As we continue our “Land Your Dream Job” we will learn about the many techniques that employers can use to determine if you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for on-the-job success.
When you accept an invitation to an in-person job interview, do you consider that the selection process might involve a test? Probably not, but it can. Attributes that employers look for in their ideal candidates are determined by the type of work that the employee will be required to do on the job. So, how do employers determine which candidate has what it takes to be successful? Some use various activities and tests as a part of the selection process to help gauge candidates’ skill level in target areas. These are called knowledge and skills exercises and there are seven main skills areas that employers may assess for. They include 1) Writing; 2) Math; 3) Analytical/Critical Thinking; 4) Decision-Making/Sound Judgement; 5) Compliance, Ethics, & Integrity; 6) Technology; and 7) Presentations/Public Speaking.
Today’s post will provide you with some great resources to help you prepare for this phase of the selection process. Let’s take a close at each of these skills areas:
- Writing – Writing is essential to business success. Those of us who are blessed with the skill of writing can attest that writing is the foundation for many successes. Personally, my ability to write effectively has enabled me to enjoy career success in some niche areas that I would otherwise have not been given the opportunity. My HR career began with my becoming an HR Specialist who developed selection procedures for State government merit exams. As a career field newbie, I could not see how what I was doing would contribute to my career development as an Aspiring HR pro. Surprisingly, it has had a profoundly-positive impact on my career. Successful businesses are built on relationships, and relationships are built on effective communication. So needless to say, writing is an essential part of business success. When you are hired, your employer needs to know that you will be able to represent them well during business interactions. Whether you are corresponding with vendors, other business representatives, colleagues, clients/customers, or the general public, your ability to write basic, coherent, business correspondence, using correct subject-verb agreement, will enable you to resolve conflict; write business reports; read, write, and interpret policies/procedures, respond to customer inquiries, etc.. With that in mind, employers often test candidates’ writing skills by asking them to write a letter to convey a certain message to the recipient(s). They also sometimes test candidates’ writing skills by giving them a letter that has grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors and asks the candidate to correct the errors. The best way to up your writing game is to practice writing and to read every chance you get.
- Math – Business success is also measured by the numbers. The numbers include: the number of clients/customers; the dollar amount of sales; the productivity of employees; product shelf life, etc., just to name some possibilities. So, as you can see, math is a big part of the business decisions that employers make each day. These numbers are often called metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and they are just fancy words that refer to the numbers that indicate a business’ success. So, as you can imagine, metrics are essential to making sound business decisions and metrics are calculated using some form of mathematics. Now some occupations such as Accountants, Mathematicians, Tax Specialists, require in-depth knowledge of some type of math; however, your career of choice may only require basic or intermediate math skills so don’t stress over it, but if you are planning or are in the midst of an active career search, I recommend that you start by strengthening your basic math skills. Those are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Now some of you might laugh because this seems so elementary, but it is a matter of “use it or lose it,” so if you have not been using these skills, take a practice test to get a current gauge of your skills without practice. You can easily find practice tests on line by googling “Basic math practice tests.” Once you feel good about the basics, you might want to take it a step further by practicing calculating fractions, decimals, ratios, word equations, and studying precalculus. You will likely find that the employer uses the same type of tests to assess candidates’ math skills during the selection process, so the time you spend oiling your rusty skills will be well-spent.
- Analytical/Critical Thinking – If you plan to move up in your career, you must be able to analyze business situations by asking the questions that will reveal the information needed to bring business challenges to resolution. As I shared during my post previous to this one on interview formats, employers often use case interviews to test your ability to apply critical thinking skills effectively. As a candidate, it is important for you to know the different levels of critical thinking that is required for each level of position in the business. Critical thinking for entry-level positions is different than the level of critical thinking that management expects of mid-level, management or executive level positions. Your success as an entry level employee may depend on your ability to think critically about the best way for you to perform your job more effectively and quickly. As a journey level employee who leads work projects, or as a mid-level manager, you may be expected to think critically about the best way to improve the processes that your team owns so that they can have a greater positive impact on your department’s success, which will ultimately have a positive impact the organization’s overall performance. As a Sr. Manager or Director, you will be expected to think critically about the most effective way to utilize your team members’ strengths to structure your department in a manner that eliminates duplication of duties and to consolidate like tasks into a coherent, continuous, efficient, logical business process that will save the organization time and money. Vice Presidents and other Executives, under the President/CEO, are called upon to think critically about their organization’s competitive placement in the industry. He/She will be a member of the President’s/CEO’s team who buys into the President’s/CEO’s vision for elevating the organization to the next level of business excellence. They are tasked with communicating the vision to their respective divisions and working collaboratively with each other to ensure that each division’s processes work in concert with the other divisions’ processes to facilitate the successful operation of the business. Finally, the President/CEO is responsible for seeing the big picture, envisioning the organization operating more successfully, gaining more market share, and increasing its positive impact in the community through its corporate responsibility programs.
- Decision-Making/Sound Judgement – Even if you are not a manager, you will have to make some type of decision in the workplace. If you work with customers or clients, you will inevitably have to decide what to do about an unhappy customer. If you work with data, you will one day have to decide how to address an unwanted workplace situation that your data analysis has revealed. Believe it or not, some employers have candidates play games, such as chess or video games, well as participate in other types of activities to assess their decision-making skills. You must also remember that a great part of effective decision-making includes knowing when to enlist the help of other subject matter experts whose guidance can enable you to make fully-informed decisions. Employers often use business cases, or ask candidates to describe situations when they had to make difficult decisions to determine if they are indecisive, or if they make decisions by applying sound rationale. Believe or not, some employers feel that it is better to make a wrong decision in some cases than to not make a decision at all. So, it is important for the candidate to express why he/she chose to not make a decision (i.e., increased organizational risk; critical data unavailable; the wrong decision would have catastrophic business implications, etc.). This way it is apparent that you made a decision to not decide…for good business reason, which exhibits sound judgement after all. Follow me?
- Compliance, Ethics, & Integrity – Employers want to know that you have a strong working knowledge of the most-impactful compliance challenges in your industry and career field. They also want assurance that you know what compliance in your industry involves, what the consequences of non-compliance are, what it takes to avoid instances of non-compliance; as well as how to correct any compliance issues that do arise. An employer’s agents’ ethics can have a direct impact on the public perception of that employer. When it comes to ethics, employers need to know that, as their agent, you will do the right thing even when you think that no one is looking. They want to know that you will not steal from them; enter into business arrangements that are deemed a conflict of interest; and will report any suspected ethical concerns. Employers may test your compliance, ethics & integrity by having you to watch videos then answer questions about the information shared; they may require you to make a short presentation during your interview on one or all three behavioral categories; or they may present you with a case and ask you to make a compliance, ethics, or integrity decision or recommendation using the information presented in the case and to explain your thought process for making the decision or recommendation that you chose.
- Technology – You know that technology impacts every profession. If you go to any job search website you will be hard-pressed to find a vacancy announcement that does not require you to possess at least a working knowledge of some type of universal or industry-related technology platform. I dare say that the most common platform across almost all industries is the Microsoft Office Suite…particularly Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Many employers use Microsoft Outlook as their email platform to communicate with stakeholders and employees across their entire organization. Employers typically use Microsoft Word to write letters and to create business documents. Many employers use Microsoft Excel to compare, gather, manipulate, and analyze data to make informed business decisions. Many employers use Microsoft PowerPoint to develop presentations that convey the information that is needed to operate their business. So, it should not come as a surprise that some employers test candidates’ Microsoft Office skill level to determine if they will be able to successfully perform the duties of their sought-after position that require the use of technology. Some employers may also test candidates’ skill level using industry-specific technology platforms. For instance, when I interviewed with my current employer for their vacant Human Resources Manager opportunity, the interview panel wanted to know about my experience using Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). Although I did not take a test or complete a skills exercise, I explained in detail how I had used similar platforms. At the time, they were using one platform and were in the process of migrating to another. The great thing about many HRIS platforms is that many have similar features, so the learning curve to get acclimated to another is typically not long. In order to familiarize yourself with industry-specific technology platforms, I recommend that you google the name or search for it on YouTube. When I needed to refresh my skills on a specific technology platform before a big interview with the IRS, I was able to purchase a limited version for a trial period at a very small price. Employers may also create a test environment and ask candidates to perform certain simulated work tasks.
- Presentations/Public Speaking – This is probably the most-dreaded work assignment of all for many people. Making presentations and speaking in front of a group of people gives some people goose bumps, they hyperventilate, break into a cold sweat, and have panic attacks. I’d bet that most people would rather take a math skills test during the selection process for their dream job than to give a presentation. What many don’t realize is that confidently giving an organized, well-rehearsed presentation during the selection process for your dream job can totally separate you from the rest of the pack and quickly earn you the lead position. You see, while business representatives write letters and reports; make decisions about the organization’s future; and ensure a high level of compliance and ethics, its representatives must maintain open lines of communication with the employee base and other stakeholders. If they fail to do so, they won’t win the stakeholders’ buy-in for the new investments in infrastructure and technology that they will need to maintain and/or bolster the organization’s performance. This is where the importance of presentations enters the picture. As a member of your employer’s team, you just may have to make a presentation about some aspect of the business at some point during your tenure there. By allowing you to showcase your presentation skills, the employer gets an opportunity to observe your use of grammar; your ability to capture and maintain your audience’s attention, and to convey information in a logical, easy-to-understand, and relatable manner. So, some employers require that all candidates for certain positions within their organization must make a short presentation during their in-person interview process. If that makes you weak in the knees with fear, I recommend that you take the following steps to give yourself control over the presentation jitters: 1) Consider who your audience will be and tailor your content to them; 2) identify three points of interest related to your subject and use those as your talking points; 3) Use index cards to jot down short notes about each point that you want to share during your presentation; 4) Stay within your allotted time frame; and 5) Finally….Practice, practice, practice.
If you follow these simple steps you will become a confident presenter. Remember, you can do anything that you put your mind to.
While a successful career search does not have to be exhaustive and ultra-stressful, it does require time and dedication. By prepping for possible work-related assessments during your interview process, you will lessen your nervousness; think more-clearly; and become more confident. Don’t hesitate, take the next step today to living your best career life.
Career Search Success to You! Go Get Your New Job!
