Découvrez nos prestations en France :

How to Prepare for Assessment Centre?

YOUR EXPERT

Portrait-Virginie-GRAZIANI

Virginie Graziani

Talent Management & Synergologist

7 November 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

What Is an Assessment Day?

 

The assessment day is often (but not always) the final stage in the application process. Assessment days can take place at the employer’s offices or at a private assessment centre. You are evaluated through a series of individual tasks, all of which are aimed at giving the employer a rounded profile of your competencies as well as insight into your performance in the workplace.

Assessment days usually run four to eight hours over a period of one or two days, although mass recruitment campaigns are sometimes a three-day process. The exact schedule for each employer’s assessment day varies according to the position for which the assessment is being held. At Apostrof, we regularly run assessment centres.

Our tailor-made assessing approach is based on Assessment Centre methods (professional role plays and observations of behaviours including expertise and interpersonal communication skills). It’s not a test: you won’t receive a score. Most of the time, the assessment will actually be very much like your everyday experience. To prepare the best you can, here are a few pointers.

 

Preparing for Assessment

 

The good news is that there’s not much preparation to do for the assessment. You can’t ‘cram’ for this special type of exercise. Assessment centers use a method of measuring your skills through your ways of being and acting; there are no right or wrong answers. However, on the day before your assessment centre you should consolidate your knowledge of the firm you have applied to.

Review the job description and any other material the employer may have sent you. Think about the key skills and competencies your assessors will be looking for in you and other candidates during the assessment centre. They will be making selections based on these criteria, so think about ways you can demonstrate these skills during the various tests and exercises you will be involved in tomorrow.

 

On the Day of your Assessment Centre

 

On the day of your assessment centre you must be polite to everyone you meet and join in with discussions, including informal ones (e.g. during lunch). You should give the process your full attention (remove any potential disturbances e.g. mobile phone) and pay attention to the instructions (ask any questions necessary to carry out the exercises properly).

Assessors are not expecting you to be perfect in all areas, so try to be assertive during exercises and to moove on quickly, if you make a mistake. During group exercises, your assessors want to see evidence of good leadership and teamwork skills as well as your own intelligent input. Sometimes stress can get the upper hand in simulations, but this allows the candidate’s ability to cope with stressful situations to be measured. This can be an important selection criterion for some strategic positions that are particularly stressful. However, the assessors will never deliberately set out to create an extreme situation.

The basic principle is that the exercise should be run in a realistic andprofessional context. Coping with stress is just one factor among many criteria measured. Assessment centre exercises are used to determine the best candidate for the job. However this method is also used as Development Centre. In that case, your assessment day will end with a deep feedback. If you don’t get a job offer this time, you need to know why, so that you can make sure you get an offer next time round.

 

TO LEARN MORE …

Head hunting helps you to target rare and high profils. Attract, engage and match the best talent thanks to Executive Search.

Explore how an individual will perform in the future : Discover our Assessment Center based on simulation of a professional environment.

If you’d like to learn more about assessing and developing your leadership team, get in touch with us, fill in the contact form below.

 

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

MORE TALENT MANAGEMENT POSTS
Logo-Apostrof

RH Consulting – Talent Management
Scientific evaluation of skills and potential

Expert in the evaluation and development of resources, skills and potential, Apostrof helps you make the right decisions regarding recruitment, annual interviews, professional training, organisation of operational staff, career management and professional development, succession plans and high potential..

Contact us
Apostrof

294 Cours Lafayette Lyon 3è France
17 rue de Naples Paris 8è France
+33 (0)4 27 44 96 65
contact@apostrof.fr

Follow us

        

Share This