Introduction:​ ​

Anne-Marie, a recruiter from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) gives her insights about apprentice programs, student recruitment, challenges, rejections and imposter syndrome.

Segment 1: Stepping into JLR

“Everything is available in JLR … .STEM is critical for the future” Anne Marie starts her conversation by explaining the different positions available at her organization. She explains in detail about JLR recruitments and the need for people across various disciplines of STEM. 

As a part of the recruitment team, Anne believes that it is a combination of education, the zeal to learn more, flexibility, and adaptability are the key characteristics they look for in the candidates. They keep in mind that the automotive industry is an evolving industry and requires new ideas to flow in, she cites the mantra “We are recruiting you because you know stuff we don’t!” 

Talking about rejections of candidates, she explains that candidates with lack of motivation, signs of being disrespectful to assessors are the main reasons for rejection. She adds that the assessment team is diverse and does empathize that people are from diverse backgrounds, age groups and do get nervous during assessments.

She further shares information about the four-year degree apprenticeship program, where the selected candidates get to work for JLR and also earn a degree from Warwick University. She agrees to the fact that the program is quite challenging and the selected candidates must be highly motivated and disciplined to manage the job as well as the degree studies.

Segment 2: Stepping up

With respect to imposter syndrome, Anne describes that young apprentices are expected to understand that they have been chosen because of their talents/potentials/ skills or motivation. However, if candidates are rejected, it would simply mean that the candidate doesn’t have the right traits, attributes that align to that of the company. Addressing the issue of diversity and inclusion at the workplace Anne, acknowledges that having diversity in the workforce improves the balance of the organization. She adds that at JLR they have been taking positive steps to ensure gender equality and diversity in the workforce. Regarding the resources about the careers available, Anne suggests visiting JLR website where a host of information has been posted and also social media pages/blogs where people share their reflections about the organization.