Selection Tests

Another dog, yes…. but there is a reason….. we had to go through a number of pre-ownership tests before Julie the dog (left) could come to be with us….  The ‘clincher’ (look it up!) was would the puppy like us?  That seemed to be resolved with her climbing onto my shoulders, wrapping herself around my neck, going to sleep and snoring tunefully into my ear.

So, where am I going with this?

Well, I have just read an article on the BBC website today about the rise of pre-interview tests: some hardly surprising, but others rather shocking, actually.     Here’s the link

Please read this (and have a close look and try at the tests linked further down this page), especially if you are a MICAI student as some of the tests seem to be favoured by certain cultures. Argentina, apparently, seems to go in for whole batteries of tests including one used in the vast majority of cases (to hand-draw a person in the rain) from which incredible amounts of supposition as to the the artist’s personality is made with no hard evidence that the method is scientifically valid or reliable.  France is apparently a country which (still) goes in for hand-writing tests (though what adherents of the method believe they might be able to ‘see’ in them regarding personality is unscientifically proven).  Strange for France, Cartesian and evidence-driven in extreme as it is, that people might go in for a test with zero proof of evidence.  If any employer asks for something from job applicants in hand-writing, you can now guess why!  I’m not sure I’d like to work for an organisation which indulges in such things.   Though I would add a strange footnote to graphology: I have been teaching for more than 30 years and, like many of my colleagues, have an almost unerring ability to be able to tell male from female handwriting (why, I don’t know), but even so, I wouldn’t call that scientific or the basis for offering or denying a job to anyone.

So be aware; be on your mettle: employers are so desperate to ‘get it right‘ (because it costs far too much to ‘get it wrong’!) in the hiring decision that they are putting potential employees through increasing numbers of more( and occasionally very much less reliable tests). That said, tests are largely digitised/automated and remove the sort of ‘subjectivity’ that one gets in a face-to-face evaluation situation.  You should at least decide what you think about them and prepare for them if you consider them to be valid.

As to ‘more normal / typical tests’, then you may well find yourself up against a whole battery:

The Australian Institute of Psychometric Coaching can help outline the types, what you might expect and how you might prepare..  The University of Kent Careers Service also has much, well thought out advice and many practice tests available. Such tests might include those linked below. but there are more!!!  Often, however, employers tell you before interview what they intend to inflict upon you!   IF they do not tell you specifically BUT they ask you to make yourself available for half a day rather than just an hour’s interview, then you can ‘bet your bottom dollar‘ (be certain) that they have certain ‘tests‘ they are going to spring upon you.

I strongly suggest you familiarise yourselves with some/most of them NOW rather than later so that you will not be ‘fazed’ when you are presented with one for real.  Success in this area is often a question of familiarity and learning some techniques and that comes from doing the tests a few times in order to improve your speed and to give answers that produce the sort of ‘picutre’ of you that the employer is seeking.

• Numerical Reasoning Tests (Basic Maths and problem-solving … but you need to be quick!!)  examples from TPTests.com and from Gradtests

• Verbal reasoning tests.  A Gradtests example

• In-tray (and e-tray) organisation exercises.  University of Kent advice and example and one from Assessment Day

• Situational judgement tests. Example from Practice Aptitude Tests

• Inductive reasoning tests: another Gradtests example.

• Cognitive ability tests.  Lots of helpful free tests and a suggested week-long programme to prep yourself to sit such tests

The list is almost endless … but then the search for the perfect fit between post and applicant is relentless, so what else might one expect of an employer seeking to:

• keep costs down by making efficiency gains     AND
• Improve effectiveness and economy by finding and keeping the ‘right’ person for every post (and eradicatng undesireable and all-too-costly labour turnover in the process).    ????

NB.  Remember, some turnover is:

• inevitable: retirement at age or on ill-health grounds, moving and family imperatives, death in service, seasonal industry employment pattern etc
• desireable: to remove the few remaining weak-performing employees, to promote and replace staff, to allow ‘new blood’ and ideas into the system from outside so that the company doesn’t become ‘inbred’ or moribund and can change [think: ‘Neo’ in the Matrix]

SO the message is:

• you will almost certainly encounter such tests – especially if you are set to be employed by a company with a large HRM function.
• you may not find yourself faced with such tests with your first job application (but you may!), but as you rise up the career ladder, the ‘stakes’ get higher for the employer: the accent upon finding just the right person becomes even more critical and the proposition of adding tests or role plays becomes more attractive!
• prepare NOW.  Try these out.   Become familiar with them and overcome any fear or reticence you may feel about them, then refresh yourself just before interview.

Good luck!