Interviews can be pretty daunting especially if you’re new to it. Our Emiratisation team has created these guidelines covering the most important tips and suggestions. Remember, interviews are a two-way street, so you’re learning about us just as much as we’re finding out about you, and we aim to keep them as relaxed as possible.
Deciding where to start your career can be overwhelming. Speak to trusted family or friends, especially if they’ve worked for us or in the banking sector. Your career counselor or lecturer at university are good options too, to get an external perspective on where you should start your career based on your interests, skills and ambitions.
Reach out to our Emiratisation team
We’re constantly visiting UAE universities and schools to speak with students who are interested in banking careers. We attend all of the major UAE career fairs too, so wherever you see us, please stop and have a chat as we’d love to speak with you.
Do your research
If you’re interviewing for Ruwad or Bedaya, take the time to understand Emirates NBD and why you’re a good fit for both the programme and our company. There’s heaps of information on our website and you can follow us on social media too. With Bedaya, you should understand the specific role you’re applying for as well.
Practice beforehand
Even experienced professionals can get nervous before interviews so find someone to practice your responses with, especially if this is the first time you’re going through a recruitment process.
Ask questions
Prepare some questions beforehand that you can ask the interviewer. It’ll show that you’re interested in the role and that you’ve prepared for the interview too. And we’d expect you genuinely do have a few questions especially if this is your first-ever role.
Highlight examples and achievements
We’ll likely ask you how you’d approach different situations and challenges in the office as part of your interview. We don’t necessarily expect you to have corporate experience to draw on, so think about similar situations you encountered while completing university projects, were on work experience or even helping out in your family’s business. Try and be as specific as possible in your responses and give examples.
Know your value proposition
Clearly identify what you can bring to the table especially in terms of your skills, career ambitions and your value proposition. Don’t be shy either – we want to know your strengths, why you’ll succeed with us and where you can add value.
Be honest
Similar to the above, don’t feel pressured to embellish your resume or work experience. Our main focus is seeing if you’re the right fit for our organisation, with the right values and commitment to match. As we said before, we can teach you the rest.
Be self-aware
Put your best foot forward in an interview but know your developmental areas too. We understand you’re new to the corporate world so we don’t expect you to know everything, but having knowledge of where you can improve demonstrates self-awareness and we value that.
Sort out your technology
Most likely your first interview will be held virtually, so just make sure your hardware and software is in good working order. There’s nothing worse than getting prepared for an interview to end up 10 minutes late because your laptop is updating!
No, definitely not. We hire from all sorts of backgrounds because having a diverse team is important to us and more specifically, we offer a huge array of roles requiring all kinds of different skill sets. That includes everything from retail and corporate banking positions, to creative roles in Marketing, data and tech positions across our IT and Digital teams, and much more. No matter what your background is, we can find the right role for you.
Yes it does. This is an elite programme with a small annual intake to build our long-term leadership pipeline. It’s strategically important for Emirates NBD’s succession planning so identifying the right talent is mission critical. That means taking the time to assess each candidate across a range of skills and capabilities, especially in relation to leadership and banking.
Anyone who reaches the final stage of our Ruwad interview process and is not given a place in that programme will most likely be offered an early opportunity into Bedaya.
We normally complete your initial screening interview online, including using new automated recruitment technology where you record your answers. Our final interview will always be face to face as we think it’s important especially so you can check out our offices in action too.
We’ll likely have a copy on us but it’s good to bring one anyway. We try avoid printing so we’d suggest bringing it on an ipad or similar device if you have one although not a big deal if you don’t!
No, definitely not. We hire from all sorts of backgrounds because having a diverse team is important to us and more specifically, we offer a huge array of roles requiring all kinds of different skill sets. That includes everything from retail and corporate banking positions, to creative roles in Marketing, data and tech positions across our IT and Digital teams, and much more. No matter what your background is, we can find the right role for you.
Yes it does. This is an elite programme with a small annual intake to build our long-term leadership pipeline. It’s strategically important for Emirates NBD’s succession planning so identifying the right talent is mission critical. That means taking the time to assess each candidate across a range of skills and capabilities, especially in relation to leadership and banking.
Anyone who reaches the final stage of our Ruwad interview process and is not given a place in that programme will most likely be offered an early opportunity into Bedaya.
We normally complete your initial screening interview online, including using new automated recruitment technology where you record your answers. Our final interview will always be face to face as we think it’s important especially so you can check out our offices in action too.
We’ll likely have a copy on us but it’s good to bring one anyway. We try avoid printing so we’d suggest bringing it on an ipad or similar device if you have one although not a big deal if you don’t!
We want to learn more about you so our interviews will include questions about your career goals, academic background, why you want to join us and specifically, our Ruwad or Bedaya graduate programmes. We’ll ask about any work experience you’ve completed like internships and want to hear about how you’d navigate different work situations in a practical way.
Ruwad is a 24-month leadership focused development programme where you’ll be on secondment half the time at one of our partner organisations. Bedaya is a 12-month programme that’s designed for graduates who know exactly what role they want to start their career in, so this course specifically prepares you for success in that role.
Most likely you’ll be based at either our Deira Head Office, our Meydan campus or in one of our branches. If you’re a Ruwad graduate, you’ll spend 12 months experiencing life in one of our secondment partner organisations but they’re all head-quartered in Dubai.
It depends on what interview stage you’re at but most likely it’ll be a member of our Emiratisation or Recruitment team, or both. For Bedaya, because you select a specific role at the start of the programme, we’ll bring someone along from that direct business line especially once you’ve passed the initial screening interview.
UAE
