Iliad Assessment Center Reflection & Action Plan

Step 1: Value of the Assessment

What skills are hiring managers prioritizing when looking for college graduates in 2016? A recent
survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers identified the following attributes
employers are seeking:

Leadership

Ability to work in a team

Ability to make decisions and solve problems (tie)

Ability to communicate with people inside and outside an organization

Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work

Strong work ethic & high initiative

The Iliad assessment clearly measured the top attributes that employers look for in job applicants.
The skills that we cover in BMGT 289B have a major influence over your chances of getting hired.
Your discovery and delivery skills will give you an important competitive edge. It is essential that
students seek out activities that enable them to build their skills and provide experience working
with a team. Conduct some basic research to understand why employers value the above skills.

1. Based on your research, explain why employers often say these skills are more important to
them in a new employee than knowing how to do the technical duties their job requires?
Employers often say these skills are more important than knowing the technical duties
because technical duties can be useless if not delivered correctly. For example, if you
cant work in a team what is the good in you being able to solve mathematical problems.
If your team doesnt understand what you are doing or feel you are overbearing
nothing will ever get done. Plus, a lot of people are able to fulfill technical duties but
not everyone is skilled in leadership, teamwork, communication, and having a strong
work ethic. Therefore, these traits become more valuable.
2. How might I use what Ive learned from this assessment activity in the future?
This activity has taught me that in the future politeness and building upon other ideas
is vital. I think high school and below always taught me that people who did that were
dead weight to a group but this activity has proven to show that its actually vital. So
now in the future I will always think about how I can build upon and idea before
sharing my own.
3. What are your valuable insights and key takeaways from the Iliad assessment activity?
A valuable take away from the Iliad assessment was the ability to work in a group. As
much as people say this is important I feel as though our culture stresses individual

success. By this I mean that a lot of people focus more on saying something smart in
groups rather than working and building on other ideas of team members. I feel that
the Iliad results made it obvious that building on other ideas and not cutting people off
is extremely important.
Step 2: Summarizing Your Feedback
Based on the Iliad assessment center results report complete the table below. For each
strength/development need, record your score from the assessment report next to the item.
Known Strengths

Unknown Strengths

Initiative - 65

Teamwork- 68

Communication- 66

Strengths to
Leverage

Known Development Needs

Unknown Development Needs

Decision-Making- 35

Organization- 53

Areas to
Develop

Known to You

Unknown to You

Step 3: Personal Reactions to the Iliad Assessment Results

1.

Describe the Iliad experience from your point of view and how you felt during and after
the activity.

The Iliad experience is very challenging. I would say the challenge comes from not being
experienced with situations like these. Iliad truly does a good job at organizing everything.
Everything around us seemed to actually be going very smoothly but it was our schedule that
was hectic. I started out nervous in the activity but during the middle I was actually having a
lot of fun. It was interesting to see how I filtered myself since I knew I was being watched and
it was interesting to see how other students filtered themselves. By the end I was extremely
tired. Although it wasnt a full day I had felt exhausted.
2.

What did you learn about yourself from the Iliad assessment center exercise?

One thing I learned was that my level of energy greatly impacts my performance. I know this
seems obvious but some people can still work relatively well through being tired, but after
looking at my scores I was shocked at the massive decline I took and I think the only reason I
can account for this is because I remember feeling so tired by the end of the assessment.
3.

Explain how you leverage your strong scores with college recruiters in an interview
process. Discuss how you would explain your weak scores if a recruiter had access to
your score report. If you had any gaps (self-assessment score vs actual score) greater
than + or 30 points for any of the 5 skills assessed please provide your insights
regarding the significant difference. (Page 3 of the assessment report included your
actual percentile score on each of the skills assessed with your self assessment rating).
My strongest scores were communication and initiative and teamwork. Id
probably bring this up during an interview process and explain that
communication is extremely important because its used to bring ideas and people
together. It also allows for a lower margin of error because good communication
allows for everything to get done efficiently. Initiative is also very important
because it shows that someone is motivated. I would go on to explain that I got a
high score in that because I am extremely motivated and I put passion into
everything I do. Lastly, I would take about my high score in teamwork in saying
that I always strive to collaborate with the whole team because I believe in
contributes to the overall effectiveness. I would explain my lower scores in
decision- making and organization by just saying that these are things I know need
to work on and I am constantly working on perfecting them. The two gaps I had
(that were relatively close to 30) were in Teamwork (+28) and Decision-Making
(+25). I think this is just because I never analyzed myself in these territories before
so when asked to score myself I had no idea what to put. I believe I put a more
accurate score for communication and initiative because I have been told that I
communicate well and that I take initiative but I have never been told anything
about my teamwork skills or decision-making skills since no one has ever assessed
me before.

4.

What could you improve (weaknesses) about yourself based on the Iliad assessment
center results.

Based off of my assessment center results, I could improve on my decision-making and

organization. When it comes to decision-making I think that I just need to be sterner with
people and my opinion. I get so worried that I will be looked upon as inflexible to I like to
leave off making final decisions. When it comes to organization I think I need to gain strength
in finding and identifying a goal rather than trying to do everything at once.
5.

Identify the top 2 things that you what to change about yourself as a result of the
assessment.

One thing I want to change is my stamina. There obviously was no score for this. Although, I
distinctly remember getting really tired and my scores were taking a steep decline as time was
going on.
Another thing I want to change about myself is my awareness of myself. I noticed a couple of
my score gaps were pretty large. This obviously shows that I dont have a great sense of my
skills. I hope to now pay more attention to my skills and traits because I think its really
important to be self aware.
6.

What will you do to ensure success in your change endeavors?

To ensure success I will continue striving to work on my traits that scored low and I will
continue to observe others who are successful in these aspects.