The first stage (applying online) comprised of basic competency based questions, five in total, as well as the basic profile questions (Work experience, Education etc...). Around three weeks later, I was invited to take part in the Telephone Interview, which I believe was conducted by an external organisation. Again, this simply comprised of competency based questions such as "Give an example of when you've had to work on a project as part of a team?". This telephony interview lasted around 40 minutes. Finally, I was invited to attend an assessment centre day (around about a month later). There were around 20 other candidates on the day. The assessment day consisted of a group presentation, group fact finding exercise, panel interview and a writing exercise. In the group exercise, myself and 3 other candidates were required to select and discuss two emerging technologies, highlighting the pro's and con's of both and then deliver a presentation to the "head of IT". In the fact finding exercise, all 20 candidates were split across two groups. Each member of the respective groups were handed a pack of flash cards, containing information relating to the task. The exercise was to determine the location, date and year a Viking war took place, but candidates were not allowed to show one another what information was contained on their flash cards, but were allowed to read out the information to the group. The purpose of this exercise was to determine how well candidates collaborate together to come to a conclusion. This exercise took around 1 hour. The panel interview was conducted by two of the managers at Parker, and comprised of competency and personality questions. The interview lasted around 45 minutes. Finally the writing exercise; all candidates were to write a blog post containing no more than 500 words on a chosen topic in 45 minutes. I assumed this exercise provided the opportunity for candidates to demonstrate how articulate they are. All in all, the day was really enjoyable. All members of staff were approachable, friendly and had a sense of humour which really brought the best out of all the candidates which did make things quite competitive.