Assessment day

An assessment day (also called an assessment centre) is an important part of many employer's recruitment process. As the name suggests, it is a period of assessment that usually lasts for the best part of a day (or occassionally two, or even three days).

Assessment days are usually held at employer's offices, although some firms use third party organisations to run their assessment days. For two and three day assessment days, some employers use hotels to run their assessment activities, hiring function rooms and paying for rooms and meals for candidates.

Assessment days offer candidates the chance to find out a great deal about the employer they have applied to and meet the current employees of that firm. They can also be long, time consuming and highly mentally demanding.

Well structured assessment days are generally considered to be amongst the fairest and most objective means of selecting employees for jobs, particularly graduate jobs. This is because they give a number of different interviewers a chance to assess candidates over an extended period of time, enabling assessors to see what you can do, rather than what you say you can do, in a wide variety of situations.

What happens at an assessment day?

Assessment days require you to participate in a number of individual and group exercises. The exact tasks involved are designed to replicate the demands of the specific job you have applied for. Assessment days usually comprise a mixture of: interviews (including competency based interviews and partner interviews), case studies, aptitude tests (such as verbal and numerical reasoning), personality tests, group exercises, role plays and presentations (both group and individual). Candidates are also usually given a tour of company offices during an assessment day and several opportunities to meet current employees.

How to behave at an assessment day

Candidates should be competitive at assessment days, although teamwork is key if you want to do well. Be friendly, polite and supportive to other candidates. Assessors are looking for competitive people who can work well with others, not just competitive people.

Ask questions about your next assessment day on the WikiJob forum.