Applied mid december 2014, completed an aptitude test at the start of january, and was invited to the assessment centre at Hursely at the end of january. The day consisted of a logic/reasoning exam, a few group exercises, a group interview, two one-on-one interviews, and a presentation that I had to prepare beforehand. Plenty of time to mingle with other applicants in between sessions.
The first group exercise was one of those '5 houses, 5 people, 5 pets, 5 house colours, 5 hobbies' puzzles with sentences giving basic information, leaving us to complete the rest.
In the second, we were each given a 'zany' product, like chocolate teapots or umbrellas for dogs, with descriptions and pictures, and we had to discuss our thoughts to each other, pick a product, and pitch it to the invigilators.
The group interview was one interviewer to three interviewees. The interviewer would start off with a scenario, and ask the first of us to give our thoughts, possible risks or solutions, etc. Then the interviewer would move on to the next person, ask if they had anything else to add, and then they would add a bit more to the scenario and ask again, before moving to the last person. This was repeated three times with different scenarios, so each person had a chance to start.
The first interview was about some of my technical knowledge, and the second was a very casual 'getting to know you' interview.
The presentation was on 'why I want to work for IBM', where I was sat next to the interviewer, with a laptop on the table. I flicked through the slides and went through my points.