Group Exercises: "just be yourself" - the right advice?

One of the most intimidating parts of an assessment centre for a lot of graduates is the group exercise. The interview and inbox exercises are within your own sphere of influence so there is less of the unknown about them. But the group exercise, with up to 8 other unpredictable individuals that you don’t know, can be very difficult.  It is also the one that is often a 'deal-breaker' for recruiters and hiring managers. Ultimately on a day-to-day basis, you will be working in a team in the job and so your ability to work constructively with others will be fundamental to your success as an employee.

There are many good websites who document very well the different types of group exercise that you might face and what to expect for each, so I don’t want to cover that again here. (At the bottom of the article, I have provided links to some sites that do this).  What I want to go over is how to act during the exercise to really show yourself in the best light. Everyone always gives the advice of 'just be yourself', but in a pressurised environment with everything riding on it (if its your dream job…) then that is more easily said that done.

If at all possible, try to participate in a group exercise before you attend one that is for a job that you really want. If you're invited to an assessment centre that probably isn't for your ideal job, definitely go along. The experience will be invaluable. It is extra challenging if the first g.e. that you participate in is the one for the job you really want.

Typical group exercise competencies. 

Group exercise can be used to measure a number of competencies, but the core ones will almost always be teamwork, communication and problem solving/analytical ability. Let's look at some practical examples of how you can demonstrate these:

Demonstrating teamwork: 

- Make sure everyone is comfortable. Be the one who breaks the ice. You can start this long before the exercise itself - e.g. waiting in the lobby downstairs. A group that are comfortable / have gotten to know each other a little will often do better as getting to know the personalities gives you an idea of how to work with people.

- Make sure everyone is equipped. If there are post-its, paper, highlighters, pens, etc, in the room then they are there for a reason. If no one has touched them, then bring them to the centre of the circle and distribute

- Remember peoples names and address them by name through-out the exercise - this is pretty simple and really puts you in a good light in the eyes of the assessors. I highly recommend it.

- Bring in the quieter members who are not participating. I've met some grads who think "well I definitely did better than him" because they spoke a lot more than someone else. But what would have made them look good would be getting that person to talk more, not talking more than them….

- If you're strong enough, trying to timebox the talking of the really loud members of the group, especially if they are causing the group to get off-point or are clearly intimidating other

- realise your own strengths and weaknesses and don't take on a task that you are unlikely to deliver on

Show yourself to be a good communicator: 

- REALLY listen when others are talking. Don’t be writing, don’t be thinking of what you are going to say next, just listen. It is very clear to the assessors when someone isn't listening. It takes real concentration on your part because there are so many things going on, but it makes a big difference to the impression of you that the assessor take away.

- When you contribute, add real content / new material. Don’t repeat what others have said, don’t always just develop the ideas of others. Add some new material.

- Try to express your ideas concisely. 

- Be open to others disagreeing and accept that occasionally you might say something incorrect. We all do. It is a sign of a good communicator who can accept and move on from this.

Be a good problem solver:
- If there is numerical analysis involved, there is an opportunity to undertake calculations to come up with the data the group need.

- If there is a lot of 'material' to analyse, coming up with an approach or methodology rather than just jumping into the task

- Agreeing a template / data capture methodology before jumping into a task
- Asking the right questions of the group throughout the exercise in order to facilitate getting to the right answer

Want to take a risk?

There is a tendency amongst graduates to want to take on one of the 'roles' that often are necessary in the team exercise - the scribe, the timekeeper, or of course, the leader/project manager. There is of course an element of being able to demonstrate your capabilities if you have one of these roles. However, sometimes forgotten is that they are also all fraught with danger. If you do take on one of these roles, take care not to fall into the following traps:

Timekeeper:

- Reminding people of the time at inopportune moments. You need to judge carefully the moments that you interrupt to do this. Lots of times in wash-up sessions with hiring managers after the exercises, I have heard comments like "they were almost there, almost at the answer, and Joe Bloggs kept saying 'we need to move on'… how frustrating for them!"

- Doing it wrong - it happens all the time. "We have 10 minutes left" when infact you only have 5 can really cause the group to miss their deadline and fail a task. If you're going to do it, make sure you have a good watch/phone and do it right.

- Getting hung up on it. You still need to contribute a lot to the discussion/activity above being timekeeper. I guarantee that this alone will not get you through the exercise with flying colours.

Scribe:
- If the scribing is on a flipchart/whiteboard and you have to stand up, you are immediately out of the 'circle' of people. It is extra-difficult to be included and heard if you are physically away from the group.

- Writing notes / slides / flipcharts is a very personal thing - everyone will have a slightly different style / way they would do it. Inevitably there will be someone who says "no, do it this way, or that way" and try to take over. Do not let them do this! Stand your ground. If you are the scribe, be the scribe. Don’t be a pushover.

- Not leaving enough time to create a tidy presentation / taking too much time to create a presentation - both dangerous territory.

- Writing notes quickly on what everyone is saying will keep you extremely busy. But again, this alone will definitely not get you through the exercise. You also need to be participating. You need to be a very strong multi-tasker to scribe and participate to your full ability in the exercise.

Project manager / leader:
The dangers of being the project manager are well-documented (just watch a couple of episodes of The Apprentice! - why do you think they always include the project manager in the boardroom? Even if failure is not your fault, the blame will often lie with you regardless). Key things to watch for are:

- Forcing your own ideas on the rest of the group 

- Listening to other people's ideas, but then when it comes to implementation / presentation, just using your own anyway

- Major danger: appearing culturally unaware and not including people from ethnic minorities to the same levels as those from the same ethnicity/background as yourself. Likewise for gender equality.

- Putting in place a project plan that because of the time it allows for each task causes the team to fail despite the fact that they had the right ideas and the right skills.

If you keep in mind all of the above (ok, so that's a lot to keep in mind, but hopefully I've given you some ideas of how to act in the exercise…), then you should shine in the group exercise. Be careful in particular of any exercises that involve talking about diverse groups of people - e.g. the common one of 'only 3 places in the lifeboat, who shall we save'. If you hear yourself using language like "too old" "too young" etc, then you are on dangerous ground… be careful!

Any particular questions on the intricacies of the group exercise, just let me know….


http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1384/Assessment%20Centres.html#group
http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/group-exercise

Application Forms... don't you just hate them?

It is that time of year where on top of a looming final year project, a mountain of work and trying to enjoy your last year at Uni, monstrous application forms for companies await you. Trying to maintain a balance between doing them as well as you can, doing the right number of them, and keeping track of deadlines and what you've sent where can be a nightmare… here's my take on application forms.

Why do companies use them?
1 - BECAUSE they are frustrating and take forever to complete. Many of the top companies figure that if you can't be bothered spending 3-4 hours filling out an application form to them correctly, then they can't be bothered with you either. It is a filter that applies to applications before you have even hit the submit button. The top IBs that receive tens of thousands of applications would receive hundreds of thousands of applications if it was as simple as just emailing them your CV. Unfortunately, despite the last couple of years of turmoil, that is still the reality of the market.

2 - They allow us to compare like-for-like. With the variety of CV formats and styles available, in particular across different countries, the application form process offers a fairer way for all applicants to provide the same details to the employer in order that they can assess their suitability for the roles available.

3 - They allow the auto-filtering to work. If everything is in the same format, it is easier for systems to filter out candidates that don’t meet the required criteria.

4 - They allow companies to pull Management Information together quickly. E.g. How many people applied from Cambridge? How many people applied with Maths degrees? How many people applied with 3 As at A-Level? This allows us to target more carefully on campus - e.g. if no one applies from LSE, then we do more promotion on campus there the next year….

Answer the Question Asked
I know you have heard this again and again and again, but it is the crux of a great application form. When you start into a paragraph, and it is sounding good and you're into the flow of writing and you get to the end of your 400 words and it sounds FANTASTIC, it's a great feeling. But then you look back at the question and you think…. Mmm… well, it wasn't quite what I was asked, but it sounds great, and its close enough, so I'm sure they'll like it anyway. We wont!  Please, please answer the exact question asked.  It is very frustrating for us as recruiters too to read a great paragraph and think "this could have been a great candidate, but they didn’t read the question… so 'reject'".

Think competencies
Most questions will have a competency behind it that they are trying to assess. Figure out what this is and then make sure that you address this competency in your example, rather than just explain a story of what happened without necessarily proving that you did demonstrate that competency during the activity.  Try to use a variety of examples across your answers. Read through all of the questions before starting and fit the example to each question before you start. This avoids getting to the last question and realising that the example you used for the first question is better suited to another.

Apply early? Apply last minute? Does it matter?
Most grad programmes that I have worked having received up to 50% of their applications during the last 3 days before the deadline. When you look on jobs boards or agency websites these days, all jobs will generally have a deadline that is a week or ten days away. And then after that deadline has passed, the job will promptly appear re-posted with a new deadline the week after. That is because lots of people will only apply when pressed to do so - i.e. when a deadline is imposed. Agencies/companies know this and that is why there is always a deadline...

The reality of this is that when you apply late you are in a very big pile of late applicants. If you apply early, you show that you are keen, on-the-ball and organised enough to get your application in early. This does not necessarily imply an advantage - there are definitely companies who don’t take any action until the deadline has passed (even though they all say they doing rolling recruitment) as they provide CV books to the business at that stage.  However, to some extent you make your own luck and there can be instances where an early applicant is 'luckier' than a last-minute one who is one of many (e.g. a place comes available on a fast-track scheme, invites to a company event are sent out to early applicants, etc).

If anyone has any specific question on application forms that I can help with, drop me an email on gradjobsuk@yahoo.co.uk

Any ideas for future blog topics also welcome!

CLMs: Career-Limiting-Moves

There's been a well-publicised case lately of a high achiever who blew an internship (and given the level of media coverage, possible a career in finance might no longer be on the cards....).  Most of you will do really well on your internships, but we all make mistakes and in the very small world of financial services (believe me, it is...), mistakes can be very costly.

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/news/business_news/11360.cntns

It doesn't matter who you are amongst your friends, at your university, in your hometown, etc... when you're working in the City or in management or strategy consulting, or many top 100 firms these days, you are one of many, many high-fliers. Yes, you can do very well, and yes the potential to do amazingly well is  definitely there... but you have to start at the bottom, like everyone else. An internship is a great opportunity that many would kill for.... don't do anything you'll live to regret.

So, what specifically, can be a CLM?  There are a few that I've seen quite a few times...

- Don't go off in a huff when you are told your development points during the mid-way review. Trust me, we all have them. Don't try to argue your way out of them. Take them onboard and work at them. If you don't you will fall into the 'doesn't take feedback well' category, and may very well find yourself without an offer at the end of the day.

- Don't consider the initial easy tasks you are given as being beneath you. You need to build trust and belief in you. You don't necessarily get this by default. This is the case in most new jobs in life, not just when you're an intern. Impress step-by-step and you'll soon find yourself with plenty to do.

- Don't get so drunk that you harass members of the opposite (or same) sex on a night out. Word spreads very quickly, chinese whispers often apply and unfortunately exaggeration often takes place and you go from being an overly-friendly person who had a few tequilas too many, to a sex-pest. If the HR team get wind of it, you could get your marching orders and potentially have to give up your aspirations of a career in finance.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because its not an 'official' night out, it doesn't count. Any nights out with colleagues count as ones you need to be careful of

- Be culturally aware. Just because you don't find particular comments or language offensive, doesn't mean someone you are with wont take offense.

- HR/recruiters are very conscious of the atmosphere/group mentality of their class of interns. Often what makes people want to return to the company is the friends they've made and the fun they've had, as opposed to just the work / the company. Anyone or anything that might upset this 'harmony' will come to their attention quickly. Like a rotten apple threatening to damage the rest of the fruit bowl, they will remove it quickly...

- "Romance" often ensues between interns. Keep it out of the office and away from the ears of HR. Equally, don't gossip with HR about any activity you have heard about.

- If you are invited out with the business on the same evening as an intern event, go with the business (if it cant be moved). The business/line will be the ones who decide your future, not HR and not the rest of the interns. Those types of invitations are not usually issued again if declined....

These CLMs are not that difficult to avoid... don't be the intern in your class that makes one. There is always at least 1 in every 50 in my experience....