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Many City careers involve employees having to regularly work in teams. This may be internally within their particular departments; internally within their firm but with a number of different departments that have a role on a different aspect of a deal (for instance the tax or regulatory implications of a transaction); with employees working within a different office within the global network of offices (if the firm is international); and/or with other types of firms. 

For instance, many transactions involve input from investment banks, law firms, accountancy firms, consultancy firms, regulators and institutional investors and these different industry players must coordinate effectively in order to successfully execute the transaction at hand. This is why many firms test your ability to work in teams during assessment centres and internships.

For these reasons, many assessment centres include some form of group exercise to test the way in which candidates interact with others on a mutual task (and sometimes also to test candidates’ commercial awareness and knowledge of the firm). Assessment centre group exercises could involve a whole host of scenarios. including:

Graduate recruiters are very perceptive and are likely to notice if the attitude of one or two candidates adversely impacts upon the team dynamic (even if this dynamic only surfaces when candidates are working together in private). Although your performance during a group exercise might not, in isolation, secure you the role, it can definitely cause you to miss out. You should therefore try to work positively and cohesively with team members. 

Be polite and supportive, not obnoxious, competitive, overbearing or argumentative. After all, these exercises are about collaboration, not competition! Candidates who are outwardly competitive are not generally looked upon favourably, as this can indicate that they would negatively impact the firm’s culture if they were to be offered a job. 

Also, try to encourage quieter team members to speak. Be receptive of ideas and prepared to concede, or at least deal constructively and delicately with ideas that you believe are somewhat irrelevant or objectively wrong. One way of showing that you’re a strong team player is to credit others’ contributions, draw together a range of ideas that have been raised, then suggest a way of moving forward.

Top tip: during group exercises such as negotiations or team-building tasks, try to use people’s names, just to show that you’re paying attention. This can help you to connect more strongly with your teammates. Asking people what they think (rather than just telling everyone what you think) is another quick and simple way of demonstrating that you value the opinions of others and can therefore work effectively in a team.

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