Hello Internet!
So during this Bioenterprize and employability module as well as attending the seminars on several different biological topics I have also been attending several events designed to help me enter the world of work or the ‘real world’. I’m also going to blog about those over the next few weeks.
The event I’m going to talk about this week is the assessment centre day!
So this was a day that was set up for me and others on this module to get something of a taste of what an assessment centre is and how it is used by companies when sorting candidates for a Job.
For those of you who don’t know what one is, if you apply for a job, you may be invited for an interview day at a centre. While you are there, THEY WATCH EVERYTHING YOU DO…
By everything I mean everything, how you react to a free buffet and bar (Do you drink alot?) and how you interact with people you meet (do you chat and make friends or try to leave an imprint in the wall?). You may also be set a series of tasks while there with your fellow candidates to see how you work in a team or how you deal with a challenge.
We did 2 main tasks as part of the day the first one was Role playing interviews!
We took in in turn to interview each other and be interviewed which was all very fun and was actually really useful! I got the chance to dust off the interview skills which hadn’t been used for a while but also it provided some insight into how an interviewer thinks = VERY USEFUL.
The second was to take a self-assessment test to find out what kind of team player we are. I was about half way between a general team player willing to get stuck in and sometimes playing mediator and being a Team leader willing to push the team forward and make decisions. I agreed with these because while the first was more my comfort zone at the time I was leading a team of people from Bangor CU planning a week of 17 events called ‘Convinced?’.
Overall I found the day to be extremely helpful and very informative, as well as fun! I hope you also find this blog to be similar!
D.
BSc Biology, What next? 