CyberFootprint

Leaving a mark in the blogosphere. Honza Felt takes on PR, marketing and career.

Surviving Assessment Centres

Posted by on 4/13/09 • Categorized as Career

Initially, I wanted this post to be about PR-related topic, like social media news release or using Twitter as a tool to disseminate news. Then I discovered Matthew’s post on “How to get the job you really want” in my RSS reader, and figured out that I could complement it by adding a part on a phenomenon of assessment centres.

Philosophy behind the AC

The assessment centres test the candidates’ skills and competencies as they are applied to real life. They mostly test stress resistance, ability to work in a team and other job-specific personality characteristics of the applicant.

Another purpose of the ACs is to peel off candidates’ masks. A person can act for 1 hour of the job interview, but cannot pull it off for the whole day. Being exposed to rigorous assessment reveals a true nature of your personality and abilities.

masks1

How are the ACs constructed?

This is best shown on an example. Suppose a PR firm is looking for an Account Executive. The HR manager will identify the skills, competencies and abilities connected to that position, such as persuasion, writing, articulate communication, negotiation, information digestion, and few others.

Then she will build different tasks around those skills. For instance, a presentation task will test the applicant’s skills on 3 levels.

  • persuading the audience
  • turning a great amount of information into bite-sized pieces
  • identifying priorities

Then the assessment centre occurs and the candidates are evaluated. The examiners determine how the applicants fulfilled the tasks and how they used the necessary skills. The assessors will also correlate the candidates’ behaviour with corporate culture to see if you fit. The one who fits the most will be offered a job.

teamwork

How to survive the ACs?

Be yourself

The assessors are trained to see through predictable patterns of behaviour, so pretending to be a different person will result in negative points or a straight disqualification.

Focus on the common goal

Don’t get caught up in team disputes and petty fights. Always see the big picture. That way, you will never lose.

Be ready for the unexpected

Surprises can come even during lunch. Spaghetti and meatballs on your plate and chopsticks laying next to it, instead of silverware, should not throw you off balance. Remain calm and try to see everything from a positive standpoint.

Recognise the underlying pattern of the tasks

If you know what is being tested, you will be able to complete the task more effectively, instead of getting sidetracked and losing important points.

Further reading

If you are interested in more sources, feel free to check out other sites, like Psychometric Success or WikiJob. As to this moment, I don’t know of any other bloggers who have written about assessment centres. Do you? If yes, feel free to share the resources.

Image credits: exfordy and lumaxart.com

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  • Laura

    Great blog on what to do. I’ve never been to one, but now I’ll know what to do when I come across it! The only thing I have ever done was take a short assessment test from a Professional Employer Organization. It was really easy, but I think the assessment center sounds like it gives all candidates a better chance to show the employers how they work with others, alone, and how they handle certain situations.

  • http://www.cyberfootprint.eu Honza

    Thanks for your appreciation, Laura! Doing an assessment centre is really exhausting on both candidate’s and employer’s sides. However, it gives you a good chance to survey the company culture and observe the people.

    Remember, that the assessment centre is a two-way process: the company chooses you, but you also choose the company. So, next time you go for an AC, don’t be afraid. Just be yourself, and it will work out. :-)