Placement season for final year students and recruitment drive for most companies in India, occur around the same time in a year. It is true that recruitments are done throughout a year. But most candidates are placed during the beginning of a year and this is the time prospective employees like you must be on full-alert. Competition is high and employers seek more than educational qualifications and if needed for a job. They also seek aptitude. This is a person’s ability as well as interest to keep learning more and perform better throughout his/her career. To mark a line of difference between your education and aptitude; Education is what others taught you. Aptitude is what you learn yourself from real-life experiences as well as an inquisitiveness to explore more. Knowing your aptitudes and understanding how these can influence your professional skills will lead you to a career that best suits your interests as well as abilities. This works for employers as well. Determining your aptitudes will enable them to identify if you are suitable for an opening, and if you have scope for further growth in their company as well as that career line. As an example of the importance that employers give on aptitude, let us consider the normal three to give rounds in any professional interview. First is the screening round for which one may go well-dressed, with a properly made resume and some memorized lines. The suitability of candidates for the job as well as for the company’s culture are assessed or tested here itself and half (if not more) is rejected. Then come coding rounds (in case the job is related to software development/website design etc) or general written rounds for other roles. Next are Group Discussions followed by Personal Interview rounds. A company selects the best that passed these rounds. However, an important aspect that is often ignored by candidates and employers alike is the first round; which defines a person’s attitude. This article explains in depth about the importance psychometric tests; also known as aptitude tests for succeeding in an interview and for also for continuous growth in the future years of a career.
What are psychometric tests?
A psychometric test or psychometric assessment evaluates a person’s understanding skills along with his/her personality traits. The objective of a psychometric test is to evaluate if a person has the abilities to perform well in a role, as well as grow more in the future. This is important and needs to e kept in mind. Psychometric tests not only assess a person’s suitability for the current opening, but also help predict if he/she will grow more in that field. Psychometric testing can help understand aspects of mental ability and behavioural style that organizations are unable to gauge during conversations and interviews. It provides an impartial evaluation of a several parameters that include but are not limited to logical reasoning, industry-specific aptitude, role-specific qualities, and types of personality.
Types of Psychometric Testing
There are two types of psychometric tests. These are personality tests and aptitude tests. Personality tests identify a person’s interests, values and motivations, analysing how his or her personality matches the role and the hiring company’s culture. These tests analyse your emotions, behaviours and relationships when placed in various situations. At the same time, Aptitude tests examine a person’s reasoning or cognitive ability, to identify if/she has the right skills for a role.
How are psychometric tests conducted?
Psychometric tests are usually multiple choice formats. Persons appearing for the tests may be given one minute to answer a question among a set of others. His/her intelligence levels are compared to a standard. That is a specific score must be achieved to pass. These tests are mostly conducted through an online medium; which can be accessed from personal spaces and/or office settings. The questions in psychometric assessments normally feature written scenarios. The bottom line is that these tests evaluate how a candidate would respond in various work situations. A benefit of psychometric testing is that it matches test scores with job performances. That is scoring well in a psychometric test increases a candidate’s chances of performing well in a job. Hence, these predictive qualities of a psychometric test make them very attractive to all employers. The types of psychometric tests include,
- Diagrammatic reasoning
- Error checking
- Inductive Reasoning
- Logical Reasoning
- Critical Thinking
- Numerical reasoning
- Situational Judgement
- Verbal reasoning
- And more.
Why are Psychometric Tests important in interviews?
Objectivity – Normally, the first screening round conducted by companies is the analysis of CVs. However this is purely based on instinct as mere words on a paper cannot give an employer good judgement of the candidate’s skills. Psychometric testing removes this subjective decision-making nature and offers fairness as all candidates take one standardised test. There cannot be any favouritism.
Accuracy – These tests are scientific and methodological. They take multiple factors into account and are not simply based on what the company’s management and the HR think is right or wrong. Psychometric testing enables assessment of a candidate’s abilities to analyse information, problem solve and make informed judgements, whilst also analysing their behavioural tendencies. With data of all these applicants available, the hiring company can make swift as well as scientifically-proven comparisons of candidates to pick the best.
Speed – There could be thousands of job applications every day and it will not be possible to scan all of them and/or conduct personal interview rounds. Moreover, there would be an absence of fairness as the person scanning these resumes could just take a liking towards a candidate based on his/her name and/or community mentioned in the resume. Psychometric testing removes all these. It allows companies to drastically reduce the size of applicant pools down to whatever size is manageable for the organization.
Can anyone pass psychometric tests?
No. Not everyone can pass psychometric tests. It requires a lot of training and upgrading of skills. Contradicting these words, there neither is a “pass nor fail” in psychometric assessment tests. They are only an assessment of abilities. However, a good score in psychometric tests is necessary to crack interview and land jobs. MindsCue can help you here.
We are online employment consultancy run by a team subject matter experts in Hyderabad with the core objective of cultivating better workers among high-school students, graduates and also working professionals. We do these by preparing people for psychometric tests, giving career guidance, skill building and technical training sessions among others. We recognize that human potential is a complex subject which needs intense exploration through scientific methods. MindsCue can give you that. Reach out to us to have further discussions. We invite opportunities of engagement with educational institutions and corporate firms alike.