siwarren955 said:
Just got my AIB booked, has anyone recently completed the AIB who would be willing to discuss? Si
Did mine this week: went to Sultan on Sunday, got my congratulations on Tuesday.
The threads in the stickies are pretty good, to be honest, so I'd have a read through those - at least go through
AIB Advice- The condensed version (Updated regularly) It's good advice.
It's easier to be positive about it from the happy buzz of a pass, but a few subjective points:-
It's mostly a really good couple of days. The bad parts are the periods of waiting, especially on Day 2 when you're waiting your turn for the Board interview and then trying to eat lunch while awaiting the result: I found I really enjoyed the activities once I got going. Even the PLTs, which I had not looked forward to and felt I did poorly on, were an interesting challenge once I got into it.
Be positive, be cheerful, be a team player. It's often said because it's completely true: make your mark by being clear and being heard (if they can't hear you they can't give you marks), but do so supporting your syndicate, and listen as well as speak. Being assertive is good, steamrollering the others is bad.
Don't get into post-mortems on any part of the Board. You don't get told your marks during the AIB, all you learn is the overall result at the end: you may feel your essay was a bag of rats or that you blundered horribly in the planning exercise. Or, you may be sunnily confident that you absolutely aced your psychometric tests and racked up a gigantic score. Doesn't matter; give each element your best effort, then concentrate on the next one. If you ease off because you're sure you did superbly earlier, or if you give up because you're convinced you've blown it... you'll probably regret it.
Work with your team mates. You're being individually assessed, but your ability to form a working relationship with three strangers to tackle the tasks together is one of the things the Board really want to see. So, get down the Cocked Hat for a pint or two on the first night, spend a little time on the second evening working out some SOPs for the PLTs (like, "don't wait for the leader to tell you, as soon as you get the rope call "Staff, bowline, platform height!") and maybe the planning exercise. Smooth out what you can in advance, get to know each others' styles and strengths: you'll find plenty of other problems to tackle, but if you can get a feel for how each other work you'll do better.
Remember that much of the assessment is about how you cope with setbacks and problems. So, the planning exercise and the PLTs are designed to be difficult and to force you to realise where your plan isn't working, adapt and improvise, think on your feet... if you're sailing cleanly through with no problems, you almost certainly missed something important. None of my group finished our PLTs, only one (not me) got close - he failed, I passed.
If you don't understand anything, ask. You look a lot less daft asking a basic question or confirming a time and rig, than you do being late or showing up in coveralls when you should be in a suit. The staff are there to help you and will do so.
Although you're being tested, and the standards are supposed to be high[1], they'll give you as much of a chance as they can. The Board
want to pass you, but they need the evidence to do so. Remember that they're on your side.
That'll do for a start - hope it helps.
[1] Can't be
that high - they let me in...