November 6th, at Watford Stadium took place the Assessment Centre Experience and this is the first year that The School of Creative Arts has participated. During this event, we had to complete a group exercise, an interview and a presentation, with the final written feedback from each exercise on the day from the assessors. They gave us a nice welcome in the Sir Elton John Suite where they explained us everything we had to know like the daily programme, the timetable and the map to the rooms. Everything was very clear from the beginning and this was useful to focused only on my exercises. I felt lucky to be there, in the right place of the world, in the right moment of my life. I must say that the structure and the topic of this course are quite far from what I used to do in Italy, and I was pretty sceptic about it. Now that 2 months of my 5 months here are gone, I realized that I need this more than I think and now that this event is gone, I understood the importance of being part of a group to do this kind of job.
I should start saying that I was terrified from Assessment Centre Experience. Everything seemed to me an impassable wall, until a did the first exercise, the presentation. I was glad to start with something that represented me, in which I felt more confident. I chose to talk about the importance of sound design in films and television, a topic I really care about and in which Iām very interested. For the preparation, I did some researches, saw lots of videos, and listening several examples to deeply understand the difference between films and television. As Iām very interested in sound, I read some texts I already had and others I found on Google Books. To support my presentation, I used audio aids as examples and I did an experiment I saw time ago and from which I remained fascinated. I also did a short video to help me in this: I put three videos together and Iāve replaced the audio of one of them, instead of the right sound, Iāve added an audio recorded from me of something totally different from the image. My mates should have guessed which one the clip with the modified audio was, to find out only after that I put my audio in all three videos. The examiner was very kind and friendly from the beginning and makes me and my classmates very comfortable. As soon as I started to talk all the stress disappeared and I felt like if those endless 5 minutes became too few. The feedback of this first exercise was quite good, I didnāt seem nervous as I actually was and this is important to me because it means I was able to handle anxiety situation. The assessorās questions were about how I worked for my presentation, how I took to prepare all I needed and which researches I made. The question I loved the most was the last one, it was something like: āIf you would have had more time available, how would have you used it?ā. I was positively impressed because I would have talked hours about that topic, but I couldnāt and this question gave me the possibility to show something more.
The second exercise I went through was the interview one to one: this is the exercise that surprised me the most. I never expected to be so self-confident in such a situation. The Assessor was a very nice and friendly woman and this is helped me to be ready for the imminent interview. I seemed to her very āsmiling and warmā, traits of my character I wanted to be noticed. She saw in me also enthusiasm, passion and expression of creativity: nothing better for someone trying to make art. Iām glad that I was able to communicate this part of me. Unfortunately, I appeared nervous and anxious to her throughout the interview exercise, and this is makes me smile because Iāve never been so relaxed, but I evidently did a bad work with my body language. I struggled to explain some ideas during the exercise and I had some problems with the STAR techniques, for this reason, in the feedback she advised me to work on it. I did some exercises about this technique at home but, once I was there, it became hard to explain. I will work on it for sure. Summing up, I was happy of myself and how a manage this situation, a new situation for me, aggravated by my not perfect use of English.
This problem took me to fail the last exercise, the group exercise. We had to find a way to bring new clients to The Galleria, the main shopping centre in Hatfield. The main outcome of the group exercise was a mobile phone application, with the layout, colours and style of The Galleria logo. We had 5 minutes to read the topic and truly understand what we had to do, 25 minutes to discuss it in group and the last 10 minutes to present the final outcome to the assessor. Iām very angry about this, because the topic we had to discuss was very easy and accessible. I know well that place, Iāve been there dozens of times and I had the possibility to express my ideas, but I failed. Unfortunately, the different language represented an obstacle for me in that situation. I was so concentrated on listening my group mates, understanding what they were saying, thinking a way to say what I wanted to say that I wasnāt able to think to my own idea to contribute to the group discussion. I have to admit I was disoriented and Iām sorry about that, I could have done more than just listening. I had what it took to be a success: the topic was easy and inherent, the working group were friendly and above all, were formed by people I knew, and finally, it was an exercise, I could do mistakes, nothing would have happened, I just had to be brave. I need to learn from my mistakes to do better the next time.
In conclusion I have to spend some reflective words about what all this taught me. In the days before this event, I was very worried, I thought I couldnāt do it and that I would have dried up. Despite this I made my preparation trying to not think about it. When the day came, I decided to be brave and give all my best to have a success. I gave myself a challenge. I learnt which my weaknesses are and I understood how to overcome my limits, I just have to work on them. I was surprised by myself in some situations, and disappointed in others contexts. Iām now very happy that I did this experience, it made me strong and more self-confident, despite all my worries. These kind of experience, in my opinion, are very useful for our path out of the University, they let us know how the work environment is, they let us be wrong to improve more and more, they make us aware of ourselves and of others around us. Personally, I found these exercises very useful for everything concerns the group work, I wasnāt so used to work as part of a group, I did lots and more individual projects in Italy. Learn how to interact with my colleagues and gain more awareness of myself were two of my main goals in this Erasmus. Iāve never been good at selling myself as Iāve always thought that my art should have talked for itself but I was wrong, or better, this is partly true. But what a company wants from us first is our ideas, everything starts from an idea and we must be able to tell it as a story, turn it in an experience for who is listening it. In this sense, doing a good practice work isnāt enough. After this event, I know better how to handle a situation in which I have to be the best and where the words are my artwork. I cannot fail to mention my classmates Tamya, Melissa and Anja, they were fantastic mates and I learnt lots of things from them. Obviously, they have more experience than me, and even if they are still learning like me as students, I had the opportunity to listening their presentations and āstealā some attitudes. Between the exercises, we could share our worries but also lots of laughs to reduce the tension. We talked about our work and preparation and we encouraged each other. Summing up, Iām quite happy of what I did, I could do more and better of course, but I learnt more than I expected, I found out my limits and now I know how to overcome them. Experience that, for better or for worse, I will hardly forget.
Hereās the link to the folder in which are my CV, Cover letter, the feedback of the day, the materialās presentation and the evidences od the training sessions.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A5aN6KHnMwnVjpP11sZKGxEXFaCitOKO
