Assessment Centre Guide
The interview
The interview is the single most important part of the assessment centre and scoring highly in it is essential to passing the day. The interview is the one segment where the spotlight is solely on you for a prolonged period.
It is important to really understand what the interviewer is hoping to see in you so that you can mould your answers to give them what they need.
An interview will attempt to establish your motivation for the role, the company and for the profession or industry. It will seek to find evidence of your competencies and where your strengths lie. The interviewer will do this through asking a number of styles of question within different sections of the interview, and they will likely be working to a structured interview plan.
You may also face calculation or logical reasoning puzzles depending on the type of role you are applying for. So for example if you are applying for a role in a financial field then you may face numerical questions for which you will be given a calculator, pen and paper and asked to talk through your approach with the interviewer. In many fields a logical puzzle may be thrown at you to test your composure and ability to respond to something totally unfamiliar.
Is this a ‘regular’ interview?
The interview you face within an assessment centre will be carefully planned and will be highly tailored to fit the career path and graduate scheme you are looking to join. They are usually a lot more strategically thought out than interviews which smaller employers might hold, or one off interviews carried out for mid career hires.
It will draw on a mix of different styles of question, but will likely focus on questions that try to discover the things that you are both good at and which you also enjoy doing. These are regarded as your strengths, and the interviewer is looking for someone whose strengths overlap with many aspects of the day job you will be performing.
How to prepare for the interview
It is essential that you do some thorough research into the company, its structure, its culture and any big developments for it or within the industry in recent years. You should also have a clear understanding of the profession you are applying for, and what makes for a successful person carrying out that professional role 5 or 10 years down the line.
You should also have an understanding of the tasks you would initially be doing during your day job, and also the professional exams that you will be required to take.
You should also spend time reviewing your past experiences and what qualities they revealed about you so that you can easily draw on them in response to certain questions in the interview. It is also important to review the different sorts of question that you may face so that hopefully you are not taken too much by surprise. Some questions will be asked to trip you up, and will almost be trick questions designed to make you fall into a trap.
Good preparation allows you to approach this section of the assessment centre with confidence. That confidence then allows you to be able to feel less nervous and focus on the soft skills you need in order to establish rapport with the interviewer, project positive body language and behave naturally. This is all important because it allows both you and the interviewer to navigate the interview in a more relaxed way rather than it feeling stiff, awkward and manufactured.
If the interview can feel like a good natured and natural conversation between two regular human beings then it hugely increases the chances that the interview will like you, and subconsciously be on your side.
Interview question bank
Assessment Mentor is currently giving away access to our comprehensive Interview Question Bank for free!
This is an essential repository of questions under many different categories all relevant to the type of interview you will face as part of an assessment centre for a graduate contract or internship in a professional services firm.
The bank includes:
- Traditional, competency and strengths based questions
- Trip hazard questions – the ones designed to unsettle you and make you fall into a trap
- Numerical and logical reasoning puzzles with well explained solutions and strategies for approaching them
- Questions you can ask the interviewer.
If you would like to gain access to this bank then please sign up here:
Assessment centre masterclass video course
Our video course goes into some depth to prepare you fully for this all important part of the assessment centre. It covers:
Exactly what the interviewer is looking for in the interview
Full details of the types of questions the employer will use and why
How to research and prepare robustly
Recommended structure for how to answer experienced based questions
A discussion of how to answer some sample questions from the Interview Question Bank
Past candidate mistakes that you really must avoid repeating!
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.
Our Assessment Centre Masterclass online video course gives you lifetime access, and includes access to the Interview Question Bank.
The course is designed with the single minded goal – to equip you to succeed at your assessment centre.
