Assessment centres: Civil Service Fast Stream and other government jobs

Assessment centres are often part of the application process for government graduate schemes, as they give recruiters a chance to see how candidates perform in different working environments.

For graduates, assessment centres are a great opportunity. It is a fairer and more effective selection process compared with the standard job interview, which can be very subjective. You’ll be assessed on more than just your interview skills – multiple exercises bring multiple chances to shine. If you feel an exercise hasn’t gone as well as you’d hoped, you can focus on the next task where you’ll have another chance to prove yourself to new assessors.

You’ll be assessed on more than just your interview skills – multiple exercises bring multiple chances to shine.

Employers want to know who you are and what you can do in a given situation – particularly scenarios that may come up as you train to be a manager in a council or the Civil Service. Your assessors will be looking at your social skills (how well you work with others, how you influence and persuade, how others respond to you) and this is much easier to observe in a group setting.

Each council and Civil Service graduate scheme tailors their assessment centre to their requirements, but certain exercises are common. Group exercises, presentations, briefings, ability tests and personality tests are among the tasks that you may come across on the day.

Be yourself: it’s not a competition

Even though it might seem like survival of the fittest, where eight candidates battle it out until one is left standing, this is not the case. In a group of eight people for example, it’s possible that all of you might get a job offer or you may all be rejected. You are being assessed against the employer’s criteria, not against the other candidates; ultra-competitive behaviour, therefore, could easily come across as arrogance. This certainly isn’t a good trait for those going for a community-facing role as a local authority trainee manager, or a Civil Service job that puts you in contact with government ministers.

Your careers service can help

Careers services vary as to the level of help available, but most will offer mock interviews and run practice sessions for assessment centres. At the very least, there’ll be practice psychometric tests, either DIY versions or proper, run by trained staff. There may even be sessions preparing you for other types of assessment activities, like group exercises.