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The next step in your career is only a success away - but what if you fail in the selection process?
Photo: gremlin / E + / Getty Images
Esra
, 37, a graduate engineer, asks: »I work in a corporation.
A selection process is now being carried out to fill a vacant position in top management.
The aim is to find the person who is best suited.
I'm invited to the assessment center and I'm excited like crazy.
How can I prepare well?
And how can I deal with it if I am not taken? "
Assessment centers are arguably the most frustrating invention in the corporate world right after leaving.
The best of the best are invited to use group tests to rank them from the strongest to the supposedly weakest.
Most of them inevitably learn that others are valued more than they are.
The good thing is: Your further career does not depend on you being number 1 passing this test procedure, even if it is constantly suggested.
Ultimately, it is a staging of equal opportunities and has little to do with the actual selection of top talent.
Rather, with the belief that "objective" prognoses about future performance can be obtained.
You have done a lot right so far.
Important people have become aware of you.
You don't necessarily have to win this one test procedure.
Don't fall into the competition trap that will only make you nervous and not show your best behavior.
How do you prepare
Bring your own, unmistakable message into the test situations again and again, such as role plays, discussions and presentations in the assessment center. Think about it in advance: why and why am I participating here? Do I want to take on this task? Do I even want to work in this company? What is my great talent and ability that I bring to the table? Your ability is unique and is never fully recorded in an assessment center with its standardized categories such as "creativity" or "ability to work in a team". Are you particularly familiar with the use of robots in clinics? Then bring your message "Robots help doctors and patients" into every exercise as skillfully as possible.All observers (who are often also the decision-makers) and the leaders (who then carry out the assessment) take up your message subliminally.
The test procedure begins with the selection and invitation. The solution of test tasks is only part of it. The real question is: Do you fit into this top management and can you make a valuable contribution there? Your personality is noticed. From the first phase of the invitation to the final thank you, write friendly, appreciative e-mails with many compliments. The invitation is intended as an award and this is how you should react to it. Show a confident top management habitus appropriate to the position to be filled - from clothing to eating manners to excellent image and sound quality (if everything takes place via video). At face-to-face events, use every small break, every small talk to show your interest and appreciation. Approach everyone.
Your reaction when not taken
There is a good chance that you will not be chosen.
It is not easy for anyone to regain control of the psyche after such an offense.
Stay confident.
You have a unique talent, your own style, superior specialized knowledge, and you have already achieved many successes.
All of this together defines you, even if some competencies are a little weaker, it depends on your strengths.
You don't compete.
Others are world champions in other strategies.
You in your.
So you can appear generous and appreciative.
Give this AC the meaning it deserves: Little
There are new topics, new opportunities, new people.
Do not be fooled and concentrate on developing your skills and your career.
If you are taken
Congratulations!
As a winner, your big hour for thank you cards and letters strikes.
Thanks is a great opportunity to shape the resonance loop of great careers.
Establish friendly relationships with everyone involved, for your influence, your reputation, your career and future recommendations.