Internships/Team Exercise
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Join Date: Jan 2011
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Internships/Team Exercise
Afternoon,
I took the OAA assessment the other day and passed all of it apart from the team excercise section. So I now have to wait for three months before I can retake that part again.
Firstly, what sort of things can I do to help me in this section as I have always played sport and been involved in teams etc but clearly i didn't show what they were looking for. I have seen these teamwork skills programs but they look a bit of a con at £400 a go.
Secondly, does anyone know of any intern/part time work that is currently available within the industry as anything airline/aviation related would be benifical as I now have at least three months to fill. Or a site that deals with this sort of thing specifically.
Thanks for any help.
I took the OAA assessment the other day and passed all of it apart from the team excercise section. So I now have to wait for three months before I can retake that part again.
Firstly, what sort of things can I do to help me in this section as I have always played sport and been involved in teams etc but clearly i didn't show what they were looking for. I have seen these teamwork skills programs but they look a bit of a con at £400 a go.
Secondly, does anyone know of any intern/part time work that is currently available within the industry as anything airline/aviation related would be benifical as I now have at least three months to fill. Or a site that deals with this sort of thing specifically.
Thanks for any help.
Join Date: Sep 2010
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Sorry to hear that - there are a few things you can do. How you perform in a team exercise is often a reflection of you as a person, there are some people who just can't manage others in a team, whereas some people can't take instruction. You may have done nothing wrong, it might just be that you didn't behave in the way they were looking for. You could have a team interview tomorrow for a top banking job and get selected, every company is looking for something in particular.
If I were you, think back to what task they gave you, and think about how you performed. Try to convert the task into a real life scenario in terms of the processes you were going through, and then think about how you would NEED to perform in that situation. Most team exercises involve something which is really simple, the hard part is working well in a team. They won't care how well you build your lego house e.g, so long as you all work in a way that is effective.
Usually they are looking for you to demonstrate your ability to learn, follow, lead and support all in one go. The worst thing you can do is try to act in the way you think they want you to act. Don't be afraid to question something you're not happy with, but also be willing to accept you're wrong and congratulate others. Most importantly, be yourself, smile, talk and listen. I suspect there is a lot of material on the internet about group work, and probably training courses you can attend so it really comes down to how badly you think you performed. Did they give you any feedback in the debrief?
Hope this helps!
If I were you, think back to what task they gave you, and think about how you performed. Try to convert the task into a real life scenario in terms of the processes you were going through, and then think about how you would NEED to perform in that situation. Most team exercises involve something which is really simple, the hard part is working well in a team. They won't care how well you build your lego house e.g, so long as you all work in a way that is effective.
Usually they are looking for you to demonstrate your ability to learn, follow, lead and support all in one go. The worst thing you can do is try to act in the way you think they want you to act. Don't be afraid to question something you're not happy with, but also be willing to accept you're wrong and congratulate others. Most importantly, be yourself, smile, talk and listen. I suspect there is a lot of material on the internet about group work, and probably training courses you can attend so it really comes down to how badly you think you performed. Did they give you any feedback in the debrief?
Hope this helps!
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Hello HJ, I'll witter on about my experiences and it may or may not be some help 
! Lots of good stuff in FG84's post - particularly re thinking about what you did in the team on the day.
There's a bit of luck to the OAA team exercises bit: I did it (and passed it) twice (selection for 2 different airline schemes) and both times were very different - the first was very, very difficult.
There were 7 of us, 4 of whom were quite forceful and 2 of whom were quiet (+ me in the middle). It was loud, intense and the 2 quiet guys found it extremely difficult. The 4 forceful ones (+me) were those who got through. Being rather older I just took the 4 more forceful ones on at their own game when I felt the need (and because the truth is that in that situation you HAVE to make yourself heard, even if only briefly, or they cannot give you any marks for input).
The thing that probably got me through was that at the 2 key decision-making points I waded in and made the louder guys pause, politely insisting that we get input from the other two quiet ones. I didn't get a high score but I did pass. Probably as hard as I expected to see a group exercise be.
The 2nd time I did it there were only 5 of us and only 1 much louder person. On this occasion I actually took the guys aside before we went in and suggested to them that we can all get good marks on this exercise if we all work together, listen to each other and make it look like we all got on and enjoyed the exercise.
It worked a treat. I let the louder guy take on the 'leader' role (since he clearly wanted to) and just gave guidance and input where valid, again ensuring that we got input from everyone and that decisions were group-based not just the leader imposing his will. We all really enjoyed this exercise and achieved what we'd hoped in that we all passed it and had a good laugh doing it. 1 of the bridges was a shambles though lol
So after all that waffling (sorry!) I'd say...
- any experience you can get beforehand of working with small teams (local or uni sports club committee, work project team, even planning a holiday with 3 or 4 mates) will be useful.
- ensure everyone has their say on the day
- speak up when you need to, sometimes you have no choice but to be (politely) forceful
- if you can work as a team you can all pass, getting that across to the others can be a challenge!
- make it obvious you are listening to other's input
Best of luck (if you're still awake
)
! Lots of good stuff in FG84's post - particularly re thinking about what you did in the team on the day.There's a bit of luck to the OAA team exercises bit: I did it (and passed it) twice (selection for 2 different airline schemes) and both times were very different - the first was very, very difficult.
There were 7 of us, 4 of whom were quite forceful and 2 of whom were quiet (+ me in the middle). It was loud, intense and the 2 quiet guys found it extremely difficult. The 4 forceful ones (+me) were those who got through. Being rather older I just took the 4 more forceful ones on at their own game when I felt the need (and because the truth is that in that situation you HAVE to make yourself heard, even if only briefly, or they cannot give you any marks for input).
The thing that probably got me through was that at the 2 key decision-making points I waded in and made the louder guys pause, politely insisting that we get input from the other two quiet ones. I didn't get a high score but I did pass. Probably as hard as I expected to see a group exercise be.
The 2nd time I did it there were only 5 of us and only 1 much louder person. On this occasion I actually took the guys aside before we went in and suggested to them that we can all get good marks on this exercise if we all work together, listen to each other and make it look like we all got on and enjoyed the exercise.
It worked a treat. I let the louder guy take on the 'leader' role (since he clearly wanted to) and just gave guidance and input where valid, again ensuring that we got input from everyone and that decisions were group-based not just the leader imposing his will. We all really enjoyed this exercise and achieved what we'd hoped in that we all passed it and had a good laugh doing it. 1 of the bridges was a shambles though lol
So after all that waffling (sorry!) I'd say...
- any experience you can get beforehand of working with small teams (local or uni sports club committee, work project team, even planning a holiday with 3 or 4 mates) will be useful.
- ensure everyone has their say on the day
- speak up when you need to, sometimes you have no choice but to be (politely) forceful
- if you can work as a team you can all pass, getting that across to the others can be a challenge!
- make it obvious you are listening to other's input
Best of luck (if you're still awake
)
