manual assessment at Jag/Land Rover

magicmerlz

Hi all,

Ive just got back from my assessment, I have no previous experience in any form of assembly and unfortunately I failed to complete the brake assembly today. Pretty sure I failed as a result but hopefully some useful tips for others below.

Firstly some little things that I did, you might think they are a bit extreme but anything that can give you a slight edge can only be a good thing cant it? I am a professional magician and have to do finger excercises before I perform to 'warm up' and loosen up my hands a bit. I did the same excercises today whilst I was waiting to go in. Nothing hard just strumming my fingers and cracking them a bit. If you are unused to handling small parts this may help. I found the training centre to be quite cold as well so its important to keep your circulation good in your extremeties to avoid fumbling the smaller parts later on. Especially useful if you are there first thing in the morning and have just got out of bed and are not firing on all cylinders. Keep your hands warm.

Gloves - someone has already mentioned this VERY IMPORTANT - make sure when you choose your gloves that they are nice and tight around the fingertips as you will need to get into a couple of fiddly areas later on and if you have excess material it may get in the way. I went for small and they were nice and tight.

I did the magnets no problem, although I was worried as the other bloke finished way before me. We were told to wait outside, I commented to him on how quickly he had finished it when we left the room...he grunted at me, promptly got up and left the building never to be seen again!!!!! The same thing happened when the next guy came out. I can only assume they failed it, gave up or changed their minds about the job which is why he finished so quickly. Bizarre, why even bother turning up?

It is quite a simple 'follow the instructions test' monotonous and repetitive but just a case of memorizing a simple pattern and doing it quickly and efficiently. It involves 3 different coloured magnets (in my case Black, Blue and Green), a bump cap (padded baseball cap to avoid injury) and a cushion, you have to take 2 of the magnets (they will tell you which ones in the demo) and the cushion. You then place the cushion in the car, climb in and sit on the cushion now place the magnets in the correct spot in the correct order..i.e black first then the blue one. You then get out retrieve the cushion and walk round to the other side of the car. Place the cushion in the car climb in and sit on cushion. Remove the magnets in the same order Black first then Blue. Climb out, retrieve the cushion. Walk back to the bench and pick up the Green Magnet. Back to the car, cushion in, sit on cushion, place magnets in correct order Black, Blue and now Green. Out of car, collect cushion, round to other side, cushion in, sit on cushion, remove magnets in same order Black, Blue & Green. Out of car, retrieve cushion, take Green one back to bench and leave it there. Back to car, cushion in, sit on cushion, place Black then Blue magnet. Out of car, retrieve cushion, round to other side, cushion in, sit on cushion, remove Black then Blue. Out of car, retrieve cushion and take the whole lot back to the bench...job done. Memorize the pattern when they demo it (you may have different colours than me or a different order) its not difficult, dont leave anything in the car.

You will then be told to wait outside (or maybe to leave...ha!).

Next up was the brake assembly. I failed to complete this in the 8 minutes, but it is perfectly possible. I probably made the most time consuming error that there is to make so listen up. You will be shown a demo. Pay attention to this to get the first stages correct VERY IMPORTANT. There is a fixed jig that is full of holes, you must fit a servo to this jig. There are 4 threads in a square shape on the servo that need to go through 4 holes on the jig, once you have lined them up and pushed the servo in you can let it go it will just sit there. EASY. In the centre of the 4 threads is a longer piece that will now be poking out the back of the jig. DO NOT FORGET THIS PIECE - SEE BELOW

Now you must offer up the brake pedal which has 4 holes to accomodate the 4 threads and another hole that lines up with the piece that is now poking out the back of the jig. DO NOT FORGET TO LINE THIS UP BEFORE YOU START SCREWING THINGS TOGETHER.

You must now put 4 Green nuts on to the 4 threads, can be fiddly so make sure your gloves are tight. You only need to start them off the remaining tightening can be done with the tools provided. You MUST do them diagonally. The threads are quite long so it takes some time to get this done. I did all 4 correctly and only then realised that I had not lined up the centre piece STUPID ERROR...I then had to undo all 4 of the nuts line up the centre piece and repeat the entire process. I just finished this when the time ran out.

Now I made a stupid careless error and as I said it was probably the most time consuming mistake I could possibly have made. I am hoping that the fact that I spotted it before I finished and attempted to put it right will get me some credit. Who knows?

If I had been able to continue the remainder was very straightforward 2 more screws and bolts (Red) a white nylon piece and a plastic clip-in part. Hopefully I got some marks for what I did complete.

When finished my assessor apologised for not being able to tell me I had gone wrong as he is not allowed.

After this we were sent off to do the online assessments again (2 parts).

I dont think they were the same questions but they were of the same format. You will be familiar with them.

When I took my initial test I completed 38 of the 62 'identical' 'not identical' questions. Today I completed 49 (you get 4 minutes I think) and am hoping that I managed to make up some lost marks on this stage as I am confident I did well. The 2nd one (29 questions - 9.5 minutes) I completed with time to spare, again I think I did ok on this.

That was it, all done.

One thing that I find incredulous was how some applicants ignored and were rude to the assessors...these people possibly have the power to decide your future career in their hands. Be NICE to them, thank them, shake their hand when you have finished it cannot hurt your chances one bit and MAY improve them. Bear in mind they are seeing hundreds of people and are probably bored to death of giving demos of magnet tests and brake assemblys. Your hand shake or manners might be the difference between a maybe and a yes when they look at the results.

Anyway, hopefully that has helped some of you.

Maybe someone could tell me if they have got through to the next stage after failing to complete the assembly. I am highly doubtful I will have got through but you never know.

Cheers all and good luck.

Cloaker

Very informative mate. I'm sure this will help a lot of people, I know it would've definitely helped me out prior to my assessments.
Fingers crossed the mistake doesn't prove too costly!

Bigden

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

Cloaker

Good luck Bigden!!Are the question the usual interview questions or are there any curve balls thrown in there??

Bigden

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

punk84

MagicMerlz, awesome write up,

Avfc25

Fair play BigDen sounds like you did well mate. Fingers crossed for ya. Just a quick question did they ask you about any criminal offences in interview or application form?

Also that was a great write up magicmerlz, a friend
Of mine did through to the interview stage and he failed to complete brake but was 90% there. Can I also ask u a quick question this is probably a really dumb one, but what do you mean when you say to put bolts in diagonally?

Cheers lads

punk84

Basicaly what he means is there are four bolts, so imagine a square with four threads , one in each corner, you put one in, anyone, and the next one must be the one facing it diaganaly, and vice versa, to ensure you don't cross thread the bolt incase whatever your bolting moves, and to ensure correct ballance

Bigden

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

Avfc25

Thanks mate. All I have is some driving offences from a few years back. Is it just a case of saying yes or no if you have a criminal record? Or do u have to list the convictions? Also mate do they do a crb? Sorry for all the questions mate.