Pareto www.pareto.co.uk Reviews

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The assessment day was very weak in my opinion even though I got selected. How they work out who is right and who is not is beyond me. First they ask you to stand up in front of other candidates and state your greatest achievement, fair enough.
The next exercise is frankly ridiculous in my opinion. They put you into groups and first get you to solve a puzzle involving red and blue boxes which no one really understood. They then get you to do a similar task involving the most important items in a space rescue mission.
I am sure they would tell you the exercises are a perfect way of assessing your confidence, persuasive abilities, intelligence and team work etc. But I feel this really is not true, it is simply who can shout over the next person the loudest. While their very young and seem inexperienced, so called assessors write down everything they can about your interaction in five minutes.
One team lost because they did not realize a compass did not work in space (which lost them points and apparently affects whether they are selected), to be honest why should they know this, what on earth does this have to do with sales? Surely their are more competent ways of assessing people? Infact I know that there are, celulus (who actually found me a job) a similar company to parato were a much better option for me. They had none of this, it was just a simple one on one chat and interview about the reasons I wanted to work in sales.
A more grown up and old fashioned approach if you ask me. Pareto also get you to do a presentation which probably is a good way to asses you, but why bother with the other stuff? They end the day with a group exercise where you make an advert about some seemingly ridiculous invention in a group and then present it (in my case a bib for a kebab!!) The advert presentation HAS to involve singing and dancing!
You be the judge. Like I say I was selected but a girl who I met on the day was not. She seemed a confident and intelligent person but was not comfortable shouting over people and singing and dancing in front of 30 other people. I am still in touch with her and she is now a top biller at a leading head hunting firm.
It seems Pareto forget that great sales people do not have to be able to sing and dance in front of people and do ridiculous group puzzles. I think they must have lost out on so many good people because of the apparent faults in their assessment day. Sales roles do of course involve high levels of confidence and energy, but not singing and dancing and knowing about space!!
Just because someone does not shout over others and is not comfortable with singing and dancing infront of others certainly doesn't mean they are incapable of cold calling and persuading people to buy. Nor does it mean they are incapable of face to face meetings.
My advice would be to go somewhere where they will discuss your abilities and your reasons for your career choices one on one. Not silly politically correct exercises. However I think all theyseem to want to see is confidence and loudness, so if you have this use and abuse, but even if selected don't expect a job for a while. They told me I would be employed within 10 days or so. It took three weeks for them just to get in touch with their client vacancies in my case. If you live in london and are desperate go, as you never know, but I certainly wouldn't bother coming a long way. If you want to work for a big bluechip firm, I would advise to get onto them yourself. They do not want to pay Pareto a fee for you and will appreciate your enthusiasm in contacting them directly.