The WTW (Willis Towers Watson) application process, explained

What each WTW stage actually is, why the HireVue step is video rather than games, the regional start dates WTW publishes, and where to practice recorded answers.

By the Game Assessment Prep research teamUpdated September 11, 2026How we research

The WTW (Willis Towers Watson) interview rounds at a glance

1Online application — One form on the WTW careers site, running on Oracle Recruiting Cloud. Everyone applies online, including students WTW meets at campus events. WTW asks you to apply to only one position per recruitment cycle.Dates by region
2HireVue recorded video interview — Step two of WTW’s published early-careers process: "Record a video interview. We use HireVue Assessments at WTW." One-way and recorded, not a live call, and not a game battery. New York City applicants get at least 10 days’ notice first, as city law requires.What the HireVue step is WTW interview questions
3Assessment center or interview ("Meet us") — Step three, and WTW says which one you get "depends on your location and the program you're applying for". UK reporting describes a virtual assessment center, sometimes part-attended in the office, with a group case presentation alongside individual interviews.
4Offer and onboarding — Step four: "If you're successful during step three, we may make you an offer. If you accept, we can start the onboarding process." A formal review and approval process precedes offers.
5Experienced hires: a different, "if required" route — WTW’s candidate-journey blog lists a recruiter conversation, then HireVue preliminary questions "(if required)", then a role-based assessment "(if required)" described as a skills test, business case or work samples, then a hiring-manager interview and a final interview. WTW stresses the process varies by role, team and location.

What games are in the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment?

There is nothing to practice here, and saying so is the point of this section. WTW names HireVue, but for a recorded video interview — every official description is a video product, and no source we could verify puts a game in WTW’s process. Prep sites that list named HireVue games for WTW are repeating a single uncited claim, and we are not going to send you to practice routes for an assessment WTW does not appear to run. Put that time into the video interview instead: our researched WTW question set is at /hirevue/questions/wtw, and recorded-answer practice is at /mock-interviews. If your invitation does name a game, that settles it and we would like to know.

Good to know: No games are listed here because none is evidenced. WTW’s own pages name HireVue for a video interview and nothing else; the "Shapedance and Numerosity" claim you may find elsewhere traces to one uncited prep site, and the WTW–Arctic Shores link that circulates is an investor listing, not a deployment. Your invitation email is the only document that tells you what you are actually sitting. If it names exercises we have not listed, practice those and treat this page as out of date.

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Who gets the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment?

WTW is one of the few employers that names its assessment vendor outright. The early-careers Application Process & FAQ page says "We use HireVue Assessments at WTW. As part of our objective review, it helps us consider which program might be appropriate for you and that we're providing you with a fair opportunity for success if you move forward." WTW’s own candidate-journey blog names it independently as "Step 2: (if required): Complete preliminary questions using HireVue video interview software."

Read those two sentences carefully, because they settle the question most candidates arrive with. Both describe a video product. HireVue sells a game-based cognitive battery as well as recorded video interviews, and plenty of prep pages assume that naming HireVue means games. For WTW, every official mention is video. We found no WTW page, no vendor case study, no press item and no readable first-hand candidate report describing any game at WTW.

Two claims circulate that this page deliberately does not repeat. The first is that WTW’s HireVue step includes named games — that traces to a single uncited prep site, which undercuts itself by selling a product whose own title names a completely different vendor. The second is that WTW uses Arctic Shores. The only WTW–Arctic Shores connection that exists anywhere is an investor listing naming "Towers Watson" among Arctic Shores’ backers. That is a funding relationship, the reverse of a deployment, and it is not evidence that WTW assesses anyone with Arctic Shores. If you were sent here expecting to practice games for WTW, the honest answer is that nothing supports it — prepare recorded answers instead.

Graduate Program

WTW’s main early-careers entry route, run across multiple regions with region-specific start dates. Business areas include Risk & Broking (including a non-rotational two-year Corporate Risk & Broking Graduate Development Program), Health, Wealth & Career (Employee Experience, Integrated & Global Solutions, Health & Benefits, Investments, Retirement, Work & Rewards), and Insurance Consulting and Technology. Actuarial analyst roles sit inside these business lines rather than forming a separate program. The North America page sets a 3.0 GPA requirement for US roles.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ; WTW North America Graduate Program

Internship Program

Offered in North America (May/June start), the UK (July to August) and the Philippines (year-round). WTW’s own guidance is that penultimate-year students should apply to the Internship Program and final-year students or recent graduates to the Graduate Program.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ

Apprenticeship Program — UK only

Explicitly UK-only, and WTW cannot provide visa sponsorship for it. Level 3 apprenticeships require a minimum of English and Maths at GCSE grade 4 or equivalent; the Level 4 Insurance Professional Apprenticeship requires a minimum of 3 A-Levels or equivalent; the Level 4 Actuarial Technician Apprenticeship requires at least a B grade in Maths or equivalent. Programs run from 12 months to five years depending on level, no prior work experience is required, and all apprentices start at the beginning of September each year.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ

Placement Program — Ireland only

Listed by WTW as an early-careers pathway available in Ireland only. WTW publishes no separate process for it, so assume the standard four-step early-careers route unless your invitation says otherwise.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ

One application per recruitment cycle

WTW asks candidates to apply to only one position per cycle: "Due to the large number of applications we receive, we encourage candidates to apply to only one position per recruitment cycle to avoid duplications at the interview stage." Candidates are also asked to apply to only one program per year. Decide the business area and location before you submit.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ

Visa sponsorship is not universal

WTW states: "We welcome applications from all candidates, but we don't accept visa sponsorship candidates for all roles — make sure you review the job description to check whether you're eligible." The UK apprenticeship route carries no sponsorship at all.

Official source

Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ

Experienced hires are a separate track

The Experienced Hires FAQ says only that "The number of interview stages varies by role, business area and location". It names no vendor, no test and no game. The candidate-journey blog is the fuller description, and it qualifies both the HireVue step and the role-based assessment with "(if required)".

Official source

Source: WTW Experienced Hires FAQs

How does the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment work?

HireVue is the platform, in WTW’s own words

Official source

The early-careers FAQ states: "We use HireVue Assessments at WTW. As part of our objective review, it helps us consider which program might be appropriate for you and that we're providing you with a fair opportunity for success if you move forward." This is an employer naming its vendor outright, which is rare enough to treat as settled fact.

Source: WTW Early Careers — Application Process & FAQ

The HireVue step is a video interview, not a game battery

Official source

WTW’s candidate-journey blog, published 5 May 2026, names the step as "Complete preliminary questions using HireVue video interview software", and the early-careers page words step two as "Record a video interview." Both official descriptions are unambiguously a video product. HireVue also sells game-based cognitive assessments, which is where the confusion starts, but WTW never describes one.

Source: WTW Careers — Your candidate journey at WTW

No game-based assessment is evidenced at WTW

No evidence found

We looked for one specifically. Arctic Shores appears nowhere in WTW’s early-careers FAQ or in the raw HTML of its candidate-journey blog. No vendor case study, press item or readable candidate report links WTW to Arctic Shores, pymetrics, Aon, Criteria, SHL or Cappfinity. The named-games claim traces to one uncited prep site whose own product title names a different vendor from its body text, and the descriptions that look like corroboration elsewhere are generic HireVue-battery copy rather than WTW-specific reporting. Voomer, a vendor blog that covers WTW’s HireVue step in detail and has every commercial incentive to claim games, mentions none.

Source: Targeted checks of WTW’s official pages plus vendor, press and prep sources, 11 September 2026

It is recorded and one-way, so there is nobody to read the room

Single source

You record answers alone against a clock rather than talking to an interviewer. Candidate-facing sources describe a handful of timed behavioral questions with roughly 30 to 60 seconds to prepare and about two minutes to record each answer, typically with no retakes. Those timings are prep-site and vendor-blog figures, not WTW’s, and the one vendor blog that gives them concedes they are generic HireVue platform information.

Source: Voomer — WTW HireVue interview questions (vendor blog)

Nobody agrees on how many questions there are

Single source

Reported counts run 2 to 5, 3 to 4, 5, 5 to 6 and 5 to 8 across different sources. None is WTW-sourced and they cannot all be right, so prepare for the format rather than a number: enough concise examples that you are not caught short if there are eight, and enough discipline that you do not ramble if there are three.

Source: Conflicting prep-site and vendor-blog counts reviewed 11 September 2026

New York City applicants get 10 days’ notice

Official source

WTW states: "We are required in line with New York City's law to provide at least 10 days' notice to applicants that may be requested to complete our video assessments as part of the selection process." If you are applying in NYC, the notice is your cue to start preparing rather than a deadline in itself.

Source: WTW Early Careers — Application Process & FAQ

For experienced hires, HireVue is conditional

Official source

The candidate-journey blog marks Step 2 "(if required)" and Step 3 "(if required)", and WTW adds that "Interview processes may vary by role, team and location." The unqualified "Record a video interview" wording appears only on the early-careers page. So a graduate or intern applicant should expect the video stage; an experienced hire may or may not get it.

Source: WTW Careers — Your candidate journey at WTW

A 2023 report of two UK online tests, which WTW does not mention

Single source

A UK careers-media article dated 21 June 2023, written with WTW recruiter input, reported that candidates meeting the initial criteria complete two online assessments before the video interview, "one relates to numerical, the other to cognitive ability". WTW’s current four-step process omits any online test entirely and names no test vendor. Three years on, the step may be retired, UK-only or program-specific. Treat it as unconfirmed, and do not build your preparation around it unless your invitation names it.

Source: TargetJobs — How to ace your application with WTW (dated 21 June 2023)

WTW asks you to sit it without AI help

Official source

The Experienced Hires FAQ states: "Assessments are designed to reflect your individual knowledge and abilities, so you should rely on your own understanding and only use AI tools where they are explicitly allowed." Practice beforehand however you like; record the real thing yourself.

Source: WTW Experienced Hires FAQs

The applicant tracking system is Oracle Recruiting Cloud

Official source

WTW runs applications through ORC. It is worth knowing only because it explains the look of the portal and the notification emails — it is not an assessment.

Source: WTW Careers — Your candidate journey at WTW

What happens in the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) hiring process?

Early careers: the four steps WTW publishes

This is WTW’s own numbered process for Graduate, Internship, Apprenticeship and Placement applicants.

1Apply online on the WTW careers site, even if you met WTW at a campus event — "Even if you attend a local school/college/University and we visit your campus, you will still need to submit your application through our careers site." Apply to one position per recruitment cycle.
2Record a video interview: "We use HireVue Assessments at WTW." One-way and timed, with short preparation before each answer. NYC applicants receive at least 10 days’ notice beforehand.
3Meet us: "Depending on your location and the program you're applying for, you'll be invited to an assessment center or an interview. Either way, it's your chance to meet our people, ask questions and showcase your skills."
4Offer and onboarding: "If you're successful during step three, we may make you an offer. If you accept, we can start the onboarding process." A formal review and approval process precedes offers.

Source: WTW Early Careers — Application Process & FAQ

Experienced hires: five steps, two of them conditional

WTW’s candidate-journey blog describes the general route for non-early-careers roles. Note how much of it is qualified.

1A conversation with a recruiter.
2Step 2, "(if required)": complete preliminary questions using HireVue video interview software.
3Step 3, "(if required)": a role-based assessment, which WTW describes as a "skills test, business case, work samples". No vendor is named for this, and it is not described as a game.
4An interview with the hiring manager.
5A final interview with team members and/or stakeholders. WTW’s caveat applies throughout: "Interview processes may vary by role, team and location", and the Experienced Hires FAQ adds that "The number of interview stages varies by role, business area and location."

Source: WTW Careers — Your candidate journey at WTW

What the HireVue video interview asks about

WTW publishes the shape of its questions rather than the questions themselves. Our researched set for WTW is at /hirevue/questions/wtw.

1Motivation: why WTW specifically, and why this program or practice area. WTW’s own advice is "You'll be asked about why you want the role, as well as your experience, skills and interests, so be ready to show how they make you a great fit for the role. The more specific your answers are, the better."
2Fit: how your background, experience and skills map onto the role you applied to.
3A difficult task or obstacle you faced, and how you addressed it.
4An achievement you are most proud of, and what you contributed to it.
5A time someone disagreed with your idea and how you brought them round, or a problem you worked through with a team member.
6What you value in your career, what motivates you, what unique skills you bring, and something about you that is not on your resume.
7Across everything, WTW says it looks for three things: your own point of view, a curious mind, and a proactive approach.

Source: WTW Early Careers — Application Process & FAQ; Voomer question set

The assessment center or final interview

Reported detail, not WTW’s own description beyond the "Meet us" wording. UK accounts are the fullest; other regions are unestablished.

1Competency and behavioral deep-dives, best answered with structured STAR-style examples.
2A group case exercise: a small group prepares and delivers a presentation. The visible signal is collaboration — building on other people’s contributions rather than talking over them.
3An individual case discussion anchored in WTW’s actual business lines: employee benefits design and cost reduction, retirement, insurance profitability, workforce questions and broader advisory scenarios, rather than generic strategy cases. Market sizing and market entry exercises also appear.
4For actuarial roles: the exam process — which exams you have passed, where you are in the sequence, and your qualification plan.
5Your own questions. WTW says explicitly: "We welcome curiosity, so ask plenty of questions."

Source: RoadToOffer — Willis Towers Watson interview guide (prep site)

Claims about WTW you will find elsewhere, and what to do with them

Three widely repeated claims do not survive checking. They are listed here so you can recognize them.

1"WTW uses an Arctic Shores game-based assessment." No. Arctic Shores appears nowhere on WTW’s process pages and no source evidences a deployment. The only link that exists is an investor listing naming "Towers Watson" among Arctic Shores' backers — a funding relationship, not a hiring assessment.
2"The WTW HireVue includes named games." One uncited prep site is the origin, and it sells a product whose title names a different vendor entirely from the one its body text describes. Other pages repeating the claim reproduce generic HireVue-battery copy, which is a copy chain rather than corroboration.
3"HireVue analyzes your facial expressions and body language." This is a prep site’s generic characterization, not a WTW statement, and HireVue publicly discontinued facial analysis in 2021. Do not let it change how you record — speak clearly and look at the camera because it is easier to follow, not because something is scoring your face.
4"WTW's deadline is [date]." WTW does not publish one centrally. Any specific date you find on an aggregator should be checked against the live posting.

Source: WTW Early Careers — Application Process & FAQ (the official process, which names none of the above)

When is the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment?

WTW publishes program start dates rather than application deadlines, and its stated policy is that timelines vary: "Timelines may vary from year to year and country to country, refer to the job descriptions for more information. We advise that you apply quickly." Everything below was checked on 11 September 2026 — work backward from your start date and treat the live posting as binding.

Cycle	Application dates	Likely assessment window	Evidence
North America — Graduate and Internship	Set per posting; not published centrally	HireVue video interview after application screening; NYC applicants get at least 10 days’ notice first	Official source WTW publishes a January Graduate Program start for North America and a May/June Internship start. US Graduate roles carry a 3.0 GPA requirement and cover US and Canada locations across Risk & Broking, Health, Wealth & Career, and Insurance Consulting and Technology. Source: WTW early careers FAQ; WTW North America Graduate Program
United Kingdom — Graduate, Internship and Apprenticeship	Set per posting; UK postings can be advertised separately by office and some close fast	HireVue video interview after screening, then a virtual assessment center for many programs	Official source WTW publishes a September Graduate start and a July to August Internship window. All UK apprentices start at the beginning of September each year. Candidate reports note that some UK actuarial postings are advertised office by office — Leeds, Manchester and others separately — with short windows, so a program being open nationally does not mean your office is. That office-by-office detail is anecdotal; the start dates are WTW’s own. Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ
Ireland — Placement Program	Set per posting	Not separately published; assume the standard early-careers route	Official source The Placement Program is listed by WTW as available in Ireland only. WTW publishes no Irish start date or separate process, so the four-step route and the live posting are what to work from. Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ
India, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines — start dates only	Set per posting	Unestablished outside the UK and North America	Official source WTW publishes Graduate starts of June in India and July in Singapore and Hong Kong, with no Internship Program in any of the three, and a year-round Internship Program in the Philippines with no Graduate Program. What WTW does not publish is the process in those regions. India and the Philippines host large delivery centers whose hiring volume and route may differ materially from the consulting graduate programs, and campus drives in India may run a separate sequence entirely. Do not assume the UK or North American shape applies. Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ (start dates); process unestablished
Application deadlines generally	Not published centrally — check the individual job description	Rolling	Official source WTW declines to publish a single deadline and advises applying quickly. Aggregator listings do circulate specific cycle dates, but the ones we found could not be verified against a reachable source, so treat any date that is not on the live WTW posting as unconfirmed. Because WTW asks for one application per recruitment cycle, applying early to the right role matters more than applying to several. Source: WTW early careers Application Process & FAQ
How long the whole process takes	n/a	n/a	Single source Aggregators restating Glassdoor data report roughly four weeks on average from first contact to decision for analyst-level roles, with the full process running about four to twelve weeks depending on office and role. These are aggregator restatements rather than figures we verified at source, so treat them as a rough shape, not a promise. Source: RoadToOffer, restating Glassdoor averages (prep site)

How to practice for the WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment

Prepare for a recorded video interview, not for games. That single decision is what this page is for: WTW names HireVue, HireVue sells both video interviews and a game battery, and everything WTW publishes points at video. Time spent drilling cognitive games is time not spent rehearsing the answers WTW will actually record.

The mechanics of a one-way interview are what catch people out, not the questions. You get a short preparation window, a fixed recording time, and usually no retake, so the answer you give is the first one you give. That rewards having your examples already chosen and roughly timed, and it punishes thinking out loud. Our researched WTW question set is at /hirevue/questions/wtw and recorded-answer practice is at /mock-interviews.

Step 1

Choose five examples before you open the link

An obstacle you overcame, an achievement you are proud of, a disagreement you resolved, a piece of teamwork, and something about you that is not on your resume. Those five cover most of what WTW’s video interview asks. Because reported question counts range from two to eight, having five ready means you are never inventing one on camera.

Step 2

Time each answer to about ninety seconds

Sources put the recording window at roughly two minutes, so a ninety-second answer leaves room without running out. Say the situation in one sentence, spend most of the time on what you did, and finish with the outcome. Practice out loud with a timer — written notes always read shorter than they speak.

Step 3

Make the motivation answer specific to WTW

WTW’s own advice is that "The more specific your answers are, the better." Name the business area you applied to — Risk & Broking, Health, Wealth & Career, or Insurance Consulting and Technology — and say something true about why that work rather than about the firm’s size. WTW says it looks for your own point of view, a curious mind, and a proactive approach; answer so each of those is visible somewhere.

Step 4

Do one full dress rehearsal on the real device

Quiet room, laptop, notifications off, camera at eye level, decent light on your face. Record one answer and watch it back once. You are checking that you are audible and that you stop when you have finished, not auditioning. Ignore advice about facial-expression scoring — HireVue discontinued facial analysis in 2021, and WTW has never claimed it.

Step 5

Prepare the assessment center separately

It is a different skill from a recorded interview. For the group case, practice building on other people’s points out loud rather than delivering a monologue — collaboration is the visible signal. For the individual case, read up on the business you applied to: benefits design and cost, retirement, insurance profitability, workforce questions. For actuarial roles, be ready to talk through the exam sequence and your plan. And bring questions; WTW says "We welcome curiosity, so ask plenty of questions."

Step 6

Spend your one application deliberately

WTW asks for one position per recruitment cycle and one program per year, so choose the business area and location before submitting. Check the job description for visa sponsorship, which WTW does not offer on every role and does not offer on UK apprenticeships at all.

Step 7

Record the real thing yourself

WTW states that assessments "are designed to reflect your individual knowledge and abilities, so you should rely on your own understanding and only use AI tools where they are explicitly allowed." Rehearse with whatever helps; sit the live interview alone.

Step 8

Let the invitation overrule this page

If your WTW invitation names an online test or a game, that is the current truth and this page is behind. Practice what it names, and tell us — we would rather correct the page than defend it.

Browse all practice games Read the HireVue assessment guide

WTW (Willis Towers Watson) assessment FAQ

Does WTW use HireVue?

Yes, and WTW says so itself. The early-careers FAQ states "We use HireVue Assessments at WTW", and the careers blog names it as "preliminary questions using HireVue video interview software". It is step two of the published four-step early-careers process. For experienced hires WTW marks it "(if required)", so it does not apply to every role.

Does the WTW HireVue assessment include games?

No WTW page says so, and we found no first-hand candidate report that does. Every official description is a video product: "Record a video interview" and "HireVue video interview software". HireVue does sell a game battery as well, which is where the confusion comes from, but the named-games claim for WTW traces back to a single uncited prep site. Prepare recorded answers, not games.

Does WTW use Arctic Shores?

We found no evidence that it does. Arctic Shores appears nowhere on WTW’s early-careers FAQ or candidate-journey blog, and no vendor case study, press item or candidate report links the two. The one connection that exists anywhere is an investor listing naming "Towers Watson" among Arctic Shores' backers — that is a funding relationship, which is the reverse of a deployment and tells you nothing about how WTW assesses candidates.

How many questions are in the WTW video interview?

WTW does not publish a number, and the sources that give one disagree: reports range from two to eight. Expect a handful of timed behavioral questions with roughly 30 to 60 seconds to prepare and about two minutes to record each, usually with no retakes. Prepare about five solid examples and you are covered either way.

Does WTW have an online numerical or cognitive test?

WTW’s current process pages do not mention one and name no test vendor. A UK careers-media article from June 2023 reported two online assessments, one numerical and one cognitive, before the video interview. That is three years old and absent from WTW’s own four-step process, so treat it as unconfirmed and possibly retired. If your invitation names a test, practice for the format it names.

What is the WTW assessment center like?

WTW says only that "Depending on your location and the program you're applying for, you'll be invited to an assessment center or an interview" — which of the two you get depends on your location and program. UK reporting describes a virtual assessment center, sometimes part-attended in the office, with a group case presentation plus individual competency interviews and, for actuarial roles, questions about your exam progress. Outside the UK and North America the format is unestablished.

When is the WTW application deadline?

WTW does not publish one centrally: "Timelines may vary from year to year and country to country, refer to the job descriptions for more information. We advise that you apply quickly." What WTW does publish is start dates — North America Graduate January and Internship May/June, UK Graduate September and Internship July to August with all apprentices starting in early September, India Graduate June, Singapore and Hong Kong Graduate July, Philippines internships year-round. Check the live posting for your closing date.

Can I apply to more than one WTW program?

WTW asks you not to: "we encourage candidates to apply to only one position per recruitment cycle to avoid duplications at the interview stage", and one program per year. Pick the business area and location first, and check the job description for visa sponsorship, which is not offered on every role.

Game Assessment Prep is independent and is not affiliated with WTW (Willis Towers Watson) or HireVue. Employer processes can change by program, role, country, and recruiting cycle. Follow your invitation over this guide. Claims were reviewed against the linked employer, vendor, and candidate sources in July 2026 and labeled by evidence strength. How we research and label claims.

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