Assessment Centre Guide
Group exercises
Your ability to work effectively with others in a team environment is one of the main attributes being tested in a group exercise. You will work with several of the other candidates on a group task which may require you to decide on a solution to a business scenario, make a recommendation, debate a handful of topics or solve a strategic puzzle.
These days assessment centres tend to use tasks that are based on a business issue or scenario that has some relevance to the job role you have applied to. The group exercise may have two or three sub sections, and may possibly require you to take part in a role play element, or make a short presentation at the end.
Conducting yourself in a group exercise
It goes without saying that your interactions with the other candidates should be professional at all times. While they are your competition, you must work collectively as a team and draw on the contributions of all members of the group in order to reach an optimal solution to the task that was set.
Effectively communicating your ideas and suggestions is important, but it is also equally important to allow others to contribute and to support them to also contribute and to take their ideas on board.
Challenges in working with others in such an exercise can include having to deal with candidates that like to hog the limelight, poor quality contributions from others, time management and keeping the dialogue focussed on solving the specifics of the task given.
Of all the exercises you may face in an assessment centre, the group exercise is the one with the most potential to really go off the rails. This is because candidates that do not really understand what is being assessed can damage the effectiveness of how the group operates. Also, weak candidates with certain particular traits can also significantly disrupt the exercise.
Assessment centre masterclass video course
Our video course goes in to some depth on the group exercise and covers important aspects such as:
The specific attributes that the assessors are looking for
How you can prepare for a group exercise
Tips for scoring highly and getting noticed in a good light
Learn from good and poor past candidates
Dealing with an assessor in a role play
Presenting back at the end
The course also:
- Includes 2 example group exercises with solutions and marking schemes
- Includes 2 situational role play group exercises with solutions and marking schemes
Given by an experienced assessor, the video course and accompanying sample exercises, interview question bank and assessment scoring sheets are the most comprehensive package available to you for preparation for an assessment centre.
The course is designed with the single minded goal – to equip you to succeed at your assessment centre.
