Perhaps most of the issue is in the uncertainty of not know what to expect. This is where I can help, here are some of the main components of assessment centres of medical sales jobs in the UK.
The group exercise. Essentially this involves tossing you into a room with a number of other people and setting you a task requiring a finite conclusion, then observing your behaviour in the group. Many candidates are often wrong to assume the task is to take charge and dominate. You can see them all bottling an idea an just desperate to get their turn to force it on the group. With this mentality, the candidate believes that they will win if their viewpoint is adopted. What most recruiters want to see is a willingness and ability to work as part of a team. For this, you need to listen to others comments, and try to acknowledge and build on them.
Psychometric testing. These are often a baffling experience where you are asked to answer 100s of questions, many of which simply appear to be the same questions asked in a different way. You could be forgiven for wondering what they have to do with medical sales. The best advice is just to 'go with it', don't get concerned with trying to work out what your 'should' answer, just answer as you see it and move on. All they are used for is to establish the nature of your personality to guide interview questions. There are no right and wrong answer.
Verbal and numerical reasoning. These are tests to establish the way in which you're brain works in terms of problem solving. You may have heard people talking about the left and right side of the brain pertaining to different behavioural patterns. Again, there are no right answers, there are people successful in medical sales who are more numerate, others who tend to be more creative and better with words. Contrary to claims, you can practise these and improve. A local book shop will likely have verbal and numerical reasoning books in them.
The in tray exercise. You are handed a whole load of paper documents and asked to create a list of task and prioritise in order of importance with rational or why the order and also how you would implement.. What they are looking for is a rational and logical thought process. As with real life scenarios here, there are no absolute right and wrongs, what you have to make sure is that your decisions have clear rational, and that the rational isn't fundamentally flawed, there are no failures on a point of pure judgement.
The presentation. You will likely be handed a topic on the day and given half an hour to prepare a presentation. Given that there is only half an hour and you don't really have that much time to research, content is not that significant within reason. It is likely to be on a medical sales topic so you will be expected to know something. The key to this exercise is to demonstrate the ability to put together a structured presentation and deliver it in front of an audience. to summarize, you will be judged more on 'how' you present rather than 'what' you present.
Panel interview. This will be an interview with anything up to 5 people. The key here is you need to appeal to all, and leave out none. Ensure when you give answers, you scan all of the panel with your eyes to include them all. Also, they will likely have varying opinions of life and medical sales, where possible try to avoid answers that are overly opinionated, in a group you;re sure to offend at lest some of them.
Assessment centres for medical sales jobs needn't be stressful affairs, one of main factors generating stress is not knowing what to expect. Hopefully these pointers will help.
