When attending a job interview, especially a group interview or an assessment centre, it is likely that the first activity will be an icebreaker.
As the name suggests, the whole point of this is to break the ice. You are in a room full of strangers with each of you competing to be offered a job therefore it is only natural people will feel nervous.
Employers will use an icebreaker to help everyone to relax and get to know each other a bit better. They may even join in themselves.
However, it is still important to fully participate in the icebreaker activity. Remember this is still part of the interview and you will be being observed.
Some common icebreaker activities:
- Introduce yourself and tell everyone a bit about you.
- State an interesting fact about yourself.
- Two truths and a lie. This is usually done in small groups as it is more time-consuming.
- Go around the room and find someone who has something in common with you.
- Arrange yourselves into age order without speaking.
- People bingo. You’ll be given a bingo sheet containing things like ‘has a pet’, ‘born in May’ or ‘visited Spain’. You will need to find someone who has this or has done this to be able to cross it off.
- Scavenger hunt. You may be given a list of some items to find either on your own or in small groups.
- Who am I? Similar to the popular game you will be given a sticker with a famous person written on it. You will have to guess who you are by asking questions.
- Interview each other. You will be put in pairs and given a few minutes to talk to each other. Afterwards, you will be asked to introduce your partner to the rest of the group and maybe give one or two facts about them.
- Desert Island. You will be told to imagine you are trapped on a desert island and can only take one thing with you. Explain to the group what you would take and why.
- Continue the story. The interviewer will begin telling a story then pass on to the next person who will add a sentence to the story. Going around the group everyone will add a sentence to the story. The results of this can be absolutely hilarious.
- Puzzles. In groups, you will be given a puzzle to solve. The group that finishes first may receive a prize.
- Silly questions. You may be split into smaller groups for this. Everyone in the group will be asked some silly questions such as “If you could be any celebrity who would it be and why?” or “What movie/TV character are you most like?”.
As well as at job interviews, icebreakers can be used at staff meetings or training events to help relax everyone or introduce new employees.
