What to expect on the day
At the beginning of an Assessment Centre, employers will generally present a welcome and information session, which will provide more details about the organisation and the roles available. The information is likely to be more up-to-date than your previous research, if you are unclear about anything, ask, although asking inappropriate questions just to get noticed will not impress the selectors.
The information session will be followed by activities and exercises, interspersed with tea/lunch breaks. These activities are simulations of what you may expect to do in the role - for example, analyse a case study as a team and present your findings to a fictitious Board of Directors. Each activity or exercise is designed to elicit specific behaviours from candidates. Therefore, since assessors are assessing you against a set of predetermined behaviours and not against other candidates, it is important to demonstrate the qualities the organisation is looking for. Avoid trying to compete with others in your team and focus more on your own performance. There are a variety of activities and excersices that you may have to participate in.
Throughout the day, assessors will be taking individual candidate notes, which they will then share and discuss. Individual interview and test data will be integrated into the process, and final decisions on each candidate will be made. You should be given feedback reasonably soon after the Assessment Centre day as to whether you were successful or not. Each company has different policies regarding the level of detail of feedback if you were unsuccessful. However, it is worth asking, so you can establish a development plan for future Assessment Centres.
