Special Assignments: Assessment Centers, Brain Teasers, Case Interviews

In certain cases, candidates are invited by HR officers to an assessment center to undertake a range of various tests. Over a period of around one to three days, candidates are set different situations and exercises and are evaluated and appraised by HR officers, psychologists, and external consultants.

Factors include personality, ability to focus, resilience, organization skills, comprehension ability, leadership skills, teamwork ability, perseverance, and negotiating skills.

Typical components of a group assessment are:

• Self-presentation: A short presentation about yourself using aids of some kind (flip chart, projector, etc. ), like a letter of motivation.
• Group discussion on a general global topic or an issue arising from daily business. Either with or without leadership, role play, or a set goal.
• Case study, analysis, and resolution of a fictional company dilemma.
• Mailbox exercise: A pile of letters, internal notes and instructions, from which candidates have to decide how important something is and how urgently it needs addressing.
• Individual interview: Similar to an interview, often with unpleasant and aggressive questions.
• Tests on personality, intelligence, knowledge, or concentration.
• Role play, e.g. a critical meeting between superior and subordinate, team member discussions, sales meetings, or client meetings.
• Dinner: Eating together to test socializing skills and manners.
• Final meeting with feedback and self-assessment.

Use the services offered by the University of Zurich

Some exercises can be practiced in advance. You will find information, advice, and plenty of examples of typical exercises in specialist literature and on the Internet.

https://www.assessment-center-kurse.de/
monster.de
www.focus.de

Brainteasers are riddles that test candidates’ analytical thinking and problem-solving skills. Particularly in corporate consulting, but also in investment banking and in industry, brainteasers are increasingly being included in the course of interviews or assessments.

Organizations like to use these quiz questions to test candidates’ analytical and logical powers of reasoning and their intellectual creativity. HR managers also see how people react to apparently unsolvable tasks and get an impression of the candidate’s communication skills. What is important is not simply finding the right answer to the question but the way in which you get there.

Example 1

You are riding a bicycle along a railroad embankment. There is a regular train service along this track connecting two cities. Every 30 minutes a train overtakes you from behind, every 20 minutes a train comes towards you. How regularly (in minutes) do the trains run?

Answer

Every 24 minutes. What happens when a cyclist rides for an hour along a railroad embankment? The cyclist is overtaken by two trains. When, after an hour, the cyclist returns with the same speed to his starting position, three trains come towards him. This means that in total five trains travel in one direction in two hours. That corresponds to one train every 24 minutes. You can also solve this brainteaser by forming an equation.

Example 2

What is the next letter: J-F-M-A-M-J?

Answer

J: January, February, March, April, May, June.

Example 3

What is more powerful than God, and more evil than the devil? The poor have it, the rich need it, and who eats it, dies.

Answer

Nothing.

• Read the brainteaser carefully, or listen attentively to the interviewer.
• Make notes.
• Pay attention to details.
• Ask if anything is unclear.
• Say your thoughts aloud and observe the interviewer’s reaction.
• Split the question into parts.
• Do not put yourself under pressure, remain calm.
• It’s the thinking process that counts.

One possible case could be, for example (source: http://www.german.bcg.ch):

Other examples and exercises can be found on the websites of the major consulting firms, e.g.: