nick18_in
Nikhil Gadodia
Increasingly organisations worldwide are resorting to assessment centre based type of recruitment practices. It helps better selection, better fitment and certainly brings in a very professional approach to understand the likely behaviour and attitude of candidates.
Behaviour Interviews
You are still likely to encounter either a one-to-one or panel interview at assessment centres. These are likely to probe any weaker areas that may have emerged at a first interview. Interviews at this stage are likely to be more in-depth than those you experienced during the first stages of selection and could be with someone from the department/division to which you are applying or even with a potential future colleague. Questions may refer back to your first interview, to assessment centre activities or to aptitude test results. You should be prepared to be challenged on your answers but keep calm, consider your answers and avoid being defensive. You may be asked many of the same questions that you were asked at the first round. Treat this subsequent discussion independently – don’t assume that your interviewer is familiar with the answers you gave at an earlier stage.
Psychometric/ aptitude tests
Aptitude tests
These are timed tests, taken under exam conditions, designed to measure your intellectual capacity for thinking and reasoning, particularly your logical/analytical ability. Increasingly, organisations are using these tests at a much earlier stage in the selection process and you may not be tested at the assessment centre itself. The tests are designed for specific roles and are meant to be challenging but you won’t be expected to have prior knowledge or experience of the role for which you are applying. Accuracy is more important than speed. Most tests are of multiple choice type and designed so that very few candidates both finish and get the correct answers. Sample questions may arrive with your letter of invitation.
Whatever your prior test experience:
These assess your personality and how you might react in different situations. They are not usually timed, have no right or wrong answers and are often used to see if you would fit into the company culture and can identify a working situation that would suit you. You cannot practise for these tests but you should answer honestly and avoid trying to second-guess ‘correct’ answers.
Case studies
In these exercises, you are given a set of papers relating to a particular situation and asked to make recommendations in a brief report. The subject matter itself may not be important; you are being tested on your ability to analyse information, to think clearly and logically, to exercise your judgement and to express yourself on paper.
"The exercise was very time-pressured and I made the mistake of reading all the information given before starting to write anything down. I got the impression that not all the information was supposed to be relevant and that they were testing our ability to sift through written material to extract the most important things."
In-tray exercises
These are business simulation exercises in which you are given a heaped in-tray or electronic in-box, full of e-mails, company memos, telephone and fax messages, reports and correspondence, together with information about the structure of the organisation and your place within it. You are expected to take decisions: prioritise your workload; draft replies; delegate tasks; recommend action to superiors; and so on. Designed to test how you handle complex information within a limited time, the exercise allows you to demonstrate your organisational and planning skills. Some employers also want to know why you have made certain decisions and may ask you to annotate items in the tray or discuss your decisions later.
Giving presentations
Some employers will ask you to prepare a short talk for presentation to other candidates and/or the selectors. You may be asked to bring a prepared presentation to the assessment centre but usually it must be produced on the day. You could be given a topic for discussion or have completely free choice; it can be worthwhile to have a brief presentation on a familiar subject already prepared. Either way, avoid talking about anything too commonplace or technical and remember that you could be asked supplementary questions so it needs to be a subject on which you have further information to hand. The subject matter is not necessarily important – the organisation wants to know that you can structure and communicate information effectively.
Take note of the following advice:
Group activities
Most graduate jobs involve working with other people and most assessment centres involve a substantial element of group work. Whether you have to complete a practical task or take part in a discussion, the selectors are looking for your ability to interact with other people. Remember that good team working is not always about getting your ideas taken forward but listening to, and using, the ideas of others too.
Here are a few tips:
Practical tasks
You may be asked as a group to use equipment or materials to make something (how to move a golf ball from one table to another using a paper clip and pipe cleaner, for example). The selectors are more interested in how the group interacts than in the quality of the finished product. They will also be assessing your planning and problem-solving skills and the creativity of your individual ideas. As with any group activity, get involved (however silly you consider the task to be).
Discussions and role plays
You may be asked to take part in a leaderless group discussion or in a role-playing exercise where you are given a briefing pack and asked to play a particular part. The assessors are looking for your individual contribution to the team, as well as your verbal communication and planning skills.
"Everyone was given a different company to represent, all of which wanted money from a central charity fund. We had to hold a board meeting to decide who was worthwhile in the area (we were given some information about this), who met the criteria and how much to give everyone."
Source :: Unknown.
Behaviour Interviews
You are still likely to encounter either a one-to-one or panel interview at assessment centres. These are likely to probe any weaker areas that may have emerged at a first interview. Interviews at this stage are likely to be more in-depth than those you experienced during the first stages of selection and could be with someone from the department/division to which you are applying or even with a potential future colleague. Questions may refer back to your first interview, to assessment centre activities or to aptitude test results. You should be prepared to be challenged on your answers but keep calm, consider your answers and avoid being defensive. You may be asked many of the same questions that you were asked at the first round. Treat this subsequent discussion independently – don’t assume that your interviewer is familiar with the answers you gave at an earlier stage.
Psychometric/ aptitude tests
Aptitude tests
These are timed tests, taken under exam conditions, designed to measure your intellectual capacity for thinking and reasoning, particularly your logical/analytical ability. Increasingly, organisations are using these tests at a much earlier stage in the selection process and you may not be tested at the assessment centre itself. The tests are designed for specific roles and are meant to be challenging but you won’t be expected to have prior knowledge or experience of the role for which you are applying. Accuracy is more important than speed. Most tests are of multiple choice type and designed so that very few candidates both finish and get the correct answers. Sample questions may arrive with your letter of invitation.
Whatever your prior test experience:
- pay careful attention to the instructions;
- ask for clarification if you don’t understand something;
- work as quickly and as accurately as you can;
- skip over any questions you get stuck on;
- make sure that you record your answers in the correct boxes;
- get used to working without a calculator (you may not be allowed one) and revise basic mathematical operations if you haven’t done numerical work for a long time.
These assess your personality and how you might react in different situations. They are not usually timed, have no right or wrong answers and are often used to see if you would fit into the company culture and can identify a working situation that would suit you. You cannot practise for these tests but you should answer honestly and avoid trying to second-guess ‘correct’ answers.
Case studies
In these exercises, you are given a set of papers relating to a particular situation and asked to make recommendations in a brief report. The subject matter itself may not be important; you are being tested on your ability to analyse information, to think clearly and logically, to exercise your judgement and to express yourself on paper.
"The exercise was very time-pressured and I made the mistake of reading all the information given before starting to write anything down. I got the impression that not all the information was supposed to be relevant and that they were testing our ability to sift through written material to extract the most important things."
In-tray exercises
These are business simulation exercises in which you are given a heaped in-tray or electronic in-box, full of e-mails, company memos, telephone and fax messages, reports and correspondence, together with information about the structure of the organisation and your place within it. You are expected to take decisions: prioritise your workload; draft replies; delegate tasks; recommend action to superiors; and so on. Designed to test how you handle complex information within a limited time, the exercise allows you to demonstrate your organisational and planning skills. Some employers also want to know why you have made certain decisions and may ask you to annotate items in the tray or discuss your decisions later.
Giving presentations
Some employers will ask you to prepare a short talk for presentation to other candidates and/or the selectors. You may be asked to bring a prepared presentation to the assessment centre but usually it must be produced on the day. You could be given a topic for discussion or have completely free choice; it can be worthwhile to have a brief presentation on a familiar subject already prepared. Either way, avoid talking about anything too commonplace or technical and remember that you could be asked supplementary questions so it needs to be a subject on which you have further information to hand. The subject matter is not necessarily important – the organisation wants to know that you can structure and communicate information effectively.
Take note of the following advice:
- Plan your presentation along A-B-A lines: highlight what you’re going to tell them; tell them; and then summarise what you’ve told them.
- Limit yourself to no more than six main messages.
- Pitch the level of your talk at an appropriate level for your audience.
- Don’t give too much detail.
- Support ideas/themes with anecdotes, examples, statistics and facts.
- Use humour appropriately.
- Aim for a conversational delivery and talk from notes, rather than memorising or reading from a script.
- Make eye contact at some point with all members of the group and talk to them, not at them.
- Keep to time – bear in mind that your nerves can speed you up or slow you down on the day;
- Speak clearly, don’t gabble or mumble and talk louder than you think necessary.
- Be aware of your body language and don’t fidget as you talk.
- Try to get someone to listen to your presentation beforehand so you know if you have any annoying habits or if you repeat certain words (‘OK’, ‘er…’, ‘um’, etc) too often.
- If you are using a laptop or data projector, avoid walking in front of the screen or reading the transparencies to your audience – refer to them by all means but let them illustrate/back up/summarise what you are actually saying (images are generally more effective than words).
- Handle any questions using the mnemonic, TRACT: Thank the questioner; Rephrase the question for the rest of the audience; Answer the question; Check with the questioner that they are satisfied; and Thank them again.
Group activities
Most graduate jobs involve working with other people and most assessment centres involve a substantial element of group work. Whether you have to complete a practical task or take part in a discussion, the selectors are looking for your ability to interact with other people. Remember that good team working is not always about getting your ideas taken forward but listening to, and using, the ideas of others too.
Here are a few tips:
- Get a good grasp of any information you are given but don’t waste time on minute details.
- In light of the information given, decide objectives and priorities, make a plan and follow it.
- Be assertive and persuasive, yet diplomatic.
- Remember that the quality of what you have to say is more important than the quantity.
- Actively listen to what everyone has to say, through nodding, smiling and eye contact – try to get the best contribution from everyone (don’t assume that quiet members have nothing to contribute).
- Find a balance between advancing your own ideas and helping the group to complete the task set.
- Keep your cool and use your sense of humour, where appropriate.
- Make sure the group keeps to time.
Practical tasks
You may be asked as a group to use equipment or materials to make something (how to move a golf ball from one table to another using a paper clip and pipe cleaner, for example). The selectors are more interested in how the group interacts than in the quality of the finished product. They will also be assessing your planning and problem-solving skills and the creativity of your individual ideas. As with any group activity, get involved (however silly you consider the task to be).
Discussions and role plays
You may be asked to take part in a leaderless group discussion or in a role-playing exercise where you are given a briefing pack and asked to play a particular part. The assessors are looking for your individual contribution to the team, as well as your verbal communication and planning skills.
"Everyone was given a different company to represent, all of which wanted money from a central charity fund. We had to hold a board meeting to decide who was worthwhile in the area (we were given some information about this), who met the criteria and how much to give everyone."
Source :: Unknown.