I arrived at the Percy Gee building at the University of Leicester for my second session of the Leicester award with Santander. Within minutes of arriving at the meeting point, the coach arrived and took us to the Santander Headquarters at Carlton park and this time my group were led to a different training room within the building.
The tasks were quickly intergrated once we sat down on our allocated seats in the training room. The group were split into 3 teams, and I was put into team 2. I was then partnered with an employee from Santander. As we were walking to the room where I was supposed to prepare and make my presentation I asked her some questions about which department she worked in and what tasks she had to do in her job. I felt pretty nervous about doing the presentation but exited at the same time.
So once we arrived at our designated room, I was told that I had 30 minutes to look at the presentation task and use my research to help me in my presentation. The first section of the task was to make a presentation on the challenges and opportunities that Santander face. The second section was to make a presentation on what Santander can do to make them the best bank for customers, staff, and shareholders. Using the research that I had brought with me, I started to plan out my presentation.
So after 30 mins was over, I was told to present when I was ready. Surprisingly when it actually came for me to do my presentation, I felt quite really calm and relaxed. I started the presentation by making an introduction about Santander, mentioning their position in the industry, how large the bank was and the amount of employees that were employed. I then moved onto explain the current challenges that Santander faced, mentioning how I thought that the current economic environment posed challenges to the bank.
Of the 10 minutes given for the presentation, I presented for 6 minutes. I was then asked a couple of questions about the bank in relation to my presentations. And after that, I was given some feedback. I was told that I presented really well, I was confident and fluid on my presentation. However I could have structured my presentation more and be more precise on the sections that I was presenting. The feedback given to me was really helpful, as it gave me directions and guidance on what I needed to improve on. I thought that the task had developed my presentation skills and pinpointed my weaknesses. I felt that I could have done more research so that my presentation would have lasted longer and it was something that I needed to reflect on.
After the presentation was completed, I was taken back to the training room and put into a group of 5. We were tasked with a group assessment, similar to the group assessment that I participated in during the first session. This time however, we were given a report on a company and our task was to think of how the company can improve their performance without using financial means. Using the feedback from my previous experience, I tried to improve my performance by mentioning more about the figures and numerical parts of the assessment. I was also more assertive and took part in the group assessment by giving my ideas and agreeing or disagreeing with my team members ideas. Once we finished deciding on what the company should prioritize and focus on in order to improve their performance, we each presented different areas of our report. General feedback was given at the end of our presentation, however I was able to link my performance with the feedback given and I think that I may have been too assertive and not consultative enough with my team members. I believe that I should have stated the reasons for my ideas, and why I believe that someone else's idea may have worked or not. Overall, I think that I definitely had improved compared to the first time I took part in a group assessment and it provided me with valuable experience in dealing with a group assessment in the future.
Our last session of the day involved in listening to a presentation about competency questions and interviews. I thought that the presentation was useful as it gave me an insight on what types of questions will be asked during a competency interview, and how to prepare for them. I found the presentation very useful as it showed that you can prepare for competency interviews by practicing the questions.This would definitely aid me in future job interviews.
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