By challenging yourself to see how well you score against each competency, you will be able to assess the size of the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

This will help you focus on how developing your job skills can really impact positively on your opportunities for success.

This sort of scoring is quite subjective and you need to be as honest as you can with yourself.

Strangely, it often means giving yourself enough credit for what you are already capable of. Many people fail to be as fair with themselves and underscore accordingly.

Which a bit crazy, but it’s true!

If you score yourself below 5/10 in any of the areas, there is quite a bit of work developing your skills to bring you up to scratch.

Over that and we are simply fine-tuning and ’spinning’ value out of what qualities are already there. It’s a good place to be!

The key now is what you are going to do about it next. And that’s where “How To Win At Assessment Centers” will make a difference!

Assessment centers are challenging opportunities to develop and enhance your career and the opportunities for the future. You can make your life a lot easier if you take two small and significant steps to prepare…

It might sound a little crazy, yet it’s so fundamental that it gets missed. There are two really obvious actions to take to make the most of the assessment center you’ve fought so hard to reach.

So, listen up and make the best of your opportunity.

1. Get Your Pre-work Done

You may be asked to either submit work in advance of the Assessment Center, or take something with you. If so, make sure you clearly understand the instructions and if you don’t, get clear in good time (preferably not the day before it’s due in!).

Submit whatever it is in exactly the format requested and if, for some reason you cannot, talk to them about it rather than send it knowingly incorrect. They want to have an easy time sifting through submissions, so make it easy for them and they will love you before you get there!

Here’s a reminder, if you are working hard on a presentation, save it to at least two locations and not just on your computer. Save as you go along and save to a USB pen drive as well, at least. You might even copy to a CD and another computer as well! It really is better to be safe than sorry!

Paranoid maybe, but you can always e-mail a copy to your Yahoo/MSN/Hotmail e-mail address as well and file it there too! So, don’t work your socks off and then lose it – it is all to easy to do.

If you print it out for them, make a second copy and if you are taking it on the day, put a copy in your bag to take in with you and keep a copy in the boot of your car too.

Pre-work for an assessment center takes a lot of sweat and effort - it will pay you to do it well, do it safely and protect what you’ve got!

2. Understand and Follow Instructions - To The Letter!

You will be excited about your opportunity, that’s for sure. And there’s a load of stuff to take in. So make sure that you keep all the information sent to you in one place and in one envelope somewhere safely.

Then read it all carefully at least twice. Especially the information about the assessment center day itself. It can be so easy to mis-read or misunderstand what has been sent to you, so take great care here.

It might sound stunningly obvious – and it is – and the detail is vital. It is not unknown for people to turn up at the wrong time, wrong date and wrong place.

So the onus is on you, despite this being such a simple challenge, to get this bit right without fail. Then in the knowledge that it’s all going to happen where you think it is, you can focus on getting right what you need to get right.

And focus on a successful assessment center outcome!