How to succeed at assessment centres: group activities

Assessment Centres (or Assessment Days) are commonly used for graduate recruitment. They allow employers to assess candidates through a combination of tasks and activities that test your suitability for the job. A whole day of ‘assessment’ can sound scary and intimidating, however if you are well prepared they can actually be a lot of fun and can allow you to demonstrate a range of skills that you may not be able to portray in a single interview.

An almost inevitable part of any assessment day and part of CGG’s assessment day is a group activity, or multiple group activities to see how you interact with others. These activities are often designed to be difficult and to create a dynamic where you have to rely on, communicate and sometimes convince and persuade your fellow team members. Here are four top tips to help you prepare and perform well in assessment centre group activities:

Do your research

Often group activities at assessment centres are testing ‘soft skills’ that are required for the role you are applying to.

These skills are mostly easy to spot in job adverts. Prior to your assessment day look at the job advert and identify buzzwords like ‘team- work’, ‘innovation’, ‘communication’, ‘building relationships, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘negotiation’. These are the qualities you want to consider and bear in mind when partaking in a group activity.

Consider your activity

It is very unlikely that you will know the group activity you will be doing ahead of an assessment centre.

Therefore, when the activity is presented to you it is really important to listen to the instructions and do some quick thinking around what the assessors are observing from this task. It is vital for the whole team to understand the brief of the task, so make sure before you begin to ask each team member to summarise to the whole team what their understanding of the brief is, to ensure you are all in agreement.

Whilst it is important to try to understand and complete the task you are given, you have to remember this is unlikely to be the assessors focus. Pay close attention to the way you conduct yourself and constantly ask yourself are you being a good team player?

Be a leader not a dictator

Be aware there is a fine line between leading and instructing. Make sure you are contributing ideas to the team, but more importantly make sure you are listening to others. When contributing ideas, don’t just tell the team your idea, but ensure to get their feedback. If a team member has an idea you disagree with listen to their point first, state why you disagree and after this try and find a compromise to avoid conflict. Make sure everyone in your team is included and motivate others by praising their contributions and developing their ideas.

Be yourself and watch the time!

It can be intimidating and feel pressured doing a group activity with assessors observing. However, try to be natural and stay calm. Often as a group activity can be quite challenging it can lead to panic, which results in illogical thinking, quick assumptions and competitive behaviour. These are things you want to avoid, so stay calm, breathe and if you don’t understand the task ask your team members to explain. Additionally, remember the observers are there and are likely timing the task, so ensure to engage with the observers and keep checking in with them on the timing.

We hope to see some of you at our assessment centres and look forward to seeing you implement these top tips to help you achieve success!

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