Initial stage was a telephone interview, which was fairly straightforward and lasted approximately 30 minutes. The interview was recorded to be played to the selection panel. Following successful completion of the telephone interview, there was an assessment centre lasting three hours. This involved several different types of activity, some testing individual skills (eg IT test and critiquing sample calls) and some testing group performance (problem solving tasks). Positives of assessment centre: Variety of tasks testing different skills and aptitudes Not overly reliant on presentation skills - good mix of individual and group tasks Negatives of assessment centre: Process required a whole day off work as the assessments were held in a different city 50 miles away and took up half a day. There was a reasonable cost and time implication of this, for which no reimbursement was offered. It was made clear from the beginning that internal candidates, seeking promotion, were included in the assessment centre. It appears that most of the jobs went to these internal candidates, which made the whole exercise feel like a bit of a waste of time.