So what our company is looking for in candidates when they are running these
assessment centers it all boils down to managerial qualities so people skills
leadership time management and communication skills etc in a case that
you would normally be given information about a fictitious company 10 to 20
pages containing company report cashflow company structure mammals etc and your
job is to analyze all this information and figure out how to solve a problem or
make a decision and then also present your solution the question could be for
example what product line should the company invest in you will always feel
that you never have the amount of information and the time that you would
like to be able to solve this case at the level of quality that you would like
to but don't get frazzled and don't panic because part of the exercise is
for the Assessors to see how you deal with ambiguity and how you deal with
time pressure what's important here is your thought process they want to see
whether you are capable of analyzing large amounts of information in a very
short time whether you are decisive whether you're able to solve problems
don't get hung up in details my experience when working on case studies
was that I spend way too much time analyzing the background information in
the end I was writing and writing and there was so little time and then I
looked at my watch and I had like 50 minutes left what and I have so much and
I still wanted to write down but I had so little time to actually write down
the solution part of my answer so that is why time management is really
important if you feel like they are missing puzzle pieces unclear
information try to get around it by simply writing down your assumptions to
your answer that way your Assessor can look at it and understand your thought
process and also try to implement some structure use a lot of headers and
bullet points instead of writing lengthy paragraphs because after all it's a case
study it's not an essay test after you've completed the case study normally
you would be asked to present your solution and there are basically two
important parts to it one the content itself which you already have and number
two the way you which i think is far more important that
the content itself the important thing is to concentrate on how you present the
result and even if you were not happy with your analysis of the case earlier
just get over it and just focus on this part and get on this is the second
chance to rework the structure so if earlier you weren't happy with the way
you structured it now you have the chance to like present it in a new light
make sure you have a clear beginning middle and end basically give them some
background information about the case then your analysis and then present your
solution clearly that's about it but the most important thing in this exercise is
to showcase your communication skills I know guys this is so basic but I'm gonna
say it anyway make eye contact pay attention to your
posture don't slum keep your shoulders back and turn up the volume in tray or
eat right exercise this is basically a simulation of you as an employee in the
company and you will be given this large amount of emails that need action or
that you need to reply to within a very short amount of time you will notice
that it is impossible to complete everything at the same consistent level
of quality that you would like to but remember they never give you enough time
this is the point of this whole exercise so at times you might feel like you're
scrambling and you feel a bit anxious but don't get too worried about doing
these tasks perfectly because the point of the whole exercise is to put you in a
difficult situation and see how you are able to deal with with pressure with
deadlines whether you are able to prioritize to delegate and to multitask
and they want to see how you manage your time number one don't even attempt to
complete any of these tasks perfectly number two what is very important here
is your time management skills when I was doing my entry exercise and I was
still writing on paper at that time I was um my mistake was that I was a bit
over obsessing about the detail so I ended up spending far too much time on
some of these tasks but luckily I completed everything in the end although
I feel like my head was almost so anyway for example if you have 30
emails and you have 60 minutes to complete everything which gives you an
average 2 minutes per task before you start and tackle the email try to gosh
the priority first compared to other tasks or emails so if you for example
look at this email and it's about organizing some office party which
priority is maybe not so high just decide from the start that maybe you are
only going to spend like 30 seconds on it because that way when you encounter
another more important email for example you suddenly get an email from your CEO
CEO of asking you directly to do something you can spend more time on
this task instead because in the end it's no use if you completed 10 emails
wonderfully perfectly but you didn't complete the whole assignment here you
would discuss our debate a topic together with other team members or work
together to solve the problem of course you should try to solve the actual
problem but what is most important here is your ability to work in the team
to listen to other people to work together and also your leadership skills
actively engage in the discussion by contributing with your ideas and
opinions be assertive but at the same time show that you can also listen to
what other people have to say demonstrate your leadership skills by
showing initiative for example by leading the discussion but at the same
time also encourage those team members who are maybe not as outspoken here you
would normally play the role of an employee for example a customer service
representative while your Assessor for example would play an upset customer the
Assessor wants to see how you deal with stressful situations and how you can
apply your communication skills to solve the problem and the client or Assessor
will make it tough for you the complaint might sound so unreasonable that it
might catch you completely off-guard and you might even feel a bit bullied but
don't get frazzled because this is the whole point of the exercise to see how
you deal with this important thing here is not to be reactive have some kind of
skeleton structure prepared although you don't know exactly what kind of case you
will be dealing it will be some kind of case involving
an upset or angry customer a negotiation or a disagreement so start by
establishing the facts that you already know about the situation and then try to
ask open-ended questions and gradually achieve a more common in understanding
about the situation and what for example upsets the client or what the other
negotiation partner wants from you and then the end most important don't forget
to propose a solution to the problem the psychometric test the company wants to
test whether you have the right kind of capabilities and personality for certain
kind of jobs while technical or intelligence tests are kind of
self-explanatory here's a tip for the personality tests don't try to adjust
your answers or answer them in a certain way that you think will shed a more
positive light on you don't try to present yourself as someone who you are
not answer the questions honestly and my tip here would be to try to put yourself
in a positive and confident mood try to answer this question as the person you
are when you are at your best instead of answering these questions in a way when
you are in a crappy mood I'll not cover interviews in much detail here but
what's most important to remember is that the Assessment Center is a whole
big interview so it's not only how you perform in the test and exercise that
matter the Assessment Center is a huge opportunity for your future employer to
get to know you over a longer stretch of time compared to just in an interview
that lasts only half an hour or an hour it's like a simulation that gives them a
taste of you what I mean is give them a taste of what it would be like if they
would hire you as an employee that sounds better remember that you are
being observed all the time from how you interact with your fellow participants
during great times to how you actually behave at the lunch buffet but the most
important thing is to actually just have some fun there if I recall my experience
it was not just stressful it was also a lot of fun the atmosphere in the
situation was kind of like being in a game show or like an American Idol just
without the crowd so while doing all these complicate
and demanding exercises and tests you should keep in mind that your main goal
should be to show the Assessors that you have all these wonderful people skills
communication skills etc the fact that you've been invited to the Assessment
Center at all already shows that the the employer thinks that you have the right
skills the right education achievements experiences and qualities but there's no
way that the Assessors could actually know whether you already have them or if
you've just written them down in your resume because they found really good so
now all you have to do is to just concentrate everything you have in
within these one or two days and show them everything that you've got so my
last tip for you would be engaged with the Assessors outside of the formal
settings of the tests and exercises so that this could be at the start of the
day after after the assessment centre has and then after all they're just
human beings and they want to really know you as a person and how you would
fit in the company so I wish you all the best for your assessment centre I'm sure
you'll ace it let me know in the comments if you have any questions and
if this video was useful for you thanks so much for watching and see you again
soon