There are many steps in the process of getting a job, but the hardest part, in my opinion, would be the assessments. What are assessments, you ask? And why are they important?
An assessment is a tool that employers use to measure an applicant’s knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as personal traits and/or characteristics. It tells the employer your level of functionality, how you would handle certain situations and what type of reasoning you would utilize to make decisions. These assessments are used by the employer to screen job candidates for suitability for a particular job. The reason these assessments should be important to you is because it could “make or break” your chances of getting the job you really want.
I am 18 years old and as soon as I graduated from high school, I was on the hunt for a job. I applied at the nearby mall, fast food restaurants, clothing stores and many more. You name it, I probably applied there. None of them responded to me, except one. So I went in to meet the manager and he set me up to take an assessment. I thought, “No problem.” I felt that I was well prepared, however, the results told otherwise. I failed the assessment miserably, and I didn’t know why. I attended a Job-Readiness Class entitled “Making Healthy Choices” and the topic of assessments came up.
The most important thing about assessments is how you take it. In other words, an assessment typically has 4 or 5 choices:
As I said above, employers utilize assessments to see if you would be a good fit for their company. As you see above, the choices are: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
The thing that most people don’t realize, including myself, is that employers want you to have a strong opinion, one way or the other. So the answers that are AUTOMATICALLY incorrect are “Agree and Disagree” as well as “Neither Agree Nor Disagree.”
While applying for my job, I had to take their assessment about four times. I’m grateful that I had a connection to the manager, because he allowed me the opportunity to re-do it. Many people aren’t that lucky. However, the more I took the assessments, the more I noticed the difficulty and types of questions they used. There were tons of trick questions, but there were even more that were basically the same questions; the words were just re-arranged or it was a different scenario.
So my advice to you when taking an employment assessment is to read the questions CAREFULLY, and then, go on your instinct. Typically, your first answer is always the correct one, so try not to think too hard about it. But remember, have a strong opinion, either it is going to be very wrong or it is going to be very right. Try to stay out of the middle. △