An Assessment Center (AC) is less of a pony yard, more of running the gauntlet. Just the thought of AC makes many candidates sweat on their foreheads. After all, it is a selection process that aims to observe, examine, and screen applicants every minute. Those who survive the Assessment Center well have legitimate hopes for their dream job. But if you don’t get through the event flawlessly, you may have lost all chances. And faux pas wait almost everywhere during the Assessment Center.
Assessment Center Definition
Assessment is English and means something like evaluation, determination, or assessment. An Assessment Center is therefore a process that evaluates and assesses applicants. The main question is whether the person is suitable for the vacant position in the company – both professionally and personally.
Either the company conducts the assessment center itself or it gets help from outside Consultants into the house. As a rule, the candidates have to pass individual tests, exercises, planning, and role-playing games as well as selection interviews. In the end, there is an assessment, which is carried out either individually or in groups. An assessment center can consist of several rounds and last up to three days.
Medium-sized companies usually only use an assessment center to select personnel, while corporations also use it to develop their own workforce. As early as the twenties of the 20th century, the German military selected its offspring with such test procedures (only that they weren’t called assessment centers at the time), but after that, the instrument was quickly forgotten.
Only in the 1950s, the assessment center across the pond in the USA celebrated its revival. In Germany, too, it was a US corporation that set up the first assessment center: IBM in 1969.
Today the assessment center comes naturally – sometimes with a different name. Sometimes the applicant also encounters the assessment center as:
-
- selection procedure
- test procedure
- applicant test
- applicant day
- Selection process
Assessment center preparation
This principle applies almost always: Well prepared, is half the battle. Those who do not go to the Assessment Center completely unsuspecting increase their chances of success many times over.
On the other hand, the same applies to the Assessment Center: Good preparation is essential half the battle – but not the whole thing. A little looseness, a little relaxedness is also good (although it’s difficult to train, of course). After all, you will definitely improvise during the exercises in the assessment center must.
Assessment Center preparation:
-
Anticipation
As soon as you see the invitation letter for the assessment center in front of you on the monitor, you can basically begin with the preparation. Because now you have the basic information you need. Contents, times, process. Those who anticipate possible tasks (see below) can prepare accordingly and gain advantages.
-
Information
What do you know about the company’s history? What products does the company make? In which fields is it active? Do you know more than just one location? Collect comprehensive information about your potential employer in advance of the assessment center. You can even learn the most important data – for example, the number of employees or the year of establishment – by heart.
-
Job profile
Which job profile is actually involved? Which skills and competencies are relevant for the position – and which are less important? Study the advertised position carefully. That will help you later in the job, but also the assessment center.
-
Arrival
Also a no-go at AC: To appear late. Because the assessment center will probably not take place right on your doorstep, but in a foreign city. So plan your journey in good time. Buy train tickets, book accommodation, and plan your journey on site. And allow for enough buffer time to avoid unnecessary travel stress.
-
Current events
Keep up to date with politics and business. And keep a close eye on the industry you are in or for which you are applying. In the assessment center, current events may be woven into case studies or analysis tasks. And even at lunch with the HR manager, they don’t want to shine through ignorance.
Assessment Center Process
Every company can design the Assessment Center individually and adapt it to its own needs, but the processes are based on a recurring pattern. This is how assessment centers see in usually from:
-
Self-presentation
The self-presentation is almost always at the beginning of the assessment center. The candidate introduces himself briefly and concisely. You should also refer to the specific position.
You should also highlight your strengths and successes – for example as a highlight at the end of your presentation. Managers, in particular, should be able to provide a few details about their previous highlights. Even so, the interviewer will also ask you about your weaknesses. Prepare yourself for it.
You can link your weaknesses to the fact that you are actively working to overcome them. What are you doing to get better? That brings you further plus points.
Very important right from the start: manners and body language. Are you looking for eye contact? Do you have nervous tics? Do you seem self-confident?
Typical questions are:
- What do you do all day long?
- How do you do that and why?
- What were your greatest successes?
- Where did you fail and why?
Try to answer as realistically as possible. So not abstract, but rather in examples and anecdotes. Mostly these are open questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.
It is also not a question of your answering right or wrong, but that you have the ability to engage in dialogue, initiative, and an active conversation to prove. You can use that for yourself.
Of course, you can also ask questions – or set your own accents. For example like this: “That’s a good question, but first I want to emphasize again that…”
-
Exercises
Now the time of the exercises begins. There is no standard procedure for this. It can be a mailbox exercise, but also concentration or intelligence tests.
Beginners in particular should be prepared for exercises. In the case of specialists and managers, the skills that are tested in such exercises are a prerequisite. Executives are more likely to have to deal with extensive individual interviews that reveal leadership behavior and social skills – or not.
-
Role-playing
Next comes the phase of role-plays, case studies, and group discussions.
These are common in assessment centers for young professionals, but rather unusual in manager ACs. It is not uncommon for the topics to be linked to current economic events. In addition to specialist knowledge, however, above all team spirit and problem-solving skills are expected.
Important for candidates: Do not try to get your own opinion straight, but instead have a constructive, equitable conversation in which you also express your points of view Appreciate the other side. It is also not a good tactic to step back on the defensive with your arms crossed.
Generally recommended: Make a note of the names of your competitors and address them with them. In this way, you not only find allies faster but also show that you are paying attention – and that you can deal with people.
-
Feedback
That feedback discussion forms the – hopefully crowning – the conclusion of the assessment center. First, you will be asked for your self-assessment. How did you like it? What was your impression of yourself? This is followed by the jury’s assessment.
Don’t forget: During the feedback discussion, you still have the opportunity to collect points and iron out previous mistakes. A successful feedback discussion rounds off your overall performance in the assessment center.
You shouldn’t put your light under a bushel, but neither should you sing praises of yourself. A healthy mixture of understatement and self-confidence is appropriate here.
Assessment Center exercises
In the Assessment Center, the company would like to get an idea of your soft skills. How do you work and how do you think? How creative are you? How confident and assertive are you? Discussions and observations alone make it more difficult to determine these abilities and qualifications than if you also use an assessment center.
The properties that are important for the job are therefore queried using special tasks and exercises. Sometimes it’s about working together in a team. Sometimes you have to distinguish yourself as an individual. We will introduce you to the classic assessment center exercises and give you valuable tips.
These exercises could be waiting for you in the assessment center:
-
Self-presentation
Self-presentation is an integral part of most assessment centers. It is often the first task.
You have to tell something about yourself and your career. Try to appear competent but also sympathetic – never underestimate the sympathy factor! If you find a good start here, it will give you momentum for the rest of the assessment center.
It is essential to pay attention to body language: keep eye contact, speak clearly and loudly enough, exude self-confidence, and refrain from nervous gimmicks with feet and hands.
In the self-presentation, you should also address your strengths and previous successes – and any questions your interviewer (usually several people sitting across from you) ask you. Questions that come your way can be of the kind you would know from an interview (What success are you proud of? When did you fail?).
You but can also appear in the form of a task. An example: Please explain in a maximum of ten minutes how the university has shaped your personality development. You have five minutes to prepare.
In this case, it is best to write down the most important aspects on a piece of paper – and sort them out so that your presentation has a structure. By the way, you don’t have to cheer yourself up (many applicants feel uncomfortable). Describe a lot, evaluate little. And: Avoid superfluous branch phrases and hollow phrases.
And another tip: Do not go into too much detail and do not proceed chronologically. The most important points come at the beginning of your presentation – and also take up the largest amount of space. You can practice lectures like this at home by stopping the time. Five, ten, or 15 minutes – this is how you get a feel for the time.
-
Inbox exercise
The classic in the assessment center is the post basket. A work situation is simulated to test your decision-making ability and stress resistance. How well can you work under time pressure? The inbox exercise shows the HR manager.
A typical inbox exercise in the assessment center looks like this: You come to the office from an important appointment, but you already have the next one ahead of you. You have half an hour to deal with the messages and tasks that came up while you were away. How do you proceed?
Then first of all: Don’t panic, keep calm! Nobody expects you to remove a mountain of messages – even if 100 emails theoretically wanted to wait for processing. Usually, the mailbox exercise is designed in such a way that you cannot do everything in the allotted time. It is much more important that you view and prioritize the tasks.
This is how you could proceed with this inbox exercise in the assessment center :
- Get an overview
- Filter out urgent tasks (e.g. those with a deadline)
- Identify tasks that can be done quickly
- Identify tasks that can be postponed
- Select tasks that are important and whose processing has priority
Tip: Give one task priority over another – there are certainly good reasons for this. However, you must then also be able to explain the reasons. In an assessment center, you are expected to be able to explain and justify your decisions. Be prepared for the interviewers to try to put you under pressure.
-
Roleplay
The role-play is also a simulated work situation. With the difference that you do not act alone in the role play. For example, it can be a simulated customer conversation in which you have to calm down an angry customer – or a feedback conversation with an employee.
In the role play, you have to use your social skills (also soft skills), demonstrate empathy, ability to deal with conflict, willingness to compromise, and persuasive power.
An example task for a role play in the assessment center could be as follows: You are a department head. One of your employees is notoriously late. Your task: confront the employee. How do you go about it?
Don’t be too strict, but don’t be too generous either – this test is a tightrope walk. First of all, ensure a pleasant atmosphere for the discussion and then explain your concerns to the employee in a factual manner. Ask about the reason for his lack of punctuality. Polite but firm. Then you work out a solution together, but you also clearly tell the employee what you expect from him.
Basically important for this task:
- Let the other person speak and listen
- Discuss the problem
- Offer proposed solutions
- Demonstrate empathy AND leadership
Tip: Always stay calm and objective. No emotional outbursts!
-
Case study
Your group of more will be presented with a project task from the corporate context. They should work on this together and present a solution at the end. First of all, it is determined who has which role in the team. The exercise should show whether you can think strategically and analytically.
Sample task for a case study in the assessment center: The new product should be on the market in six weeks. Only the right implementation strategy is still missing. Develop them. You will have 15 minutes for this.
The case study will most likely originate from the company’s industry context. It may even be a situation that has already occurred in one way or another. It is therefore important to have a basic knowledge of the company, industry, products, and/or services. The better you are in the picture, the more promising your chances.
This is less about the details and more about the overall focus. You don’t have enough time for little things. Rather, argue from a bird’s eye view.
-
Group discussion
The name says it all: The group discusses a given topic – and this if possible controversial. The exercise could also be described as a competition of ideas.
The aim is that you and your ideas do as well as possible compared to the others. You have to get through the topic, take a position and defend your arguments strongly. During the group discussion, the company looks closely at your rhetoric, persuasiveness, and willingness to cooperate.
Sample task for a group discussion in the assessment center: Should your sales employees exchange their fancy gasoline vehicles for electric cars? You have 20 minutes to take a stand in the discussion and make your arguments heard.
Here, too, you should generally remain polite and objective. A spoonful of passion won’t hurt you either if you want to convince others with your arguments. Nevertheless, take the opinions of the other candidates very seriously, listen, and do not interrupt anyone. In the end, you could reach a compromise in the group.
Tip: Be confident and don’t hide your true self. Pay attention to body language!
-
Fact-Finding
The fact-finding exercise is a variant of the classic case study. The highlight: You do not receive a finished mission, but have to gather the relevant information yourself. All you have is a sketched problem and fragmentary information.
For this, each participant is usually provided with a partner who acts as an expert and can provide the relevant facts – provided that the candidate provides the right questions.
The fact-finding exercise will put your analytical skills, problem-solving skills, and comprehension to the test.
-
Tests
They are still far from out of fashion: Tests with which the knowledge of the candidates is tested in the assessment center.
The content can be very different. For example, a foreign language test could be used to put the candidate’s language skills to the test. This is useful in certain industries and professions (e.g. travel industry, interpreters, translators).
A knowledge test is also a popular tool in the assessment center. The selection process at a journalism school, for example, is virtually inconceivable without a comprehensive test on politics and history.
-
Construction exercise
The construction exercise usually takes place in technology companies for use. Engineers and other technicians, in particular, should be prepared for them.
Various materials are made available to the group in the assessment center. The task is to build a given object out of it. One variant is to have two teams compete against each other at the same time.
In this exercise, the ability to work in a team, persuasive and leadership skills, abstraction skills – and a dash of creativity à la MacGyver.
Assessment Center Error
In Adiletten or being an hour late – these are obvious mistakes that would knock anyone out of the race. But probably nobody does either. The less obvious errors in the assessment center are therefore more dangerous.
In fact, you can fall into numerous traps on the way that is difficult – or impossible – to get out of.
You should not make these mistakes to avoid an Assessment Center Fail:
-
You have wrong expectations
No two assessment centers are the same. You may be surprised by new techniques and exercises. Take this into account from the start. There is only a standard process on paper. If the assessment center completely throws you off, the organizers will also notice. So: let yourself be surprised a bit.
-
You are not spontaneous
Don’t confuse good preparation with the overall victory. It also depends on a portion of improvisation. If you go to the assessment center with a basic strategy, you will learn the most important facts. But trust your instincts too. Those who are not spontaneous at all, unfortunately, show that they find it difficult to adapt to new events.
-
You want to cover up weaknesses
You will also take your personal weaknesses with you to the assessment center. But your motto should be Strengths forward! Concentrate on showing your strengths and not covering up your weaknesses. That’s a world of difference.
-
You don’t pull your line through
Anyone who hangs their flag in the wind will be blown away. After all, in the assessment center, you have to convince in one-on-one interviews and discuss them in a group. Do not change your mind every two minutes. If you contradict yourself too often and obviously, this could raise doubts about your personal development.
-
You are too fixated on your competitors
-
You are too self-centered
The ability to work in a team is often called a cardinal virtue by employers. So what could be more natural than to prove it in the assessment center? First of all, of course, focus on your own performance, but do not hesitate to be helpful. Exchange ideas, show that you care about the fate of your fellow campaigners.
-
You bite into the tasks too much
An assessment center is not a university exam. Your appearance and behavior, gestures, and facial expressions are at least as important as your professional statements. Don’t lose sight of it. You can conjure up the right solution for a task out of the hat, but your approach still reduced your chances of getting the job.
-
You gossip about others
Absolute no-go: gossip about other candidates. After all, you are not in the jungle camp, but in an assessment center where you are supposed to prove professionalism. Blasphemy falls back on you negatively. Please also hold back if someone else gossips about you in return!
-
You are careless
Concentration – from start to finish! That is perhaps the most important piece of advice. Because the assessment center is a single test that starts with the greeting. The greeting determines the first impression, for which there is no second chance, as is well known. And the joint dinner at the end, if there is one, shows the HR manager whether you have decency and manners. Don’t switch off too early!