Prepare for the TfL Graduate Scheme Assessment Centre and Interview

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The TfL assessment day is divided into up to five different assessments, and you will need to perform at your best to give yourself the best chance of being offered that job. There will normally be 12 other participants in the assessment centre with you.

The group exercise asks you to work as part of a team to come to a solution on a given problem. As a group you are given a brief and various pieces of information about a proposed plan, quite possibly in the London Underground service. You will then have to discuss this with the other members of your team for the next 40 minutes. At this stage of proceedings, you will be assessed on your ability to work in a group, not being too pushy but showing your will to get things done. Make sure that your actions are in line with the answers that you gave to your competency questions because this is an area where many people are caught out at. Moreover, at this stage you should take notes on what you are doing because you can then use them as basis for the report which you will have to write next. Gain tips on how to approach the group exercise with our group exercise pack.

Following on from the group exercise you are given 30 minutes to write a formal report of the outcome of your group discussion. The goal of this report is to test your ability to communicate through written reports, presenting information to higher managers in a clear and concise way. Here are some tips for success:

• Use a lot of bullet points and headings. This ensures that your writing is clear and to the point.
• Not only providing solutions to the problems but also add some reasons behind your conclusions.
• Use jargon correctly. Don't go overboard but if you can throw in some concepts it shows that you are fully aware of what TfL does.
• Don’t forget to add a sentence “in conclusion” as this shows that it isn't rushed (even if it will be).

Get more tips and brush up on your written skills with our written exercises preparation pack.

Before the actual day, you will receive a brief on a subject related to your chosen field. You have to prepare this information for a presentation with the assessors. You are asked to prepare a 10 minute presentation to deliver to a panel of interviewers, who will also ask you questions about what you have said in your presentation. Giving a presentation can be nerve wracking. Prepare thoroughly, and get tips on how to prepare a confident presentation with our tips pages.

You may be asked to take a paper version of the online tests you took earlier in the process. Ahead of the assessment day, simply go back and refresh your memory on what these tests entail.

The final exercise at the assessment centre is a competency based interview. You will face a panel of interviewers who will ask you questions about your former experience and skills. They are looking for you to provide examples from your previous experience to illustrate your answers. Ahead of the interview, think of some examples that you think can be used for a variety of situations, and think about how you would present them. Organise your answers using the STAR method (situation, task, action, result), to ensure that you cover all the information you need. Review your application, and the examples you prepared for your phone interview, but try to think of new ones as well. Prepare for your interview with our interview preparation package.

Once the assessment day is over, all that remains is the offer to the position you have applied to. In order to get to this point though you will need to have impressed at every stage and proven yourself better suited to life at TfL than the other candidates. These pages have run through the recruitment process step by step and highlighted the resources available to help you prepare.