applied for job now invited for assessment exercise what can i expect?

jamminjamaica · 25 November 2005 at 1:22PM

Hi there

Applied for a job as an administrative assistant. have got word that my application was sucessful and I have been invited to the next round of the application process which is an assessment exercise. if I am sucessful at this then I will be invoted for a interview the week after.

I would be grateful for any advice as how i could prepare for this exercise or even to know what to expect.

jobbingmusician · 25 November 2005 at 1:34PM

An admin asst huh? The practical test I would give you would be an in-box exercise. This is where you get given an in-box full of papers and have to go through it and prioritise things - in your case it might mean prioritising things for 'the boss'. Read the papers fast but carefully - I remember an exercise where I had to confirm that it was OK for Lady x to visit the project next Wed, and then another piece of paper indicated that the JCB's would be working that day so the whole site would be really muddy.......

They are also likely to give you some sort of IQ tests, so you might want to practice a few of these - I'm sure there are sites on the web where you can do this free!

GOOD LUCK!

Savvy_Sue · 25 November 2005 at 2:01PM

I've also set prioritising assessments: a list of 8-10 'tasks', which order do you tackle them in? They include things like "the phone is ringing", "You need to go to the toilet", "there are messages on the answerphone", "the morning's post has arrived and needs sorting", "your boss has left a note to say he needs the notes you were typing by 4 pm" and "you have to send out the agenda for a meeting at the end of next week".

There is no 'one' right answer to these, but normally you should answer the phone as a priority.

jamminjamaica · 25 November 2005 at 4:11PM

the post is titled admin assistant but I am familiar with the organisation and know that the post is with the finance admin department. The postholder will assist the chief finance officer and work in the human resources department. i know from past experience that they have made people sit typing task tests, such as draft memo, letter, report. create table or spreedsheet as well as prioritise tasks. the assessment is due to last 2 hours. I just want to be really prepared as i really want this job and it is a good organisation to work for.

jobbingmusician · 27 November 2005 at 1:13AM

Let us know how you get on!

Another thought - might they ask you to extract information from one mathematical representation (such as a pie chart, or bar chart) and convert it to figures and enter it into a spreadsheet? So you might be given a pie chart showing that a third of the employees earned £150,000 between them, a number at the top showing there are 300 employees, so that you have to work out that 100 employees earned £150,000 between them and the average wage for this sector was £1,500....you see the sort of thing?

Savvy_Sue · 27 November 2005 at 1:41AM

Ah yes, one of my typing tests said "Please check the details in this memo" and there was a fairly obvious arithmetical error in the handwritten version. I was nice and provided a calculator!

applecharlotte · 27 November 2005 at 3:52PM

I applied for an admin assistant job with the dwp about a month ago. Your selection procedure seems very similar to mine although the advice re tests is nothing like what i had to do.

I filled my form in (a competency based application form) and got through to the next round. These were the assessment tests, just standard literacy and numeracy tests. They were dead easy, there were about 50 of us sitting them at the same time. We were told on the day whether we were through or not. I was, and was invited for an interview the next week. I asked for help on here, as i was dreading role play exercises (i'm no actress) but there was nothing like that. Just an interview, and they asked questions and wanted to know specific details of times when i had done certain things (eg. dealing with difficult customers).

I got the letter yesterday, i've been put on a waiting list!! Better than nothing i thought, but everybody seems to think it wont amount to anything! I'll live in hope though.

Sorry if this isn't of use to you. just sharing my experience.

CIS · 27 November 2005 at 4:02PM

Keep your fingers crossed.

The waiting lists can sometimes be a blackhole. My wife's a civil servant in the Pension Service and she applied for a job with Child Benefit, got through to the list and never heard from them again.

I have heard of people getting a phonecall inviting them for a job, but there was a big problem with IR in Longebenton a couple of years ago, where they invited people from the list and then after a few days induction at the IR they told them it was a mistake and their was never a job for them anyway.
I think they gave them a couple of months pay in compensation or so.

jamminjamaica · 28 November 2005 at 3:07PM

Hi there

well i rang the company and asked what type of assesment it was going to be. they told me it would be to test skills in wordprocessing. part of the essential criteria in the job description was OCR/RSA stage 2 part 1 and 2 wordprocessing.

I did my stage 2 part 1 and 2 and couple of years ago. i am confident I can still do it but want to get a really good result. does anyone out there know where I can get my hands on some course notes or practice papers. before wednesday.

i really want this job and to do well in the assessment.

sportfan · 10 January 2009 at 10:32PM

Hello All

I am hear to ask about the selection tests (Literacy and Numeracy) as I have to take them very soon!

How are the questions? How long do we have to answer them? Has anyone gone on to the interview stage and passed and got the job for AO?

Also if a person passes Interview stage, are they offered the job immediately or even the successful people are on a waiting list? - (Very Important - Please someone answer)?

Any help is appreciated..Please respond

Thanks

applied for job now invited for assessment exercise what can i expect?

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