My first Assessment Centre experience was with the Civil Service, with whom I completed an internship last summer. As an employer, I have found that the organisation values teamwork – concessions are much more important than bulldozing others who may not agree with you. Taking some time to understand the values of the company that you are working for is crucial; how you may fit in with the ethos is how assessors decide whether or not to give you the job.
Preparation started off a few days before. I had planned by journey with time to spare, prepared some notes, snacks and my outfit and went over my materials. My materials included notes on how to build rapport during group work, getting my points across without being too assertive, how I would structure a short presentation to a superior and certain points I can make about my work experience in my CV.
The day started off by getting introduced to other candidates. In hindsight this was quite an important part of the day. Building rapport with people you will be working with throughout the day can benefit your group during the exercises.
Group Work
The first exercise was group work. My assessment centre was for the British Civil Service so the aim of the exercise was for everyone in the group, who each represented a government department, to come to a consensus about a specific policy issue. This time our task was to decide which town in the country would be the best to build a hospital in. I was a representative for the Department for Transport and the brief that I was given instructed me to argue for the case of building in a specific town because of its good transport links. However, this was in contention with the others who wanted to build on other towns based on the preference of their respective departments.
The assessor was in the corner writing down their observations so it was important to get involved in the conversation otherwise they would not have anything to give you marks for. Looking up at people; using their names; leaning in from time to time; being aware of time and taking note of those who haven’t said much and including them in the conversation all get you more marks – or so I have been told. If I could have advised myself one to do one thing at the beginning of the exercise, it would have been to set criteria for the group at the beginning of the task: how do the options give value for money; affect public perception; feasible timelines and projected profits for the town and its surrounding area. Questions like these allow the group to have a structure for discussion.
The most important thing here is for the group to come to a decision. Accepting that other’s suggested options might be a better solution than yours is guaranteed to give you a better mark than not acknowledging that at all.
Policy Recommendation Exercise
The second task tested me on my individual ability to write quickly and professionally. I was given the brief of writing a balanced assessment of two policy options that are being considered and then recommend which action should be taken. It took a whole hour for this to be completed so I was very tired afterwards and this was only the second task of the day! The key to the task is to write as early as possible. There was no time for drafting! Since there is only a limited amount of time the assessors don’t expect the highest quality of work, instead they are testing how well you can complete the task in the time you are given. Once again, finishing the task is always the goal so think of the level that a high quality piece of work should have and then halve that!
What I wore during the Assessment Centre. Dress for the position you want, not the one you have!
Leadership Exercise
After a lunch with the other candidates, it was time to for me to be tested on my leadership abilities. The task involved giving a presentation to the assessor about how I will go about leading my team during a project. I was told that giving a structure to the presentation helps not only the assessor understand what is going on but also gets you more marks for clarity and logic.
In hindsight, I should have started with our current accomplishments with the project. This sets the scene for the next point which is where my team and I could improve on in terms of budget and timescale. Next I should have gone through the strengths and weaknesses of my small team and how I shall go about using their assets to the project’s benefit and how I could solve issues that may arise based on their weaknesses.
Finally, I would have summarised how my changes will affect the momentum of the project and whether or not this affects the schedule. The key thing here is to use “I” instead of “we” as you are being tested on your own ability to lead.
Interview
The last part of the day included a one-to-one interview with an assessor. As preparation for this task I went through my CV and used it as a template for my answers to the competency-based questions. Competency-based questions generally ask for you to give examples of times when you have showed your initiative, when you have shown good time management or when you have improved on something. The framework for answering these questions in the S.T.A.R. step:
S: What the situation was,
T: What the task was that needed to be done
A: What your subsequent actions were
R: The results of your overall way of dealing with the situation.
Again, the more detailed you are in your examples, the better. The Careers team have really helped me out with this through their Interview Workshops.
Overall, the day was tough and robust preparation for the day was certainly necessary. If you have an assessment centre coming up, the very best of luck to you. Don’t forget to let us know how it went and give us some tips too!
Rylyn
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