Updated September 2026 · 11 min read · Swiss multinational food and beverage company
Most employers tell you nothing. Nestlé's early-careers assessment was rebuilt in 2022 with the assessment provider Cappfinity, and one of the design decisions was that candidates receive a report at each stage naming their top two strengths, areas to improve and development suggestions — whether or not they progress.
The redesign was shortlisted in the Candidate Experience category at the 2023 RAD Awards, and the published outcomes describe thousands of eligible applicants, nearly 100 offers after two selection stages, a higher candidate net promoter score than the previous campaign, and a significant increase in offers to under-represented groups.
That tells you something practical about how to approach the process. This is a strengths-based assessment, not a classical ability-first battery. It is asking what energises you and where you naturally perform, not only what you have done. Candidates who prepare for it as though it were a numerical-reasoning gauntlet prepare for the wrong thing — and then miss the fact that the group activity and the strengths interview are where the decisions actually get made.
Nestlé UK publishes six stages for the Nestlé Academy, in its own names.
Two hard dates are published: applications open 2 November, and assessment centres run January 2027 to May 2027. There is one application per recruitment cycle.
The Academy covers three routes — Apprenticeships, Placements and Graduate Schemes. Apprenticeships run at Level 3 in Engineering, Operations and SHE, at Level 4, and at Level 6 degree level in Digital Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Confectionery/Packaging. Entry requirements include non-time-limited UK right to work without sponsorship, 3 years UK residency before the start date, GCSE Maths and English at grades 9–4 or A*–C, and either 104 or 120 UCAS points depending on programme.
For experienced hires, Nestlé publishes a different and lighter four-stage process: Application through its global eRecruiting system, Selection — CV and background analysis followed by "a series of individual interviews with Human Resources team – either by phone, on-line or face-to-face" and then a line manager interview — Job offer, generally around two months from application, and Induction.
Crucially, Nestlé states that the Assessment Centre applies to graduate programmes only. Experienced hiring at Nestlé is interview-led with no standard psychometric battery. If you are an experienced applicant reading guides about Nestlé's online tests, most of it does not apply to you.
Nestlé's online tests stage uses six item formats, which it lists directly: ranking options from least to most likely, multiple choice, scale ratings, sorting into categories, written responses, and video recordings.
That mix is characteristic of strengths-based assessment. Ranking and scale items probe preference and energy rather than correctness. Sorting items probe how you categorise. Written and video responses give assessors language and delivery. There is often no answer that is right in the way a numerical item is right.
The provider's award submission adds a middle stage that Nestlé's own page does not name explicitly: a Job Simulation in which candidates work through a hypothetical project built on identified behavioural competencies, visually branded to Nestlé. The digital assessment itself was built using personas tied to Nestlé's "Force for Good" campaign.
That is unusual and worth pausing on: the marketing campaign is the assessment content. The personas you encounter and the assessment-centre challenges are themed to a live Nestlé brand platform. Knowing the campaign exists is genuinely useful context walking in.
At the Assessment Centre, Nestlé names two components: an individual strengths interview and a group activity.
A strengths interview differs from a competency interview in a way that changes your preparation. A competency interview asks tell me about a time you led a team. A strengths interview asks what part of that did you enjoy most, and why — and then follows the energy. Rehearsed competency answers tend to sound flat in a strengths interview because the interviewer is probing for authenticity of enthusiasm rather than completeness of narrative.
Cappfinity — confirmed, by two independent routes. This is a stronger attribution than most employers permit.
First, Nestlé UK's own application-process page directs candidates to a preparation hub, and that hub is branded the Cappfinity Preparation Hub and states it is "Powered by Cappfinity." Nestlé pointing candidates at the provider's own prep platform is effectively an acknowledgement.
Second, the 2023 RAD Awards entry documents the work explicitly as "Nestlé Academy with Cappfinity," describing the three-stage redesign — Digital Assessment, Job Simulation, Virtual Assessment Centre — carried out in 2022.
HireVue — conflicting. A Marketing Graduate Scheme candidate on Glassdoor in March 2024 named HireVue for a 4-to-6-question video interview. But Cappfinity's own platform includes video-response items, and Nestlé's official page places video recordings inside its own "online tests" stage. Both accounts may be describing the same thing under different names. Unresolved.
Taleo is Nestlé's applicant tracking system, referenced through its global eRecruiting solution. It is an ATS, not an assessment.
Not verified for Nestlé at any stage: SHL, Aon/cut-e, Arctic Shores, Sova, Talent Q, Pymetrics, Korn Ferry, Thomas International, Saville, Test Partnership.
Nestlé shows the widest regional variation of any employer in this series, and treating a UK guide as globally applicable will mislead you.
UK — Nestlé Academy. Fully structured: six named stages, Cappfinity strengths battery, in-person assessment centre, fixed November-to-May cycle.
Global standard process. Interview-led. CV and background analysis, HR interviews, line manager interview. Assessment centre for graduate programmes only. Around two months to offer.
Australia. A candidate in Sydney in July 2024 described automated psychometric testing covering logical reasoning, numerical reasoning and personality, all timed — which directly contradicts the UK strengths-first model.
Singapore. A candidate in July 2025 reported a video interview first, with 3 questions, 30 seconds to think and 2 minutes to respond to each.
Hong Kong. A candidate in February 2025 described a many-to-many panel lasting 2 hours, including a self-introduction, a randomly drawn envelope question, a case study and a group marketing-plan presentation.
Germany. A candidate in December 2024 reported a recruiter phone screen, an online interview with a team leader, and an in-person interview with the CFO that included an English language assessment.
Portugal. A candidate in Lisbon in January 2024 described CV screening, a phone call, a non-technical group dynamic to assess teamwork, and a motivation interview with the hiring manager and HR.
United States. Runs separately branded development programmes rather than the Academy structure.
The practical implication: find out which country's process you are entering before you prepare, and weight guidance accordingly.
Nestlé publishes the formats of its online tests but no sample items, and reproducing Cappfinity content would breach copyright. What follows are original practice questions matching the formats Nestlé lists. They are not Nestlé questions.
Ranking practice — least to most likely.
You are three weeks into a placement. A supplier emails to say a delivery scheduled for tomorrow will now arrive in four days, which affects a production run your team has planned.
Rank these from least to most like you:
There is no universally correct ranking. Strengths instruments look for consistency across many such items, and trying to guess the employer's preferred profile across dozens of them tends to produce an incoherent overall pattern.
Sorting practice.
Sort these activities into "energises me," "neutral," and "drains me": analysing a dataset to find an anomaly; presenting a recommendation to people more senior than you; writing up a process so someone else can follow it; chairing a meeting where people disagree; working alone for a full day on one problem.
Do it honestly and quickly. Then, separately, look at your answers and ask what role they actually describe. That is the reflection a strengths interview will ask you to do out loud.
Written-response practice.
Describe something you started that nobody asked you to start. What made you begin it, and what happened?
Keep it under 200 words. Strengths assessment rewards specificity about motivation, so the sentence explaining why you began is doing more work than the sentence describing the outcome.
Video-response practice.
Record yourself answering in 2 minutes: What is a piece of work you were genuinely proud of, and what part of it did you enjoy most? Then watch it back and check whether you answered the second half of the question. Most candidates answer only the first.
Group-activity practice.
The assessment centre includes a group activity. Practise two behaviours that assessors consistently reward: bringing in someone who has not spoken, and summarising where the group has got to before time runs out. Both are visible, both are useful, and neither requires you to dominate.
Candidate accounts of Nestlé cluster around two themes: the strengths format surprising people who prepared for aptitude tests, and the process being long.
On Glassdoor in March 2025, a Marketing Graduate Scheme candidate in London described "a virtual assessment centre as the final stage" with a strengths-based interview and a case study to "work through" with follow-up questions. Note this conflicts with Nestlé's official page, which describes the assessment centre as in person — one more reason to treat your invitation as the authority over any guide.
A Marketing Graduate Scheme candidate in March 2024 described a HireVue video interview of 4 to 6 questions, including "tell me a challenge you faced and how did you overcome it."
A graduate candidate in November 2023 described "an application form then there's an online assessment," with questions on "situations that could happen on a day to day basis" and "how do you deal with challenges at work" — consistent with a strengths and situational battery rather than an ability test.
A graduate candidate in Sydney in July 2024 reported something quite different: timed logical reasoning, numerical reasoning and personality testing, with item types like "choose the shape that completes the puzzle."
A graduate trainee in Lausanne in September 2024 described a phone screen, video interview and group assessment, and characterised it as "executed very smoothly," with interviewers who were "inclusive and nice."
Glassdoor's aggregate puts Nestlé's Graduate Trainee process at around 180 days from application to decision — considerably longer than comparable schemes, and worth planning around if you are holding other offers.
After the online tests, you receive a feedback report naming your top two strengths, improvement areas and development suggestions. This happens at each stage regardless of outcome, which is rare enough to be worth using: even an unsuccessful application leaves you with a usable read on how a professional instrument scored you.
After the assessment centre, offers follow. Nestlé publishes no decision SLA for the Academy, though the global process page gives around two months from application to offer for standard hiring.
Context worth having: in October 2025, Nestlé announced 16,000 job cuts under new CEO Philipp Navratil — 12,000 corporate roles and 4,000 in manufacturing and supply chain, around 6% of a workforce of roughly 277,000, over two years, targeting $3.8bn of savings by the end of 2027. No source links those cuts to early-careers intake, and the UK Academy cycle is still advertised with assessment centres scheduled through May 2027. But if you are asked about the business at interview, knowing the company is mid-restructuring is better than not knowing.
Establish which country's process you are in. The UK Academy and the global standard process are materially different, and candidate reports from Australia describe timed reasoning tests the UK model does not include.
Use the preparation hub Nestlé points you to. Its own application page links to the Cappfinity Preparation Hub. That is the provider's own material, and it is the closest thing to seeing the real format.
Prepare for strengths, not competencies. Work out honestly what energises you and what drains you, with real examples attached. A strengths interviewer will follow your enthusiasm, and rehearsed competency answers sound flat under that kind of probing.
Answer the online tests quickly and consistently. Ranking, scale and sorting items are designed to detect inconsistency across many responses. Trying to construct an ideal profile item by item tends to produce a pattern that reads as incoherent.
Practise on camera. Video responses are one of the six item formats Nestlé lists. Record, watch back, and check for pace and for whether you answered the whole question.
Prepare for the group activity specifically. It is one of only two named assessment-centre components. Practise contributing substantively without dominating, and practise summarising.
Read the feedback report if you get one. Whether or not you progress, it names your assessed strengths. That is free, professionally generated information about how you present, and most employers never give it.
Note the eligibility gates early. UK apprenticeships require non-time-limited right to work without sponsorship, 3 years UK residency before the start date, GCSE Maths and English at 9–4 or A*–C, and 104 or 120 UCAS points depending on programme. Check these before investing preparation time.
Six for the UK Nestlé Academy: find your role and apply, eligibility questionnaire, application form, online tests, assessment centre, and offer. Experienced hires follow a shorter four-stage process without the assessment centre.
Applications open on 2 November, with assessment centres running from January 2027 to May 2027. You may make one application per recruitment cycle.
Cappfinity. Nestlé's own application-process page links candidates to a preparation hub branded "Powered by Cappfinity," and the 2023 RAD Awards documented the Nestlé Academy assessment redesign as a Nestlé and Cappfinity project.
Nestlé lists six: ranking from least to most likely, multiple choice, scale ratings, sorting into categories, written responses and video recordings.
Yes. The assessment redesign includes a feedback report at each stage naming your top two strengths, areas to improve and development suggestions, regardless of outcome.
An interview that probes what energises you and where you naturally perform, rather than only what you have done. Nestlé names an individual strengths interview as one of two assessment-centre components, alongside a group activity.
Generally no. Nestlé states that the Assessment Centre applies to graduate programmes only, and its standard process for other roles is interview-led with no published psychometric battery.
Nestlé's UK page says in person at Nestlé sites. A London candidate in March 2025 reported a virtual assessment centre, so treat your own invitation as authoritative.
Unclear. One candidate named HireVue for a video interview, but Cappfinity's platform includes video-response items and Nestlé places video recordings inside its own online tests stage. The two accounts may describe the same stage.
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