Assessment centre activities

Assessment centres give employers a chance to assess you against their criteria through a range of relevant tasks and activities.

Typically, there are multiple activities and assessors, which helps to give a more objective, balanced and fairer assessment on your ability to do the job. This also means that if one activity doesn’t go to plan, there are other opportunities for you to redeem yourself.

When approaching activities, consider:

• Taking time to think - often candidates will launch themselves into a task without considering what is being asked of them or the impact of time limitations.
• Be professional at all times - including your look, behaviour and language.
• Be yourself - stay calm, maintain motivation, enthusiasm and focus.

Below, we will summarise the main types of activities you may come across.

Icebreaker

Often a short, non-assessed activity at the beginning of the assessment centre. These are used to get you talking to others, and, hopefully, to make you feel more relaxed. Activities could involve introductions, sharing an interesting fact about yourself, or a short interactive game.

Online Tests

You may be asked to repeat online tests you completed when you applied, or be given a personality questionnaire to complete. They may ask you to do this in order to verify that it was you who took the original test. For further information, see the “key tasks” section on this page.

Group activities

In a group activity, you will typically be in a group of 5 or 6 candidates, with 2 or 3 observers. You will often initially be given reading time, or time to work individually. Not all candidates will necessarily be given the same information.

Group tasks can take many forms, which may include but are not limited to:

• Role play - often involves candidates working to a brief with defined roles to tackle a workplace problem. e.g. for a customer service role, someone may play the role of an angry customer and you may play the manager - you are then observed on how you react to this scenario.
• Case studies - you are presented with a case study and you need to figure out the best course of action as a group. Case studies are often used for law and management consultancy roles.
• Group presentation - the outcome of your discussion may need to be clearly demonstrated in a group presentation.
• Problem solving exercise - this could be either related to the role you are applying for or completely unrelated. Take time to think through the problem and describe your thought process. Your approach to the problem and your analytical thinking are being assessed and sometimes getting the “right” answer is less important than demonstrating your creativity, logical approach and enthusiasm for the challenge.

When working as a group, consider what skills you are being assessed against, and how you will best demonstrate these. The table below gives guidance on how you could approach group tasks, and which competencies they could help you to showcase.

Top tip	Helps to demonstrate...
Participate without dominating and try to involve others if they haven't said much.	Group work
Listen to others without interrupting, but contribute your ideas, be prepared to challenge them if necessary. Build on what others say - don’t just repeat it. Ask thoughtful questions, and summarise what has been said. Actively listen to others, show respect, and use positive body language.	Communication
Show you can adapt your ideas to achieve consensus working under pressure. It's important to help the group achieve the task within the allocated time	Adaptability and flexibility
The task is likely to be challenging, so keep focused	Determination, perseverance and commitment.
Help to generate possible solutions	Analysing information and problem solving
Clarify what the task is and the parameters. Take a note of the time limitations and agree a plan on how to manage the task with the other candidates	Organisation and time-management

Presentations

You may be asked to prepare an individual presentation in advance of the assessment centre, or you may be asked to prepare one on the day itself (either individually or as a group). If asked to prepare in advance, the employer should be able to give you information on resources available to you on the day (e.g. flip chart paper, computer and projector, etc.), however, if you have uncertainties about this then do get in touch with the employer directly.

You may be given a presentation topic, or could be free to choose your own. If you do choose your own, go for something you will feel comfortable and enthusiastic talking about. Read the instructions from the employer carefully, and be mindful of time constraints.

For further advice and support on preparing presentations, see the “Key Tasks” section at the bottom of the page.

Report Writing

In this exercise you will be provided with information about a particular issue and asked to write a short report or draft a response to a letter. You may have to discuss your ideas with a selector afterwards. You will be tested on your ability to analyse information quickly, think logically, use your judgement and clearly convey information accurately.

In-tray and E-tray exercises

At the start of the assessment you are likely to be given a ‘candidate brief’ which defines the context of the activity (usually a work-based scenario) and your role. You then have to read the various items of information, analyse the issues they refer to, and decide what action to take under timed conditions. This can take one of two formats:

• In-tray - refers to the tray on an individual’s desk where reports, correspondence and messages might be placed, similar to an email ‘in-box’. In-Tray exercises present you with various items of written information and involve reading these and deciding what action to take.
• E-Tray - exercises are similar but are presented online in the form of incoming emails.

The exercises are delivered under supervised conditions and are designed to demonstrate your ability to handle complex and unfamiliar information, communication and decision making skills, and your ability to cope under pressure.

Top tips:

• Wait until you have read everything before responding but note down your initial thoughts as you read each item.
• It is often helpful to create three groups of information, based on their relative importance, e.g. Important, Less Important, and Non-urgent. Once you have done this, you can work through each pile.
• Be familiar with the ‘competencies’ the employer is seeking. Knowing these can help you decide on the appropriate actions to take when considering the situations presented in the exercise.
• You will need to analyse the issues arising from the information and make decisions about what to do. Remember, there will not necessarily be a ‘right’ answer – you just need to be able to talk through your thinking and give your reasons for the steps you decided to take.
• Make sure you know how long the exercise will last and divide your time accordingly between the tasks.

Gamification / Virtual reality exercises

To make assessment centres more engaging, some employers are starting to use gamification / Virtual Reality technology whereby candidates undertake tasks such as a series of abstract games or scenarios which simulate the types of situations that the job includes. The immersive nature of games / VR means you will quickly feel involved and engage naturally with the task. Although far from commonplace, these forms of assessment may well be used by more employers in the future.

Key Tasks

1. Get some practice. Use the Graduates First Aptitude Test Portal* to access PDFs of example assessment centre exercises. We have also developed a suite of online mock assessment centres which are viewable through a laptop, desktop computer, VR headset or any smart device. See also our example of an in-tray prioritisation exercise.

2. Need support with preparing presentations? Explore this short online course from 301/the library, which outlines key advice.

3. Disclosing a disability: If you have a disability which you think may affect your performance at an assessment centre, you can disclose this to an employer who should then make reasonable adjustments to their selection processes. This includes making the assessment centre facilities accessible, additional time on individual exercises, or making information available in alternative formats. Whether and how to disclose a disability can be a complex topic and we have further advice.

*Graduates First offers a variety of psychometric tests and other job assessment preparation solutions for students including detailed step-by-step guides to top graduate employer's recruitment stages and hints on how to pass their assessment process. 

Register using your University of Sheffield email address. If you are a graduate, you also need to use your University of Sheffield email address and then email us at careers@sheffield.ac.uk to ask us to activate your account. Please supply your name, registration number, department and graduation date.