What Is An Assessment Centre?

Assessment centres is when an employer uses a series of steps/exercises to test the skills which are not assessable from a normal/traditional interview. You will only be invited to an assessment centre once you have passed the initial screening by the employer.

The assessment centre is usually the final hurdle in the recruitment process, and is where the employer really puts the candidate through their paces. The assessment centre aims to unearth the candidate’s potential to work well in the job.

75% of assessment centres use group exercises

Group work

First was a presentation by the lecture, who would be the employer, but then given a group exercise. This exercise was a scenario and put into groups of six. It was based on a plane crash that landed in freezing temperatures, we were given the choice of what we could salvage off the plane.

Using group work, we decided on what to take with us using voting if we disagreed on an item. After the group decided, we presented to the employer on what we thought was the best things to take.

Mock interviews

In the group of six for the group work, we were giving another assessment which was mock interviews. We all played different roles and took in turns on each one, these roles were;

Candidate: Answers Questions
Note taker: Does not ask questions but takes notes
Interview supervisor: Ensures timings are strictly adhered to
Interviewer 1: Greets candidate and asks 1^st Question
Interviewer 2: Asks 2^nd question
Interviewer 3: Asks 3^rd question and thanks the candidate

The candidate got three different questions and had 5 minutes to answer the questions and after all the questions were answered, we gave each other feedback.

An example of one of the questions were: Give an example of a situation where you solved a problem in a creative way?

My opinion

Overall the assessment centre was fun and positive. Doing the group work got to help you get comfortable with your team, but unfortunately you wouldn’t get to know your interviewer before the interview.

The interview stage could have gone better if we had someone professional and had done many interviews before. I think I got more experience and may help me in the future if I got into an assessment centre.