How To: Ace an Assessment Centre - The Case Study

This series is long overdue, but recent requests for help from both friends and LinkedIn/blog connections have prompted me to finally write up some guidance on assessment centres. And because there are a few stages to them, I have broken them up into four parts so that they are easily digestible: the case study, the group exercise, the interview and the ‘green room’ time.

Assessment Centre: a process where an organisation can examine candidates by using techniques like interviews, group exercises, presentations and simulated work exercises. Created to recruit officers in World War I – they are widely used by solicitors’ firms in the recruitment process for vacation schemes and training contracts. They are also one of the most feared parts of the process – but I am here to tell you that there is no need to fear them, as long as you read this post carefully and follow the steps and advice laid out below! People think of it like something from The Hunger Games – but in my experience, that is far from the case.

I will start with a caveat (the best way to start any piece of advice…) I have only completed three assessment centres – two for vacation schemes and one for a non-law position with a FTSE 100 asset management company. Three isn’t a huge number and each were very different – however, I was lucky enough to be offered positions for all three, so I hope my musings will help a little. I have tried to make this advice generally applicable, even with the variances, although I do appreciate that firms often structure ACs differently, sometimes including a written exercise or other practical assessment.

Click here for the whole (and free) how-to article for case study success...