Assessment days...

So you’ve just received an email saying you got through to the next round of a grad scheme! Hurrah! But as you continue to read the black and white squiggles across your screen you notice two words: Assessment. Day. *gulp*  Yep that happened to me over a week ago when I received my invite to Starcom MediaVest’s Assessment Day, and two feelings came across me. One of absolute joy (they actually are interested in me! I’m not just a name and words on an application form yippee!) and the other of anxiousness (actually I guess three if you include the standard girly remark of “omg what am I going to wear?!?!”). Before this week I had never been to an Assessment Day before. I, like so many grads, had heard of the terror stories of “Apprentice style” tasks where for the whole day you are on show to everyone who has come to watch you squirm. But oh how I was wrong.

 Don't worry, during Assessment days you won't have Karen, Nick and Lord Alan Sugar breathing down your necks!

From my experience (yes, I am aware I’ve only had one, but I’m sure they are all like this, well for advertising/media anyway) the agency is very much on show to you, the potential employees, so that means that they are trying to impress you as much as you are trying to impress them. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming at my Assessment Day, with many a nice thing to say to try and calm us wide eyed grads down. It didn’t take much to be fair. The muffins, sandwiches, crisps, copious amounts of coffee, tea and coke (hmm come to think of it there was a lot of caffeine provided which I definitely needed having left the house at 7am…) worked a treat and with an environment that was so relaxed the former nerves soon died down.  After an hour of presentations about the agency, the training programme and our potential roles, the real work began.  We were split into groups and asked to work on a brief for a new mobile phone which we would then present to various members of the agency after lunch.  In addition to that we also had a maths test (lets just say after 7 years since I did GCSE maths my percentage skills were a bit rusty), and a psychometric test which included verbal reasoning, arithmetic and communications skills - *phew* makes me tired just thinking about it all.  The day (particularly the morning) went extremely quick, and unlike a standard interview round, it was really nice to have the time to talk to the other candidates and employees. My one word of advice is to just be yourself and with that you will relax a whole lot more.  As we kept getting told throughout the day, agencies normally have specific types of people in mind to fit specific roles so don’t take it personally if you don’t get through! In the end, I’m sad to say I didn’t get chosen to join their training programme, but that hasn’t discouraged me from the industry altogether (oh no, if that was the case, I would have stopped applying a loooonnnggg time ago last summer!).  I learnt so much, and actually, in hindsight, had a lot of fun and received lots of great advice from people who have all gone through the tedious and stressful job hunt. Yes it is frustrating to start all over again and go back to the process of looking for jobs, but determination is key. In fact, this grad has got another important interview in a few weeks time…. so fingers crossed!

Marie xox