Sneak a peek on the assessors eye view of assessment centres

Last updated 24-Apr-12 12:09

Whilst at the Bradford University Management School careers fair last week I met some students who said that they would like a bit more information about what to expect at assessment centres. Well, as good timing would have it, I have just completed some training to allow me to be an assessor at assessment centres so I might be able to offer a sneaky insight into what an assessor will be looking for.

An assessors job is to score candidates against a set of competencies such as communication, planning and organising and analytical thinking. There are others that can be added in such as ability to persuade others, which tends to be used for sales based job roles. Each assessor will have an identical scoring sheet for every person they assess, and will have to record evidence to justify their score so it is all fair and above board!

Assessment centre days can include various different activities but usually include a group exercise, a presentation and one to one interview, an in-tray exercise and a psychometric test. You can find more info on how to prepare for each of these here.

During each activity it’s the assessors job to record everything thing you do and say. This will provide evidence for scoring you later which will be done when all the candidates have gone home. What you do outside of an activity is not recorded so there is a bit of breathing space for you but obviously use some common sense and don’t do anything you wouldn’t want an interviewer to see!

As soon as an activity starts the assessor will start scribbling down everything, and I mean everything from your body language, eye contact, openness, how often you check the time, to what you say, how you say it and whether the group responded to it.

So, essentially what you need to do to pass an assessment centre is to give the assessor as many positive things to say about you as possible… here are my top tips…

• Maintain eye contact in group exercises and one to one interviews

• Speak clearly! Don’t mumble or cover your mouth

• If there are calculations in an exercise (and there will be) make sure you do them and draw any conclusions. The assessor will have a list of calculations to check you were correct so don’t just make up figures.

• Never interrupt someone and don’t take over. The communication competency covers encouraging others to contribute too so you might want to ask questions like “do you agree?” or “what do you think?”

• Sit up, and look interested and open.

• Try to instigate some kind of structure such as volunteering to keep an eye on time (and don’t forget to do it if you volunteer!) and suggesting a logical way to tackle the problem and draw conclusions. This will help give evidence for the planning and organising competency.

• Structure is also important in written exercises so use or headings, paragraphs and headings where appropriate.

• In written assessments give evidence from the information you were provided to support your conclusions.

• Don't forget to read the full article on assessment centres here.

Good luck!!!

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