HFW Assessment Centre

[T202]

Hi guys, I have an assessment centre with HFW soon and wondered if people have any tips on how to structure a letter of advice for the written exercise and just generally how to manage your nerves at an interview...

Also tips on getting your head around the numeracy element in a negotiation exercise.

Thank you so much

 

[Ahi88]

Hi guys, I have an assessment centre with HFW soon and wondered if people have any tips on how to structure a letter of advice for the written exercise and just generally how to manage your nerves at an interview...

Also tips on getting your head around the numeracy element in a negotiation exercise.

Thank you so much

Firstly, congratulations on getting through to the AC stage

Managing nerves is a difficult one since everyone will handle them in a different way. What I would say is to remember that you deserve to be there. View the AC as an opportunity for you to show off your skills and achievements to the recruiters and be excited that they have provided you a chance to speak face-to-face and prove to them that you would be a fantastic trainee at their firm. What is also helpful is to pause before answering questions in the interview and not be afraid to ask them for a moment to think about your answer. Not only will this allow you to collect your thoughts, but it also shows that each answer you give is carefully considered.

With regard to structuring a letter of advice for the written exercise, I think the main thing is to read carefully what advice you are expected to give. In my past AC's wherever I have written letters, it is usually an advice to either the client or supervisor which you are working with. It is important to be logical in your thinking and for you to tailor your writing style depending on your target audience. For example, if you are writing a letter of advice to the client, make sure you keep language simple and concise without including legal jargon. A helpful approach would be to place yourself in the shoes of the client to understand what are the salient issues they wish to know more about and then tackle these head on. On the other hand, if you are writing to your supervisor, it would be appropriate to go deeper into the legal analysis of your advice.

Concerning the numeracy element, I have not had many AC's which have tested my numeracy skills too much. However, if it is for a negotiation exercise I would say make sure you do some basic calculations in your prep time. For example, if you are negotiating for a particular figure and are willing to concede certain reductions or increases (i.e. 10%, 5% etc), then it will be very useful to jot these figures down so that you have them ready. I am unsure whether I can comment any further on this aspect so hopefully someone with more experience on this forum can add to this!

Best of luck for the big day!