Hiring Sales and Marketing Graduates in FMCG: What to Assess Beyond a Polished Application

Hiring sales and marketing graduates is mostly a bet on potential. A graduate has little commercial history, so you are reading a CV, a cover letter and a transcript, and all three are easy to polish. A confident application shows that someone can write well, or has good help. It does not show how they behave across a table from a sceptical buyer, or whether they can turn messy numbers into a clear recommendation. Live tasks are harder to fake, and this guide sets out three you can run.

Key Takeaways

• Commercial graduate work is about customers and retailers, so test behaviour in front of a customer as well as writing on a page.
• A customer role-play, a one-page brief and a group case together show far more than a polished application does.
• Score what you can observe against written criteria, and give no credit for fluency alone.
• Ask for the specific results behind any society role or part-time sales job, then check them with a referee.

What the job involves, in employers' own words

What you test should follow what the work really is, and employers publish plenty of detail. According to Mars Australia's graduate page, its Sales and Marketing stream is about understanding what consumers want and building strong partnerships with retailers. Sales graduates work closely with customers and retailers so products are visible, available and driving growth in stores. In marketing, the page says you could work on brand campaigns, social media, new product launches and consumer insights. The same page says applications will reopen in 2027 for the 2028 program, so use it as a model for role descriptions, not as a live intake.

P&G describes a different set-up. According to P&G's sales graduate page, a graduate becomes a Business Development Manager selling products to stores, with a company car, relying on negotiation and communication skills. The page also says P&G offers no rotations and gives graduates accountability from day one. A role with that much early independence needs someone who can handle a customer alone.

The sales stream described on Asahi Beverages' graduate page covers customers from pubs, clubs and restaurants to supermarkets and liquor stores, and says graduates head out to meet them rather than sit behind a desk. That page shows "Applications closed" today.

Three live tasks that are hard to fake

Mondelez publishes the shape of its own selection. According to Mondelez's early careers page, applicants send a CV, cover letter and transcript, complete an online assessment and a video interview, then attend an assessment centre with a group case study, a presentation and an interview with hiring managers. You can borrow the idea at small scale with three tasks, each with a scoring sheet.

A short customer role-play

Ask a colleague to play a buyer, such as the manager of a regional supermarket with little shelf space. Give the candidate a one-page product fact sheet 20 minutes ahead, so you are not testing knowledge they could not have. This graduate sales role-play exercise runs about 15 minutes. Score each point from one to four, with a sentence describing what a three looks like:

• Questions asked before pitching, rather than a rehearsed speech.
• Response to a first "no", whether curious or defensive.
• A clear ask or next step at the end.
• Honesty about what they do not know, instead of a bluff.

Ignore smoothness on its own. A fluent talker who never asks the buyer anything has given you a performance, not selling. For a fuller guide to designing and scoring simulated sales conversations, see this piece on sales simulation assessments.

A one-page brief or case

For sales candidates, hand over a small invented data sheet: four brands in one category, sales by month, and a note that a retailer is reviewing its range. Allow about 45 minutes and ask for one page to the retailer with a recommendation, a reason from the numbers and one risk. For a marketing graduate case study assessment, use a new flavour launch: choose the audience, one message, where it appears and how success would be measured. Score whether the recommendation follows from the facts, whether priorities are clear and whether the writing is plain.

Software can draft a written task, so finish with five minutes of questions. Someone who did the thinking can defend it, while someone who pasted a draft often struggles.

A group case with a short presentation

This is the Mondelez format scaled down. Put four or five candidates on one problem, such as a retailer asking for a larger promotion budget, give them 30 minutes and ask for a five-minute presentation, which with briefing and scoring takes about 75 minutes in all. Observers score each person on whether they build on others' points, return to the evidence and handle disagreement. Do not score talking time, because the loudest voice is not the best commercial instinct. Mondelez's page says it welcomes requests for reasonable adjustments at any stage, so offer the same, such as an individual version of the group task.

Some teams add an online screen before the live tasks. One option is Righteo's AI skills assessment, which its product page describes as a choice of pre-built assessments or your own build, sent to several candidates at once by email and SMS, with an auto-generated report. Treat it as a first filter. The live tasks still decide.

Verifying what the application claims

Graduate applications lean on society roles, part-time sales jobs and volunteering. They are real experience, but the wording can be generous. Ask for the target, the candidate's own part, what changed because of them and who could confirm it. A follow-up ladder of context, specifics and consequences works well, and this article on spotting coached interview answers sets out the technique.

AI-written graduate applications are a fair worry, but you do not have to prove who wrote a document. Give the live tasks more weight than the cover letter. Then confirm with a referee: for a graduate that is often a part-time manager, a placement supervisor or a society president. Ask each the same two or three questions about reliability, results and handling pressure. A separate article on placement supervisor reference checks for graduates covers this in more detail.

Scoring fairly: same questions, two scorers

Fairness comes from repeating the same process for everyone. Give every candidate the same role-play, data sheet and follow-up questions. Write your commercial graduate selection criteria, including what a one, two, three and four look like, before the first candidate arrives. Have two people score each task alone, then compare and settle differences on evidence. Score the content of an answer, not accent or delivery style.

Written criteria also protect you from charm. Rapport is pleasant but it is not commercial judgement, and the case for scoring skills over fit is made in this comparison of culture fit and skill assessment. For the skills underneath these tasks, such as communication and teamwork, see this guide to how to evaluate graduate soft skills.

Related Resources

• AI skills assessments for candidates
• Telling real stories from coached ones
• Culture fit versus skill assessment
• Evaluating graduate soft skills
• Sales simulation assessments
• Mondelez ANZ early careers program
• Mars Australia graduate program

Common Questions About Hiring Sales and Marketing Graduates

1. How long do the live tasks take for each candidate?

Plan about 15 minutes per candidate for the role-play, 45 minutes for the one-page brief, and around 75 minutes for a group case that runs with four or five people at once. Few teams run all three at the first stage. Use the role-play and brief for a longer shortlist, and keep the group session, like the assessment centre Mondelez describes, for people who have cleared earlier steps.

2. Do I need a group exercise to assess graduate sales candidates?

No. A group case shows how someone works with others, but the role-play and brief already show listening, judgement and plain writing. If your intake is two or three people, replace the group task with a second role-play where the candidate pitches to a different type of buyer. Score it on the same criteria.

3. Can marketing graduates with no brand experience take a case study?

Yes, because the case should not depend on brand experience. Give the facts: a product, an audience, a budget limit and two channels. Ask for one choice, the reason and a measure of success. A student who has run a society campaign or worked in a shop can draw on that, and you see their reasoning instead of their job titles.

4. What if an application reads better than the candidate performs live?

Trust the live work. Give the role-play, brief and group case more weight than the cover letter, and ask follow-up questions on anything in the application that sounds impressive. If the person can explain the detail in their own words, the polish matters less. If they cannot, you have learned what you needed to know.

Test the work, not the polish

Hiring sales and marketing graduates well means testing what the job looks like in practice: customers, retailers, numbers and ideas that must hold up in front of a buyer. Mars, P&G and Asahi publish how they describe the work, and Mondelez publishes its assessment centre format, which is enough to tie your tasks to the real job. Keep it fair with written criteria and two scorers, and treat the application as a starting point, not the verdict. This week, write the four scoring lines for a role-play and run it with two colleagues before you use it on a real candidate.