Month |
Graduate |
Summer |
Reserve Bank |
Maori & Pacific Islands Scholarship |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jan |
Applications open |
Applications open |
Applications open |
Applications open |
Feb |
Successful candidates from previous year begin work |
Interns from last year finish mid Feb |
Interviews held at the Reserve Bank |
|
Mar |
Reserve Bank coffee visits at universities |
Reserve Bank coffee visits at universities |
Applications close |
Applications close |
Apr |
Second interviews at Reserve Bank Candidates advised of outcome of first interview |
Candidates advised of outcome of application |
|
Candidates advised of outcome * |
May |
Positions offered one to two weeks after interviews |
Positions offered one to two weeks after interview |
|
|
Nov |
|
Successful candidates begin work at the Reserve Bank |
Successful candidates invited to the Reserve Bank for the OCR media conference |
Successful candidates invited to the Reserve Bank for the OCR media conference |
*The Maori & Pacific Islands scholarship candidates do not complete interviews.
The first interviews are held at the University of Auckland, University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Canterbury and University of Otago campuses. You will have your interview in a private room with two people from the Reserve Bank, who will spend about 30-40 minutes asking a variety of economic, banking and finance questions.
Massey Albany students are invited to attend the interviews at the University of Auckland.
Massey Wellington students are invited to attend the interviews at the Reserve Bank.
Massey Palmerston North students are invited to come to the Reserve Bank in Wellington.
Lincoln University students are invited to attend the interviews at the University of Canterbury.
If you’re a shortlisted candidate, you will be invited to the Reserve Bank for a half day where you will be involved in a general interview, technical interview, and written exercise, which are each around 40 minutes long.
You will spend 40 minutes with a past Reserve Bank graduate (grad buddy) and you have the chance to ask questions, have a look around the Reserve Bank or just sit down for a coffee. Your grad buddy has been through this process before, and knows how you’re feeling. This part of the half day interviews does not impact on the interviews or our decisions, so you can relax at this point!
There is also a lunch with the other candidates, your grad buddy, and managers from around Reserve Bank. If the Governor has a spare moment in his busy schedule, he likes to come along and have a personal chat with you during lunch.
The Reserve Bank pays for your flights, accommodation and taxi fares if these are necessary, so there is no hardship on your pocket.
We’ll send you an itinerary for your half day before you arrive for your interviews, so you’ll know what to expect.
The scholarship interviews are the same as the second interview for graduate candidates (see above). The top performing candidates receive a $10,000 scholarship and graduate position.
The number of positions offered for the graduate and summer programmes differ each year, depending on a variety of factors. Usually the Reserve Bank offers between 4-8 graduate positions and 6-10 summer positions.
The number of positions offered for the Reserve Bank scholarship is usually 2-3 positions and 1-2 Maori & Pacific Islands scholarships.
If you are coming to the Reserve Bank for an interview, then a good guide for men is dress pants, blazer and a tidy shirt. It is up to you whether you want to wear a tie. For women a smart dress, dress pants or skirt with a tidy top or shirt is appropriate.
If you are having an interview at your university campus, we understand you’ll probably be in lectures that day, so you are welcome to come along wearing more casual clothes.
We aim to get back to you as soon as possible, however, we want to make sure that we have made the right decisions and can provide you with useful feedback. After we interview all candidates, a group of us get together for an in-depth discussion about how it all went. The first campus interviews can take over a week to complete, and we can’t make any decisions until we have interviewed everyone.
If you are applying for a graduate position or a Reserve Bank scholarship, we look at each candidate’s performance in the general and technical interview, and in the written exercise. We also have to consider which area(s) of the Reserve Bank each candidate has the skills for and, of course, the area that candidates would enjoy working in. From here we complete reference checks. We will let you know the outcome, immediately after this is complete.