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Phil’s Entry

After completing my first assessment centre, I now feel that I am truly on the way to getting a placement. The coach journey there was an absolute killer (delays left, right and centre), but I pressed on through the day and came out the other side with just enough energy to make it home The interviews (there were two) were much more casual than I had expected, which was a relief. The only advice I can offer is to relax, be yourself and be honest when you don’t know an answer: floundering looks so much worse! The questions were competency-based, on the same lines as the ones I’ve been answering for online applications. For example, “describe a situation where there was conflict within a team you were part of, and how you resolved this.” It’s quite easy to prepare for these kind of questions, as there are so many examples available online.

There was also a group exercise, which involved the construction of Lego towers in a small group, given a specific set of requirements. My course has given me a lot of preparation for this kind of exercise, so I think it went well for me. The most important thing to remember is that you are not judged on the outcome, but on how you arrived there. Unless you start arguing and throwing bricks at each other, I really can’t see any way to fail this task

Finally, there was an individual written exercise: to plan an event based on a set of memos provided. There really is no ‘right’ way to approach this, so there’s very little advice I can give. All I can say is try to keep track of time, and plan everything. There is plenty more advice on the RateMyPlacement site, so check it out.

Overall, everyone seemed really encouraging, and the current students really rated it there. If they offered me a job tomorrow I’d probably take it, but even if I’m not successful it feels like a worthwhile experience.