What will I face in a graduate interview?

Our resident career doctor is here to study your problems and research the best advice for you by consulting a vast army of experts.

Here, the career doctor helps a graduate who is preparing for a daunting second interview.

Dear career doctor,

I am just coming up to my second (and final) round of interviews for my first graduate job, and I've been asked to prepare for a 'business simulation' exercise.

However, despite extensive research on the Internet and at my careers service, I have not managed to find out what this actually means or involves, and what I will have to do to prepare for it.

Please could you shed some light on the subject? I am currently studying for my finals, so I don't have a lot of time to spare, therefore I would like to prepare in the most efficient way possible.

Many thanks,

H

Many undergraduate jobseekers have to juggle job interviews alongside their finals, and I hope a lot of people will benefit from my answer to your query. The first part of my answer will look at what these exercises are, and the second part will explain how to prepare for them.

Business simulations - what are they?

What you are talking about here are also known as 'assessment centres'.

This confusing term sounds like some sort of special building. However, it does not refer to a 'centre' as such, but a device increasingly used by employers during the recruitment process as a follow-on from the first interview, and in order to delve deeper than the conventional interview. It often takes the form of role-plays, or simulations. Their in-depth and detailed nature means that they typically last for a full day.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), told me that 80 per cent of members now use the assessment centre process.

'Anyone who applies to any large organisation these days and gets to the second stage is facing every likelihood of an assessment centre,' he says.

He goes on to explain that they typically consist of various exercises, which could include role-play tasks in different environments, such as chairing a meeting.

'The employer is using the system to find the best match for the job, by measuring the qualities that are needed for the role,' he says, going on to explain that at the second interview stage, employers are typically assessing elements such as communication skills and the potential for teamworking.

I also spoke to a Martin Style, a graduate recruitment specialist at Halifax Plc. He explained that Halifax uses business simulation exercises which correlate to the areas in which the bank operates. 'General psychological studies show that after about half an hour, people settle into these exercises and shed what psychologists call 'rehearsed behaviours', he explained.

In other words, everyone becomes so involved in the exercises that they cannot help but act naturally.

How to prepare

Style gives some practical advice on how to prepare. 'Get a good night's sleep beforehand and keep calm'. His three top tips are:

• Try to think what the employer is looking for. Most employers typically want graduates who are good at teamworking, who can analyse data and have plenty of motivation, drive and energy.
• Don't be overawed by loud members of the group.
• Be assertive, but remember that this is not the same as aggressive.

Carl Gilleard adds that candidates should be positive. 'If they have invited you to the next stage then they already rate you,' he said. Candidates also need to realise that they can make the system work for them. 'One of the main benefits of an assessment centre is that because the exercises are analysed, they offer feedback. Candidates should make the best of this and use the feedback for their own self-development,' Gilleard advised. 'For example, if the employer tells a candidate that they were too quiet, it gives them something to work on.'

Graduate recruiters do all this because they see graduates as a major and long-term investment (probably spending £500k over the first five years of a graduate's employment), so if neither party is totally happy at the start of the employment relationship it will have been a waste of time.

My final advice is: Be yourself. I have sat in on exercises where candidates have tried too hard to impress, and ultimately made fools of themselves!

Don't worry and good luck!


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