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IBM Exploration Session Advice

Good Afternoon, I have applied for IBM's Degree Apprenticeship in Digital and Technology Solutions and I have an "Exploration Session" or "Assessment Centre." I am freaking out and feel out of my depth as I think the other candidates will be better than me. Do you guys have any advice and tips?

Reply 1

Mr-Tickle

Original post by Anom-007

So with your group exercise they will mainly assess you on these:
- communicating effectively with other group members and articulating your views and opinions in a clear, fluent manner that was easy to understand
- understanding the needs of the customer and promoting customer satisfaction by ensuring that their various needs and expectations were met
- creating opportunities to collaborate within your group, show your support for others, and encourage the team's progress towards its goals

Just remember you have to talk, they can only assess you on what they hear.

For your interview just make sure you show a passion for IBM and real reasons you want to work for them. e.g. IBM's CSR, their awards, their values, their technologies, etc. The interviewers and hiring managers are incredibly friendly, it hardly feels like an interview.

The exploration session isn't there to trip you up, all of the recruitment team want you to succeed, you just have to show the bare minimum. You don't have to worry about other candidates, IBM is nice in the way there isn't a maximum number of candidates they put through the exploration session.

Don't freak out, practice your presentation, practice interview questions, think of questions you can ask the interviewer and good luck!

Reply 2

J0nnymac

Do your research too. IBM has a thing called the IBM Academic Initiative which gives free access to accreditations etc. Looks super impressive. Also get an IBM Design Thinking badge that guves a super methodology for solving problems in a team

Reply 3

cloud001

Hello, I had a question about the presentation. Is it ok to use pictures/images found online? They said the presentations have to be in pictures. Thanks in advance.

Reply 4

cloud001

Original post by Musical Cats

Yes that's fine. I used images from google for my presentation, they take notes while you talk so don't spend more than 5 minutes sorting out the presentation slides as they don't look at your slides much. When is your exploration session by the way?

Thanks. My one's on the 30th of this month.

Reply 5

cloud001

(Original post by Musical Cats)Yes that's fine. I used images from google for my presentation, they take notes while you talk so don't spend more than 5 minutes sorting out the presentation slides as they don't look at your slides much. When is your exploration session by the way?

Did you already get an offer if you don't mind me asking?

Reply 6

cloud001

Original post by Musical Cats

I attended my exploration session last week but got rejected unfortunately. Good thing is though they usually get back to you the next working day with feedback if you get rejected. The exploration session is a pass/fail assessment and successful applicants get a 2nd interview. Even though I got rejected, I'm happy to share my experience through private messages if you'd like?

Oh I'm sorry to hear that. I would definitely like some help and tips if you don't mind.

Reply 7

hazylazy

Original post by cloud001

Oh I'm sorry to hear that. I would definitely like some help and tips if you don't mind.

Do you mind sending me the link of Musical Cats' profile? I'm new to TSR so can't find it.😅

Reply 8

Musical Cats

Original post by hazylazy

Do you mind sending me the link of Musical Cats' profile? I'm new to TSR so can't find it.😅

Hey, you can find it by clicking on my username :smile:

Reply 9

hazylazy

Original post by Musical Cats

Hey, you can find it by clicking on my username :smile:

My account is new so I can't send private messages so can I ask how long the session lasted and if they interview you separately? If so, do they talk about what you put on your application form/cv?

Reply 10

aliziathomas

Original post by hazylazy

My account is new so I can't send private messages so can I ask how long the session lasted and if they interview you separately? If so, do they talk about what you put on your application form/cv?

Hi, completed my IBM exploration session. You should have gotten an email telling you about what time each event will start virtually. They run it through webex so if you click the webex link they had sent you then it states how long each of tasks will roughly last. First have a briefing (this isnt assessed) then you move to the Group activity which took around 45 minutes, you then get a break inbetween depending on how long your group activity lasted. My break between this was 35minutes. We then moved onto the presentation/interview, now from what i noted the presentation really does matter and you really should try answering the questions to the best of your ability. During the presentation the recruiter they go on mute and let you do all the talking and switching slides yourself etc. After your done with the presentation they will ask you a few questions based on your application form and cv, they ask a few government required questions and then ask about specific things you want to do within the role so make sure you really know why your applying to the role. At the end they ask if you have any questions for them, if so please state them. This should last roughly 45minutes. You then have a break, mine was 1 hour and then the apprentice q and a session which isnt assessed so you dont rly need to join but its good if you want to ask some questions to them. Thats basically the run down of the tasks etc. Inshallah you guys do good. :smile:

Reply 11

Musical Cats

Original post by hazylazy

My account is new so I can't send private messages so can I ask how long the session lasted and if they interview you separately? If so, do they talk about what you put on your application form/cv?

Adding on from aliziathomas' post, the group exercise is also part of your assessment and they expect you to be quite proactive and talkative from what I took from my AC (I was a level 4 applicant). I passed the presentation but the group exercise is where I went wrong unfortunately.

The apprentice Q&A is also your chance to ask current apprentices anything you wouldn't normally ask an interviewer such as salary, workload, etc. The apprentices are really approachable and go through everyone's questions in detail.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 12

Musical Cats

Original post by aliziathomas

Hi, completed my IBM exploration session.

How did your AC go? Did you have it this today or earlier in the week?

Reply 13

CurryCurry2468

Original post by hazylazy

My account is new so I can't send private messages so can I ask how long the session lasted and if they interview you separately? If so, do they talk about what you put on your application form/cv?

Hello, I should be able to provide some insight into how the assessment centre works as I know people who have applied to other roles, not just apprentice ones that had to do the presentation and assessment centre.

With the presentation, it's about you in pictures but you need to link it to the criteria they set out (cannot remember it exactly) but don't over complicate it, as long as you have a good amount to talk about within each section you will be fine. They focus more on what you are saying and how you link it to what you are looking more than the pictures from what I was told, make sure you have a smile and have some interesting points to mention.

I have a family relative who recently applied for the DTS level 6 role with IBM, think it was for consulting and he had his AC end of January I think it was (this was for the March intake). He did his presentation and just used pictures from Google, nothing too creative but he spoke about good stuff in his presentation and the interviewer enjoyed it and the follow up interview is literally just questions based on what you wrote in your application form, nothing too complicated and they go more in detail about the role itself and base locations, sort of an informal disucssion.

The AC obviously I won't reveal specific details and it could be a similar task for upcoming AC's but you just have to constantly be engaged and provide input to the group. It can be difficult because the groups are like 6 people and with it being virtual it's hard to get ur point across without coming across as too demanding in a way. My relative did really well in the interview/presentation but not so well in the AC, he provided good points but did not meet the other criteria and got rejected. It was a good learning experience though for him.