Centrica Grad Application Questions

Tell us what you will find personally motivating about performing in a graduate role with Centrica. (350 Word
Limit)
In your answer you must tell us:

About the specific activities, tasks, and responsibilities in the role that you will enjoy
Examples of when you have been involved with similar activities, tasks, and responsibilities
What aspects of Centrica's business operations attracts you the most
I am interested in a graduate marketing role with Centrica for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, energy is a heavily regulated and competitive industry, where British Gas is able to stand
out as a market leader, which means that from a marketing communication perspective British
Gas offers a good value proposition to customers. Centricas ability to do this in such a crowded
market shows me that they are innovative and creative and somewhere I would like to work!

Secondly, the scope of the graduate marketing programme also appeals. I particularly like the
bottom up approach where new employees are placed into a contact centre to engage with real
life British Gas customers. I did the same during my marketing internship experience with
Everything Everywhere and found that experience can be hugely helpful in understanding the
customer of the organisation. My experience with EE, also included looking at delivering
marketing messaging to customers in different channels of marketing communication and this is
an area of the Centrica Marketing stream I particularly like. Additionally, the fact that Marketing
graduates are put on several placements in different business units means that I could be given
good exposure to the overall Centrica business.

Describe a situation when you effectively managed your relationships with other people to ensure a goal was
delivered successfully. (350 Word Limit)
In your answer you must tell us:

The actions you took to improve the way you worked together
How you adapted your approach to work more effectively with the others
What would you do differently next time?
For this question, I would like to draw on experience as an officer within my local Boys Brigade
company, where I have responsibility for finances and fundraising. In 2013, we were hit with an
unexpected facilities repair bill and this meant that additional income had to be raised to cover
the shortfall. Our typical methods of raising money were through donations and bagpacking
events run in local supermarkets.
I was targeted to raise in the region of 1000 through one particular event, which was about one
third more than a typical bagpack would make. To achieve this, we would have to run something
with a different format.

Initially, I organised a company staff meeting of other officers and the Captain of the company to
discuss new formats for fundraising. No viable alternatives were suggested and it looked like we
had hit a roadblock for the 1000 target.
Going back to the drawing board, I organised another meeting between the Captain of our
company and some of the senior members of the board of the Church in which we were based.
After a lot of discussions, it was decided a car boot sale could be a viable approach to use,
something that was agreed upon in that meeting by the Church officials.
After this, through advertisements in the local paper and lots of calls, we managed to organise a
car boot sale with over 20 sellers, where we charged a flat fee for a space and organised some hot
food for sale to the public.
As a result of this one event, we had takings of 1010 meaning the goal had been achieved and
we managed to recover from the repair cost.
In terms of things I would do differently next time, probably more communication with the
stakeholders through either email or social media (such as a group set up on Facebook to keep
key people informed).

Describe a great (non-academic) success that you delivered personally. (350 Word Limit)
In your answer you must tell us:

About an outcome that was not related to your course or education

How you personally made the success happen
How you structured your approach
The skills that you demonstrated that you could use again to deliver success for Centrica

For this question, I would like to draw on my Dyson experience whilst working in John Lewis Glasgow last
year.
In October 2013, a major competitor to Dyson within the floorcare market, launched a new product,
supported by heavy advertising, in-store demonstrators 5 days/week and additionally a new bespoke
display.
Regionally, Dyson did not have the budget to spend to match what the competitor had done, and as a result,
Dyson floor care sales began to fall by about 20% year on year, being cannibalised by the aggressive activity
of the competitor.
As a sales region, we had several targets to meet, with the first being sales volume, a metric of year on year
sales and so the regional manager tasked me with looking at ways, on a limited budget, that we could turn
this situation around, and ideally as soon as possible.
Fortunately, I had developed an excellent in store working relationship with the section manager within John
Lewis, and through working in partnership with him, I was able to secure two incremental powered display
locations in the store, which would have cost Dyson at a national accounts level, several thousands of
pounds. My regional manager contributed 6 machines and plinths which were located in prime footfall

positions at the entrance to the store and at the escalators.

As a result of this activity, customer interactions,demonstrations and sales increased and John Lewis
Glasgow ended up finishing the year on positive growth for the Dyson account, considered a great success
versus where we were.
I believe in this particular example, I demonstrated skills such as ownership (through managing the process
from start to finish), relationship management (liaising with multiple stakeholders) and drive (created a
visually and technically good result for the business).