Assessment centres for IT jobs: the tasks you'll face and how to tackle them

Assessment centres are a regular feature of the graduate recruitment process. Employers bring together a group of candidates who complete a series of exercises, tests and interviews that are designed to evaluate their suitability for jobs and roles in their organisation.

The group setting makes it much easier for recruiters to assess how well you work with others, how you influence and persuade, how others respond to you and how you react to different situations. And it’s also much easier for you to showcase a broader range of skills and competencies than you would be able to demonstrate in an interview. For this reason they are a much fairer and more effective selection method.

Some employers with technology jobs have continues to run virtual assessment centres since the pandemic, while others have moved back to holding them in person. The advice below applies equally to both formats, but head over to our advice on virtual assessment centres for more on how they work.

Typical assessment tests for graduates

Graduate employers design their own assessment centres to test for skills and aptitudes that are right for their own organisations, but they typically contain similar exercises. As well as interviews, expect to do a combination of:

• group exercises
• presentations
• aptitude and psychometric tests (these are likely to be conducted earlier in the recruitment process but some employers will rerun them during the assessment centre)
• case studies linked to a business scenario.

Ensure you showcase your commercial awareness, for example by considering the business context of a case study task and the commercial implications of your proposed solution. Employers will also give you the opportunity to find out more about them and to meet with current employees.

Group exercises: show you’re a team player

Group exercises are used to check out your communication and problem-solving skills, and to ensure that you can work effectively in a team. They include discussion groups, exercises that involve role-playing to a specific brief and, most commonly, working through a job-related scenario or case study. You need to support the group in completing the task that has been set while also promoting yourself. The best way to do this is to show yourself to be a good team player – flexible, full of ideas but willing to listen to and help expand the ideas of others.

• Discover the six types of group exercise and how to succeed in them
• Find out more about case studies at assessment centres

Presentations are about clear communication

At some assessment centres you will be asked to give a presentation, usually to a mixed group of candidates and assessors. Here are a few ground rules:

• If you have a free choice of topic, choose something that you can talk about naturally and easily; don’t choose a topic just because you think it will impress.
• A structure is helpful to prevent your mind from going blank and will help the audience keep track too.
• Use whatever form of notes you feel comfortable with, but never speak from a script.
• Don’t attempt to fit in too much information or your audience will switch off. Five minutes is only enough time to present four big ideas or messages.
• Much of the message of your talk will be transmitted non-verbally, so your body language can make a huge difference to your presentation (for virtual assessment centres, focus on your facial expressions).
• You may be invited to use a flipchart or PowerPoint slides – use these to your advantage to support and back up your presentation.
• If you are asked to put together a presentation on the day, include time for a run-through in the time allocated for preparation.

Discover more about how to structure and deliver your presentation .

Have you got the aptitude to do something new?

Many graduate employers use psychometric tests during recruitment as they give some quantifiable measurement of whether or not you possess certain aptitudes and abilities essential for the job. You may already have taken psychometric tests as part of the application process, but some recruiters do a double check at assessment centres.

Ability tests assess general intelligence and skills that someone with your level of education should possess. These are most likely to be numerical or verbal reasoning tests. Expect to use complex information, in the form of words, numbers and diagrams, to solve problems using logical or lateral thinking.

Aptitude tests assess your ability to learn something new. Employees are increasingly expected to be flexible and adaptable in the workplace, so those who show ability to develop new skills quickly are in high demand. If you are from a non-technical degree background and have applied to work in a technical role, you may sit a programming aptitude test, for example.

Personality tests assess your typical behaviour and preferred way of going about things when presented with different situations. There are no right or wrong answers: honesty is the best policy.

You can practise various types of test with Assessment Day.

Forget survival of the fittest; you could all be winners

Always remember that you are being assessed against the employer’s criteria and not against the other candidates. You need to find a way to work together with your colleagues to achieve the goals and tasks set. Turn up with an open mind and be ready to get involved. It’s possible for everyone on an assessment day to walk away with a job.