Of course after the job hunting, and writing of CV’s and cover letters you’re hoping to be offered a job, but not before an interview. With this is mind it worked well that the second additional session was an assessment centre aimed at giving us experience interviewing people for roles and being interviewed.
The Set Up
All students on the module convened for the assessment centre up in PJ Hall, without too much of a clue as to what we were in for. Tables had been set up with chairs on both sides, everyone was split into random groups to remove us from our comfort zones, we took part in interviews on both sides and worked through psychometric and teamwork tests.
This interview process was of course being judged by those at each table with the best interview candidate winning, it was a tie between Ryan and myself. I felt I’d edged it but in an effort to show good teamwork and sportsmanship I allowed him to progress. Almost a bad decision! We then learnt that those who had won were getting the chance to meet Dr. Ross Piper; a zoologist interested primarily in entomology, author of the book ‘Animal Earth: The Amazing Diversity of Living Creatures’ and a presenter having worked with the BBC in Borneo. He also happens to be a former student at Bangor University.
The Tests
We undertook a ‘Belbin personality test’, a service aimed at getting the best out of each member of a team. This allowed us to personally complete the test and share our results with each other at the table. Without us telling the others what we thought they were or what traits they possess and causing any tension, we were told exactly what our results were and could plan accordingly.
Then onto a ‘Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator’, for this task we were handed seven emails and were asked to organise them in order of priority, including top three most important. This highlighted how opinions can differ and how much you can read into situation to determine their severity in a wider perspective.
Conclusion
This session, like the CV session, initially didn’t interest me. I’d been interviewed multiple times for real job opportunities and even in college as a practice interview conducted by a lecturer. As such, interviews tend to be the easiest stage of any application process for me since it’s the first meeting and I can accurately convey how beneficial I can be to the company.
The other tests, of personality and teamwork, were of more interest. This section was greatly improved by the random groupings, I’d met surprisingly few of these students, and instantly was working through challenges figuring out things about myself that I’d never known and started to understand that to make a good team, you need to know your best role.
Overall, this event was a little lack lustre mainly because of my previous interview experience and the four-hour time slot we were occupying for this event. Keeping your focus that long on a task you have little interest is difficult and members of my team clearly didn’t care much for the event. This made things more difficult, but any practice in working as a team is great and allows you a new experience to chat about in an interview.
Ray Reynolds 
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