Matthew Interview Feedback Report
Equitas
Experience powered by

Interview feedback

Matthew, here’s how your interview with Equitas landed.

Thank you for the time you gave to the conversation with Michael. You talked about how you see the role, your plans for starting out, the tools and AI you use, inclusive hiring at EY, and taking ownership. Below is a closer look at what stood out and how the conversation unfolded.

Interviewed by MichaelRecorded and summarised with Screenloop

What stood out

  • Recruiting at pace

    A hypergrowth brief at EY

    You described having to recruit 100 new partners, each with a support team of 50, after 120 million pounds was injected into the organisation.

  • Recognition

    Work of the Year

    The campaign you put together won Work of the Year overall for recruitment marketing.

  • Your approach

    Listening comes first

    You said the first 90 days are about listening and credibility, not arriving with all the answers.

  • Taking ownership

    A magazine that outgrew its plan

    You took on a magazine you had never made before, planned at five or six pages, and it ended up with more than 100 pages.

How you showed up

The areas we covered, what you said, and what you did well.

Qualifications and experience

Technical skills

Your score 4/5

You named LinkedIn Talent Insights and Gartner Analytics as tools you use, and four AI assistants: Claude, ChatGPT, Groq and Copilot.

What you did well

You said you never trusted just one of them, so you play them off against each other to see what is missing.

Alignment with the role

Your score 4/5

You described the role as flexible, with recruitment sitting alongside being a visible brand ambassador who can join the CEO in meetings and pitches.

What you did well

You compared this to what you do now in consulting: introducing a client's technology to recruitment leaders and companies.

Confidence and professionalism

Your score 5/5

You described facing the board for an hour and a half, with questions on your data from auditors and on your strategy from consultants, and said you enjoy stress and pressure.

What you did well

You closed that story by saying that taking accountability and leading is how you deliver.

Communication skills

Verbal communication

Your score 5/5

You described a hiring world where AI writes CVs, AI adapts them, and employers receive 400 or 500 polished applications, which makes the interview more important.

What you did well

You then tied this to Michael's company, saying it is well placed to seize the opportunity in an AI world.

Engagement and active listening

Your score 5/5

You asked Michael what keeps him awake at night and where he wants to be in 5 and 10 years.

What you did well

Your questions picked up on points he had just made, such as the timescale he had mentioned.

Clarity and coherence of answers

Your score 4/5

For your 90-day plan, you set out an order: learn the company's people, needs, culture and aims, then move on to recruiting the 10 hires.

What you did well

You added how you would support Michael, through heat maps of the market and key contacts.

Problem solving

Analytical thinking

Your score 4/5

You described bringing facts rather than emotion to difficult stakeholders, for example a heat map of where scarce skills sit across the UK or Europe.

What you did well

You used the same approach with the EY board, showing them the market and what other companies were doing.

Creativity and innovation

Your score 5/5

You created a recruitment marketing campaign focused on Black talent, which you said nobody else was doing.

What you did well

You said that winning over people with firm views let you take them further, into campaigns on menopause, and on to what the organisation could do to attract more LGBTQ+ people.

Handling challenges

Your score 4/5

You named mastering the business model and technology, and building credibility with the team, as the main challenge, and called it the turn-on and the opportunity.

What you did well

You said you want to move quickly as well, to match the pace Michael wants.

Cultural add

Alignment with values and culture

Your score 4/5

You said inclusion means everyone feels their voice is heard and can be the best they can be, with different backgrounds, experiences and opinions coming together.

What you did well

You contrasted this with a past environment where people were afraid to speak up.

Working well with the team

Your score 4/5

You said leadership starts with inspiring people, then giving them the training and freedom to do their best, noting that people become ready through experience.

What you did well

You said you hold yourself accountable for the people around you loving what they do, as well as for the results.

Adaptability and openness

Your score 5/5

You described taking ownership of the content, with different areas and different viewpoints, for a magazine with the Better Hiring Institute.

What you did well

You took the project on after the institute agreed to take a risk on you.

How the conversation flowed

1. Why you applied

You said the possibilities and Michael's leadership made you want to have a go. You were then invited to share how you saw the role.

2. What excites you most

Michael shared the current team size of 8 and the plan to reach 10. You said helping the company grow, and the technology, appealed to you most.

3. Challenges and starting out

The conversation moved to the most challenging part of the role and your aims for the early months.

4. Tools and AI in hiring

Michael wanted to know which tools you prefer for mapping the market, and the conversation turned to AI in hiring.

5. Why inclusion matters

Michael explained that inclusion is built into Equitas and asked why it matters to you.

6. Your biggest diversity project

Michael asked for a specific example and how you brought stakeholders along. You talked him through the project, the evidence you used and what changed as a result.

7. Ownership and your proudest project

You were asked how you encourage ownership in others, and which of your projects you are proudest of.

8. Michael's plans and your questions

Michael opened the floor and gave some context on the role. You asked follow-up questions about the risks, the company's direction and the culture.

9. What good looks like

You asked what good looks like in the first 6 months, then talked through some open points with Michael, and the call ended on a warm note.

How you showed up

We covered twelve different areas across four different categories. Tap a category or any dot on the ring, or use the arrows, to see what you said as well as what you did well. Choosing an area also highlights where it came up in the conversation below.

    Map of the attributes

    Filter by theme

    Clicking on any of the theme tags below will highlight that specific theme throughout the entire page.

    How the conversation flowed

    The interview in the order it happened. Open a stage to see what we covered and jump to the attributes it fed.

    Areas covered

    Choose an area to see which stages fed it. Open a stage to see the areas it fed.

      Summary and next steps

      Not moving forward this time

      Your overall score4.4 / 5
      Needed to progress4.7 / 5

      Thank you, Matthew

      A huge thank you for the time and effort you invested in both your application and interview with us. We are sorry to say that you are not moving forward this time, and we know this is not the news you were hoping for. It was a pleasure to hear about your journey and there were a great many positives.

      What stood out for us
      • Your focus on inclusive hiring. You spoke about inclusion as something every strong business needs, and about the work you have done to make hiring fairer.
      • Ownership at scale. You took responsibility for results in a large recruitment transformation at EY.
      • Your recent projects. You brought current examples alongside your EY experience: a consulting role and your magazine editions.
      • Five-star areas. Verbal communication, engagement and listening, confidence, creativity and adaptability all scored 5 out of 5.
      Things you may want to build onA few gentle, optional ideas for other interviews, offered with respect for how much you brought to this one.
      • Add a headline result. Adding one headline result from your client work would bring it to life.
      • Bring detail to hands-on work. When you mentioned sourcing and direct search at EY, adding a number or timeframe is another way to make the result more concrete.
      • Link examples to a question. After Michael described the risks he faces, linking a relevant past example, such as your EY hypergrowth experience, is another way to show how it fits.

      Thanks again, and we wish you every success