First interview stage was a huge group interview setting where you had to go introduce yourself to different members of staff throughout the room, engage in conversation with a group. The second interview was an assessment day where you firstly had to present a “passion” for a whole minute infront of the whole group, then a written priority task, a team building exercise where you sit back to back and describe something on a sheet of paper so the other person can draw it. Then an information gathering task where you lead into a debate with the rest of the group. They are clearly looking for a culture fit and it had nothing to do about the job advertised really.

I attended an assessment day for the Account Manager role. The day was well structured, and the company tells you in advance to bring just yourself lunch and stationery are provided. The format was built around five distinct activities. The first was a public speaking task, followed by a combined chart reading and drawing exercise that you complete simultaneously more demanding than it sounds, as it tests how you process visual information while producing your own output at the same time. After a short break with refreshments, candidates were sent out into the office to speak directly with current employees and find out what they consider unique about the business. Back in the room, each of us shared the three Unique Selling Points we had identified. Those points then went into a group discussion among the candidates, and we had to collectively agree on the three we thought were most important. This part stood out as it's a research task, a synthesis task, and a group consensus task rolled into one. The final exercise was a roleplay. Each candidate was assigned a dealer and had to call them in character, explaining why the dealer should stay with First Response and continue doing business. The focus was retention, not new prospecting. Tip for anyone applying: get comfortable switching pace quickly. The day moves from individual public speaking, to dual task cognitive work, to interpersonal information gathering, to group discussion, to a sales role play, all in one session.