[Anonymous]

I’ve been trying to find or create some type of aptitude test for candidates, but haven’t found much that looked useful and thought I’d see if anyone here had used one (either as a candidate or as a hiring manager) and could give any recommendations.

I’m not concerned with a skills test. Anyone who has gotten an accounting degree has learned certain basic accounting concepts; the actual day-to-day varies from employer to employer and has to be taught anyway. I’m more concerned with a person’s ability to learn, efficiency in their work, ability to think outside the box to find solutions, ability to work independently, etc. Prior to employment, I’m somewhat at a loss how to gauge these things. If I could just have them come work for a month and see what I think, that’d be a lot easier! But not at all fair to the future employee.

So, if anyone has used or knows of some sort of aptitude test or similar item which would be useful in evaluating these non-accounting skills, I’d love to hear about it.

[y_u_no_pass]

One part of the test for my job involved research. There were questions and a tax book and we could look up the answers. Maybe you could do something like that.

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[Skynet]

Lilla, I'm a little disappointed that you don't know me by now.

Don't you know that females candidates with Large and Fairly Stated Assets are already Prescreened?

[Anonymous]

@y_u_no_pass Thanks for the suggestion. I've thought about trying to find some things that definitely wouldn't be known (obscure tax code in your case; maybe obscure Excel formulas in my case) and saying “Here's Google and a computer – see if you can implement this formula”, just not sure if that'd earn me the Crazy Award.

@Skynet Ahh, see my employer doesn't have that screening process so I'd forgotten. My bad. I'll have to brush up on my Skynet Philosophy courses.

[MaLoTu]

I once seen a job posting that asked for you do basically document what you did everyday when you walked in the door. I thought that was an interesting way to assess someones 1) self awareness and 2) dependability (if that is the right word, reliability, responsibility, forethought, maybe???).

Maybe ask them how they approach an everyday task and assess how their level of self-awareness and forethought (or any of those other buzz words,lol) would apply to the daily functioning of the position.

I don't know where I read it, on LI I'm sure, but Henry Ford would take candidates to breakfast and if they salted their food before tasting it he wouldn't hire them because it showed that they overused resources and lacked trust …

There is always “behavioral residue”.

[State Aggie]

If I was hiring someone I would take a look at some of the things I actually want them to do and have them do them. Take an spreadsheet they will need to be comfortable with updating and have them update it. Have them work through an issue you have recently dealt with and come up with a possible solution. Let them get into the job.

You could always ask questions like: Why should I hire you? Tell me about yourself? Where do you see yourself in five years? /sarcasm

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[Author]

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