The Assessment Centre

The assessment centre.  Fundamentally flawed.

That is my feeling towards them at the minute. Especially if they are run as badly as some of the ones I have been on in the last week or two.  The whole point of an assessment centre, at least in terms of my understanding, is to find the most appropriate candidate(s) to recruit.  Whether that be through in-tray exercises, presentations, case studies, numerical/English tests, or group assessments… they’re basically there to test you, the candidate, against their criteria as to what they believe will be an appropriate candidate to hire.

Some of the aspects of assessment centre’s, I have absolutely no problem with.  None at all.  Some however, well one in particular, I couldn’t be more frustrated and disapproving of. 

Group assessments.

I know, I’ve got a great idea that will absolutely, definitely show me who we should employ.  We’ll give them 10 minutes, split them up in to a group of umm… lets say 10? 15? And let them work out a problem.  It’s brilliant.  We can see how they work with people, how they’ll fit in to our company culture, blah blah blah.

Wrong.

I have taken part in a number of group assessments, and to be honest, they are only getting worse.  They shouldn’t even be called group assessments.  They should be called ‘let’s see who can shout the loudest, and make the most insincere, fake approach to solving the problem.’ It is absolutely infuriating.  I took part in one a couple of weeks ago in London.  In groups of 15, we had 10 minutes to do one of those you-crash-land-on-the-moon-what-do-you-need-most tasks. 

Fifteen people.  That is a stupid, stupid number for such an activity.  So we spent 10 minutes with four or five people talking really loudly and saying all the things you are programmed to say, usually starting with the most patronising “right guys.” It’s a game, and maybe my inability to play the game is costing me, but ultimately, it is costing a good proportion of organisations that assume that just because you are shot down by some boisterous “Essixxxx girl” or some pompous Covent Garden politics graduate, that you are indeed rubbish at team work.

It is without a doubt the most frustrating aspect of trying to get a job.

Each time I am posed with such an assessment, I try my absolute best to get noticed, to weigh in well and show that I can play the game.  But sometimes, it is just impossible. 

But as I say, this will be costing the organisations that hire these people who play the game the best, and ultimately realise that they don’t match the company culture in terms of their personality, and they are god awful at teamwork. 

I do my best, and will continue to try and have my voice heard in such rubbish assessments, but the system itself is fundamentally flawed.  The ironic thing from my perspective at least, is the week assessment centre I spent at Adecco allowed a far better process, with group assessments over a week, in smaller groups with people who you have been able to create some kind of relationship with. It is surely here where you are more likely to show an accurate representation of your team working skills and personality.  I say ironic, because my team work "skills" were highly rated in that assessment, but it was my... wait for it... customer service skills that let me down. Nevermind, only had 6 years of retail experience, must have awful customer service skills.

I just can't win.

This will be massive.