You apply for a job and are invited to an assessment day. They tell you that this will involve a role-play exercise You panic.
There are a lot of misconceptions about role-play exercises. Here we can address a few:
Myth |
Reality |
You have to pretend to be someone else | Potential employers want to see who you are and how you behave in certain situations. The last thing they want to see is amateur dramatics! |
They are designed to catch you out | You may need to think on your feet at times but this sort of exercise isn’t designed to deliberately trick you |
You will have to participate in fake and unrealistic scenarios | Role-plays are job simulations- that means they reflect key elements of the job you have applied for. This will provide a realistic picture of how you perform in realistic, relevant scenarios |
You have to second guess what the actors are thinking | In an interaction you will never know 100% what is going on in the other person’s mind. That’s why you ask questions, look for body language and facial expression cues and work together to establish common ground. Role-play scenarios are no different at all |
What will a role-play exercise look like?
You will probably be given some information to read through before the role-play to let you know what to expect. From this information you will have an idea of what the discussion will be about.
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