Assessment centres
The assessment centre is a recruiter’s first chance to meet you in person and see you in action. It gives them the chance to see what you can do, rather than what you say you can do!
Although the thought of a prolonged assessment can be quite intimidating, the atmosphere is often fun and friendly. Assessment Centres usually last one or two days, and might be held in employers' offices, in hotels or convention centres. They can include a number of different elements, but the main activities that you will be assessed on are tests and exercises designed to encourage you to perform to your best and reveal your potential. Similar to other parts of the application process, selectors measure you against a set of competencies, with each exercise designed to assess one or more of these competencies.
An assessment centre will often be made up of multiple tasks, exercises or meetings. These vary from company to company but a few of the fairly common ones are detailed below:
- Social/informal meeting events - where you could meet a variety of people, including other internship candidates, the assessors, recent graduates and senior management. This is a great chance to start to understand the organisation culture and type of people working there, and to ask questions in a more casual setting. This time is informal and usually not part of the assessment process, but obviously bear in mind how you come across and that you will have to be at your best if you have assessment the next day.
- Information sessions and Q&A - the assessment centre is often the time that you learn most about the company and the internship that you are applying for. This is a great chance to ask any questions that you have regarding the company or the application process.
- Inbox exercise - these are designed to simulate a business situation, during which you are given an electronic inbox full of emails containing company memos, telephone and fax messages, reports and correspondence. You will also be briefed with information about the structure of the organisation and your place within it. You will be asked to take decisions: prioritise your workload; draft replies; delegate tasks and recommend action to superiors. The exercise is designed to test you prioritisation skills and to see how you handle complex information within a limited time. You may be asked later to discuss or justify certain decisions.
- Group exercises with general role - discussions usually held with other candidates, with participants given a topic and asked to come up with an agreed consensus. The assessors are not necessarily looking for the group to come up with the 'correct' answer, but are in fact looking at how you contribute to the discussion and analyse the views of others. Your ability to work in a team and involve quieter members will also be under scrutiny. Don't dominate conversations, and try to have a set structure to the conversation. Always try and assign someone to take notes and someone to watch the time.
- • Group exercises with a set role - this is where each candidate is given a role, and provided with unique information and an objective for them to achieve from the conversation. The information that a candidate receives may be in contradiction with information that other candidates receive, in an attempt to provoke debate. Assessors will be looking for similar traits to the general role group exercise, but also at how you handle conflict, your influencing and communication skills, and how well you explore and analyse the information that others have.
- Team task - there are many tasks that you could be asked to perform as a team - from working through written exercises, analysing situation to building bridges from which to suspend an egg. Regardless of the format, these exercises are often in place to test team working skills and the role that you best fit within a team.
- Role play - a role play is the best way of simulating a typical work situation. They are not designed to test how good an actor you are - but instead are trying to recreate a day to day challenge to see how you react. You will be given a situation, and asked to go about dealing with it as you would if you were in that role. Always be aware of the specifics of role that you have been asked to play - and ensure that you use all of the information that you are given.
- Psychometric tests - this could be in addition to your first psychometric test or could be the first one that you complete. If it is the first then there are good tips on the psychometric test area of this site. If it is the second test, then it will often be to ensure that you are the person who filled out the first test if this was done outside of exam conditions!
- Personality tests - these are designed to test your personality characteristics and often require answering a large number of questions, with your responses then analysed through a matrix system to look for trends in your answers. This is nothing to worry about, and the best thing to do is to answer truthfully rather than to second guess the type of personality a company are looking for!
- Interview - some companies merge their assessment centres with an interview, and some will hold the interview as a separate next stage. There is specific information about interviewing on other parts of this site, but be aware that this could be part of the assessment centre. In this sense the assessment centre could represent the final round of selection!
Getting through the day
Having to complete so many exercises in one day can be stressful. Part of the assessment is seeing how you’re able to move between tests and situations as you’d have to in the workplace. During the day, you may think an exercise has gone badly - each one is designed to test you and is supposed to be tough. A perceived poor performance may in fact have seen you demonstrate the competencies that the assessors were looking for.
The thought of being under prolonged scrutiny from assessors can be daunting. The assessors are usually made up of HR staff or actual business managers. For each exercise that you complete they are tasked with giving you a score in each competency that is being assessed. These scores are then collated by the assessors once the assessment centre is over.
Tips for succeeding at your Assessment Centre
- Make sure you prepare by going over your CV or application form. The information that you gave may be re-visited at the assessment centre
- Have a clear understanding of your agenda for the day. With so many exercise taking place then it helps to know which rooms you have to be in and when your breaks are.
- If you perform badly in one exercise, don’t dwell on it, try to stay focused on the next test.
- Try not to focus on the assessors, too many people get put off by trying to gauge they’re reaction or by trying to read their notes.
Post Assessment Centre
At the end of the assessment centre, you will often be told the timeline for when you will find out if you have been successful.
Even if you are unsuccessful, the assessment centre can be an invaluable tool in helping you to understand your strengths and weaknesses as well as your on-the-day performance. Regardless of the outcome, There will usually be an option to receive constructive feedback after the assessment centre. This feedback can extremely useful and could be the key to your success next time!
Related Articles
