plan
• Volunteer Programs
• Higher Education Plans

What Is Citi’s Hiring Process?

Citi’s hiring process is comprised of numerous rounds of competency, behaviour and technical evaluations. The company utilizes a few different measures when assessing candidates like online assessments and case studies. While the outline of the hiring process is pretty standard, the content is subject to change depending on the role you have applied for.

Initial Screening

Citi’s initial screening of candidate’s is their review of applications and CV’s. They outline the eligibility requirements in the details of the roles on their career page. Be sure to include your community service endeavours and any relevant or advantageous experiences in your application.

Citi’s Interview Process

If you’re successful during the initial screening, Citi’s interview process will commence. The process involves three recruitment rounds that can take anywhere from one week to two months. If you are a job seeker interested in working for Citi, you can expect their interview process to go as follows:

• Online Assessments
• Telephone Interview
• Final Interview

What Are Citi’s Online Assessments?

Citi’s online assessments measure the candidate’s aptitude in certain areas applicable to the position they are seeking employment in. For example, candidates for internal roles will have online assessments that are more focused on their decision-making and reason. Citi also administers an assessment that appraises the candidate’s behaviour and personality. Typical online assessments for applicants include:

• Logical Reasoning Test
  Citi’s logical reasoning test analyzes the candidate’s critical reasoning skills. The test consists of a series of shapes and asks the applicant to identify the pattern. The logical reasoning test is multiple-choice with around fourteen questions and a seventy-five second time limit per question.
• Numerical Reasoning Test
  Citi’s numerical reasoning test serves the purpose of evaluating a candidate’s literacy and proficiency with math in the business and banking context. The format will provide a hypothetical situation, possibly involving a table or graph with multiple answer choices. There are twelve questions, and each has anywhere from a seventy-five second to a ninety-second-time limit.
• Verbal Reasoning Test
  Citi’s verbal reasoning test is similar to the logical reasoning test because it also serves the purpose of evaluating your critical reasoning skills. The format is multiple-choice with a time limit per question. Each question provides the applicant with a passage of information followed by a handful of related statements. Your job is to decipher between facts and inferences and mark the statements true, false or cannot say.
• Situational Judgement Test
  Citi’s situational judgement test, or SJT, examines the behaviour and emotional intelligence of the candidate. The SJT offers a hypothetical scenario that one might encounter in the workplace and the candidate must choose their response given various answer choices. Common themes for questions include resolving office conflicts or handling a difficult customer.

Telephone Interview

Citi’s telephone interview is competency-based and is typically conducted by a senior member of the field you are applying for. Throughout the interview they also ask about your interest in the company and inquire about some current affairs related to Citi and your discipline. The interview will take about thirty to sixty minutes.

Final Interview

The final interview is in person and is a mixture of fit, competency, and technical questions. Citi will ask how you relate to some of their valued competencies such as:

• Commercial Awareness
• Judgement
• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Analysis

These are just a handful of traits they favour in candidates. During your preparation for the interview, be sure to have examples drawn from your own experience ready to share with the interviewer. This final interview should, again, take thirty to sixty minutes.

Students & Graduates

Students and graduates’ interview process is tailored closely to that of the more seasoned professionals, however, there is an additional round of recruitment for the younger job seekers. Another important difference to note is the conduct of the final interviews. If you’re a student or graduate, the interview process will look a little more like this:

• Online Assessments
• Telephone Interview
• Assessment Day
• Final Interview

Citi’s online assessments and telephone interview are identical to the experienced candidates.

Assessment Day

Citi will invite half a dozen candidates at a time for the assessment day. Within assessment day, there are multiple one-on-one interviews and various activities for the candidates to partake in. The activities include:

Case Study

The case study you receive serves as the outline and instruction for the rest of the exercises you participate in on assessment day. There will be ten to twenty pages of material that you must write a two-page report on. The content of the case study depends on the role you have applied for, but usually details the affairs of a fictitious company and asks you to find the ideal course of action.

Presentation

The presentation at assessment day is completed individually and candidate’s will be allotted five minutes with the assessor. Be prepared for a small question and answer session with the recruiter at the end of your assessment. Alongside the quality of your presentation and the content you cover, the Citi recruiter will also be assessing your delivery.

Group Exercise

Citi’s group exercise is based on the same case study you presented and reported on but will cover a different aspect of the field. An assessor will be accompanying your team while you work through the proposal. They will be looking at two things: the details of your plan and how you go about proposing it. If the group you’re in chooses your proposal, it won’t do you any good if you have forced it on them. The best way to go about the group exercise is finding the perfect balance between leadership and teamwork.

Final Interview

Citigroup’s final interview for students and graduates differs from the experienced professionals because they usually take place in front of a panel. It consists of two or more senior members assessing various dimensions of your experience and knowledge. They will ask commercial awareness and industry expertise questions along with competency and fit inquiries. You should also have your answers to questions such as “Why are you interested in Citi?” and “What can you bring to the table?”.

How to Prepare for Citi’s Online Assessments?

Citi’s online assessments can be easily conquered if you know what to expect. The optimal way to do this is familiarizing yourself with the format and most importantly the time constraint. Most applicants find themselves skipping questions or guessing which, due to the grading system, very negatively affects their overall score. It’s important to keep in mind that Citi has a threshold they expect their applicants to meet, and if this standard is not met the applicant will be barred from consideration. Practising for the online assessments is strongly encouraged and can make the task seem like less of a chore come time for completion.

Conclusion

Citi’s diverse and expansive network presents a golden opportunity for job seekers. With their size and range, they have a role for pretty much everybody. If you’re a recent graduate or have decades of experience in the financial industry, preparation is the key to landing a job at Citi. Focus on polishing the answers to interview questions that are centred around competency as well as practising for the online assessments. Approaching Citi’s hiring process with a strong foundation of knowledge concerning their assessments and interviews is the best way to impress the company. Best of luck!