Are You Prepared for Your Job Interview?
In today’s job market, many employers are testing applicants to see if they can actually do the job that they are interviewing for. You may say you’re prepared for the interview, but you should be ready to be tested.
The Job Interview Tests
Last week, one of our consultants watched a prospective employee perform a “task skills test” for a new job.
The hiring principal (an architect) gave this job candidate (an architect in training [AIT]), 90 minutes to design the addition of a 700 square foot “mother-in-law” suite to a small home with a garage situated on a city lot. The architect gave the candidate a paper drawing of the property with the lot lines, house and garage appropriately sited on the property. An architect’s scale, blank paper and several sheets of paper were provided, along with the general instructions of what the client desired.
No more directions were provided. The architect allowed the job candidate to use her knowledge and skill to design anything that she thought would fulfill the client needs and requirements. According to the architect, the candidate should be able to complete the task within the time allotted. The candidate was only limited by her ability and creativity on how she would fulfill the requirement.
Yet another example is a principal in a service industry seeking an administrative clerk position. For this role, the principal tested candidates by requiring that, in 60 minutes, the applicant develop a two-paragraph thank you letter, a two-slide PowerPoint presentation with the company logo embedded in the slides, as well as an eight-entry profit/loss spreadsheet. Of the 13 candidates that she interviewed, only one candidate could perform all three tasks in 60 minutes. Even then, the work was not complete.
Our Advice
If you say that you have certain skills, be sure that you can demonstrate proficiency and mastery of the skill. Then, expect to be tested on your skill sets in some type of reasonable exercise.
Need help preparing for an interview to land your dream job? Check out our career consulting services, then give us a call!
