Assessment Centres – Practice Makes Perfect?

Many students worry about what will happen in a job interview, but increasingly the key phase of the selection process for many UK companies is the Assessment Centre. Usually only offered to candidates who have passed the initial stages of selection, such as an online application form or a telephone interview, assessment centres are a longer event, typically lasting one or possibly more days.

Elements that tend to be included in an assessment centre are:

• Psychometric tests
• Group discussion exercises
• E-tray or in tray prioritisation exercises
• Business case studies
• Presentations
• In-depth interviews

Candidates are under fairly intense scrutiny and are often very aware of competing each other, which may lead to some rather unnatural behaviour. According to careers advisers, some of the phrases that indicate successful performance are:  speaking up (without being unduly dominant), taking a lead, “building” on the contributions of others, keeping an eye on time, analysing facts, facilitating, awareness of the ‘big picture’. Much of this focus is on how people work together in teams so it may be worth studying something about group dynamics in business situations.

But nothing beats having a try! Many careers services are now offering practice sessions on Assessment Centres to students and the University of Cumbria is no exception. On 13th November, we plan to run two practice assessment centres in collaboration with Enterprise Rent-a-Car at our Lancaster campus (exact location to be confirmed).  Priority will be offered to students from the New Business School but a large number of places will be available, so watch your student globals at the start of next session.

If you can’t wait until then, here are a couple of links to help you gen up on the subject of Assessment Centres:

http://www.diigo.com/user/uoccareers/assessment

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/interview_tips_assessment_centres.htm

Enjoy!

FAQ: Where can I get practice with numeracy, aptitude and personality tests?

We recently researched some Frequently Asked Questions for a forthcoming guideline to help our students and graduates.  Unfortunately there were so many, we couldn’t include them all! So this is the first in a mini-series to cover at least some of the ones that got missed out.

The trouble with tests is that no employer will be able to show you exactly what test they will use because it would render the test invalid.  Obviously previous knowledge of the exact test will skew candidates’ results.


So where can I get practice with numeracy, aptitude and personality tests?

Fortunately, the increase of careers materials on the internet has meant that a large number of sample tests have become freely available.

For an overview of the types of tests most commonly used in graduate recruitment, plus some further samples, start with  http://www.prospects.ac.uk/psychometric_tests.htm  Also useful for a broader overview of psychometric and personality tests used in a variety of different occupations is http://www.careergym.com/psychometric_glossary/psychometric_test_types

Even if you end up facing a test you’ve never heard of, don’t press the panic button before you start.  There will invariably be one or two trial items at the very beginning of the test to make sure you understand what’s required.

Employers’ Use of Testing Alienates Graduates

Another recent article from “Graduate Recruiter” (view earlier post) quotes research by Talent Q UK to suggest that candidates for graduate posts are becoming alienated by employers’ use of psychomentric and ability tests.

It all seems to come down an issue of poor communication.  According to the research, employers frequently make basic mistakes like:

•  not explaining why applicants are being asked to take a test and how the results relate to the job
•  not offering feedback on candidates’ performance, which breaches requirements of the British Psychological Society
• not telling people why their application failed, which may or may not be down to a poor test result

An additional problem is poor record keeping, resulting in duplication and frustration for applicants.

I am sure many Careers Advisers can report meetings with students and graduates who have been fed up with the sometimes apparently random nature of the tests they were asked to take and the opaque, remote nature of the whole process. Online tests seem to be particularly loathed.  But is there much consistent evidence that candidates with superior test scores really do perform better in the workplace?