I would like to help as much people as I can with the Shell Recruitment Day as this was a very vigorous and extensive process and in the end I was not able to get a past this stage. Maybe some of my colleagues is able to add comments to this on how to be successful if they find this. My SRD was in Calgary, Canada.
Day 1: Non-Assessed Introduction and Dinner
This takes place at 3:45PM and isn't assessed. We are introduced to the company, played a few ice breaker games and got familiar with Day 2 with a breakdown of our schedule and how we will be assessed on capacity, achievement and relationships.
Day 2: Assessed
First Assessment: E-tray
This had 12 questions and we were given 30 minutes to take it. It is similar to the practice e-tray with a whole new scenario where we were going to go ahead on a project off coast of a fake country. It had questions ranging from scheduling issues to environmental issues to contract issues and how you would respond to them. It was difficult for me to really decide on what the best option really was and the least likely option was. So I would suggest practicing the e-tray until you fully understand why they think this response was optimal.
Second Assessment: Group Exercise
Our group exercise was based with a breaking new bulletin where the Green Party randomly acquired power and now we had to decide which parties to talk to first. We had the leader to the Green Party, Central Party leader (wants employment), Environmental Protection Agency, Prime Minister, and locals. we had to decide as a group which party had a higher priority, how we should communicate with them and what the message should be.
Third Assessment: Self-Reflection Interview
We were asked questions based on the E-tray and group exercise. Questions like, what would you have done differently, how do you think it went, what was the hardest part of the exercise be prepared to go into more detail as once you say one thing, they'll probe deeper for example if I say the time then they'll ask what could you have done to that time wasn't an issue. Make sure you pick something good at the start or you'll dig yourself deeper later on. Group exercise questions were like what was your role in the group, what worked well, what didn't work well, are you always like that, in what situations would you be like this and when you wouldn't behave like this.
Fourth Assessment: Case Study
Our case study had a choice of three routes to build a pipeline from a offshore platform to a refinery on the shore and whether or not we should use an umbilical cord for extra safety . We had to consider costs and environmental conditions. There were approximately 10 pages of information that contained a journal article (about the umbilical cord and its benefits), newspaper article (about the pipeline's effect on the tourism industry), a letter from an environmental lobbyist group and a bunch of data from the pipeline. We had 20 mins to go through all the information, 5 minutes to present our decision and 45 mins of questioning. They asked questions like what did you consider when making your decision and why was this consideration important, why didn't you go with the other routes, if you had unlimited time and money what would you do instead. If your budget got cut what would you do?
Fifth Assessment: Competency Based Interview
These questions are very similar to Step 3 interview questions where they asked you to describe a time when you had to influence another team member, a time when you had to work together as a team to come to a conclusion. Give a time when you had to deal with a person with different opinions. A time when you had to work with different types of people. This step is also where you really need to pick a story that uses STAR, if you pick a bad story at the beginning they will probe down to R and you may run out of story by that time. They also asked about my career ambition, why I want to work for Shell, what position I wanted to work for, where I see myself in 5-10 years and those types of questions.
Final Note:
Keep in mind CAR, they are seriously evaluating hard on those key attributes
You are not in competition with each other so be relaxed at dinner and get to know your colleagues, it'll go a long way for the group interview.
Overall, I can't really complain about the amount of work as they pay for my meal, a place to stay and they tried to make you do your best. Because I wasn't able to successfully pass this portion, it makes the one and a half day not worth it. It was too much work for a position. My best advice is to take the question I've just presented and memorize a story you can tell well. I also have to say 2015 isn't the best of years and Shell may not be even hiring, they could be doing this just so HR has something to do. I could've done 8/10 and still not get hired. It's tough. Best of luck!