Preparing for Assessment Centre
Our assessment process is designed to become more and more challenging as you progress through the stages. Throughout this, we ask you to be yourself and show us what you're made of!
We use a number of activities within our assessment centre to look for evidence that you can demonstrate the key competencies required to be successful in a graduate role at Nestlé. Outlined below are some of the types of exercises we use. Please note that you may not experience every type of exercise at your assessment centre. We hope you find this information helpful for your preparation:
Group Exercise
Description:
As a group, you will be set a task. You will be given some individual reading time during which your objective is to ensure you understand the task brief and have analysed the information you have. This is followed by a timed group discussion to reach a solution to the problem. At the end of the allotted time, you will be asked to present this solution to the assessors who have been observing the exercise and respond to any questions they have.
Top Tips:
- Contribute to discussions but remember it's quality of input, NOT quantity i.e. when you speak, does what you say contribute to moving the group forward in solving the problem?
- Don't be afraid to disagree if you believe the group is heading in the wrong direction, although think about how you convey your views in a constructive manner
- Read the exercise brief in full! If you have not had enough time to do this before the group discussion begins, ask the group to clarify their understanding of the brief or suggest more time is taken to do this before getting immersed in solving the problem
- Ensure you understand as a group what the required outputs of the task are, and plan accordingly
Decision Making Exercise
Description:
You will be given an allotted time to read a number of scenarios and make notes
on what you would do if faced with these. You will then talk through your
responses with an assessor who will ask you further probing questions to ensure you fully understand the scenarios and to get more detail behind your thinking.
Top Tip:
- Manage your time appropriately, ensuring you read and make notes on all the scenarios
- Listen carefully to any questions the assessor asks and don’t panic if they challenge what you’ve said; this is all part of the task. Think about the responses you’ve given and provide further detail or justification, as appropriate
Case Study Presentation
Description:
You will be given a case study that will require you to make a recommendation. You will be given an allotted time to read all the information in the brief and structure a presentation on the flipchart provided. You will then present this to an assessor and respond to any of their questions.
Top Tips:
- Be clear and concise! Ensure your presentation has structure and consider what key messages you want to communicate within your recommendation
- Remember that, if you join one of our graduate programmes, it’s likely you’ll regularly present information so your assessor will be interested in reviewing your presentation style. Don’t forget the basics such as introducing yourself, introducing your presentation (i.e. what is the task and what are you about to present to them) and being confident and articulate in your delivery
Interview
Our graduate interviews contain questions that look for evidence of the following:
- Technical – To understand your passion and understanding of the business function you have applied for. Find out more about our Graduate Programmes.
- Motivational – To understand what makes you tick and why you feel a graduate career at Nestlé is right for you
- Competency – This is your opportunity to give us examples of the amazing things you have done to date that show you have the key skills we know will make you successful at Nestlé. Find out more about our competencies.
Depending on the function you apply for, it’s possible that your assessment centre may include two separate interviews; one that is more technically-biased and another that covers the competencies. Your motivations for the Company and the role are likely to come out in both.
Top Tips:
- Take time to think of a variety of examples that make you different and stand out over other candidates (Remember: examples can be from any part of your life, not just university studies)
- Look to give examples that enable you to show us your passion, energy and enthusiasm
- It’s good to prepare – i.e. have several examples in mind that you can draw from – but be aware of over-preparing and not properly listening to the question in your eagerness to share your pre-prepared example
- For competency-based questions, it’s always good to share your responses using the STAR approach:
- S – Situation – Briefly set the scene e.g. when this was, where you were etc. so that your assessor has a context for the example you’re about to share
- T – Task – What was the task or the problem you encountered and what did you need to do. Again, this should be fairly brief
- A – Action – This should form the bulk of the information you present and is all about what you did, how you did it, what you said etc. Please be as specific as possible
- R – Result – What happened next? Did you solve the problem/save some money/learn something?
Psychometric Re-Testing
Description:
ALL our candidates sit a paper-and-pencil version of our online psychometric test
during the assessment centre
Top Tip:
- We advise you to practise the tests in this format as well as the online versions to enable you to feel more at ease and know what to expect on the day
