June 2007 Assessment Centre

Pre-Assessment Centre Briefing.
Lucky for me I had holiday booked for two weeks. So the Pre-Assessment Centre Briefing fell right in the middle of the holiday. It meant that my holiday plans had to change, but at least I didn't have to make excuses at work or book more time off.

As I queued up outside of the meeting room, I spotted one of my good friends future brother-in-law. It seemed strange, the last time I saw him was probably when we were teenagers. There were about 50 people in the room, most had arrived on time, in smart suits, though one or two I spotted were sporting jeans or trackies, not very professional I thought. We sat through the briefing, frantically scribbling down notes on every word of advice they gave us.

Most of these potential future police officers seemed around my age, in their 20’s. I was one of about 9 females in the room, a poor resemblance to the real life male to female ratio I thought. I recall sitting there weighing up my chances of passing all the entry requirements and how I would compare to the others. I felt sure that some of the other girls in the room were unlikely to pass the strength test during the fitness assessment, particularly the girl in 4 inch stiletto’s, a very short skirt and low cut top, with a perfect manicure and makeup. Here I was in a trouser suit, flat pumps and no makeup and broken nails from last weeks rugby training.

So fully prepared from the briefing I trotted outside to my Dad. The now recently retired Inspector was waiting in the car park full of interrogation questions for me all the way back to his place. ‘Yes Dad, No Dad, I don’t know Dad, I will have to wait till the Assessment Centre Dad’. This questioning was a fairly regular treatment in my childhood I had nearly forgotten about it since leaving home. I guess if I get into the police I will learn to be just as skilled and annoying as he is at interrogating questions and lie detection.

The Big Day.
I have booked my train ticket in advance and am so very nervous. My train gets delayed and I have to run to get a cab as I come out of the station. Luckily I get to the police Assessment Centre in time, to be sat in reception and told to wait.

Eventually we are escorted through to an examination room where we are divided into groups. There is 1 other female in my group of 8. We are now taken to the old accommodation block where were are squeezed into a tiny room before being interviewed one on one, then assessed in role plays. I hadn’t been very worried about this stage of the assessments. However, it was horrid. I couldn’t think of examples to use for my answers in the one on one interview. I then lost my words and felt unprepared in the role plays. Surely I was not going to pass, these were timed interviews and after every question they kept telling me I still had time spare – arr panic I must say something, and some random repeat of what I have just said blurts out of my mouth. What an idiot, I emerge from the room glad to see the red faces of the other interviewees; thank goodness I am not the only one who found that hard!!

We are then taken back to the exam room to sit several long paper based examinations. This is the bit I have been dreading. The Pre-Assessment Briefing had made me very nervous about this. Only up to 4 spelling or grammatical errors are allowed, or you will fail. You must score a least a minimum % in all tests put together to pass. My ‘specific learning difficulty’ could really cause me a problem, I just got to try and not use any long words and stick to the basics, just like they told us to.

After 5 whole hours of being assessed I am absolutely shattered, physically and mentally. So I head off to the pub to meet up with some old school friends for dinner and drinks, a good way to relax after such a long and tiring day. I then head home on the 2 hour train journey and yet another long wait to find out if I passed. Fingers Crossed!!