{"id":45027,"date":"2023-10-20T15:40:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/should-i-set-a-test-during-interviews-to-ascertain-skills-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:40:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:40:31","slug":"should-i-set-a-test-during-interviews-to-ascertain-skills-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/should-i-set-a-test-during-interviews-to-ascertain-skills-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I set a test during interviews to ascertain skills? &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This article first appeared on September 27th, 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m looking to hire someone with specific computer and editing skills.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Should I set a test during the interviews to ascertain these skills? If so, how should I go about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-459\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you should set a test during the interviews to ascertain the candidate\u2019s skills. Resumes and CVs always claim excellence and proficiency but this is not always at the level you require.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When accessing computer skills through an interview process it is essential to qualify the candidate\u2019s skills with some form of practical testing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is not good enough to ask the typical job interview question: &#8220;What computer skills do you have and what programs have you used?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The answer you receive may not prove the level of competence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If a key attribute of the role requires applicants to have specific computer skills, it is critical to test the skills during the interview, to avoid a candidate embellishing the truth in relation to their computer expertise.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A simple method would be to list the computer skills that the role requires and then test the applicant on the skills required in the role.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You could set up an interview room with a PC to have the applicant perform tasks utilising a word-processing program, or design a test that will test the \u201cspecific\u201d skills.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An idea could be to provide the applicant with step-by-step instructions on what tasks they are required to perform.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To test for basic computer skills some ideas could include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>demonstrate formatting skills such as to centre, italicize, bold words and underline text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>ask the candidate to type up a brief paragraph. If you are testing for words per minute you could use a stopwatch as they type.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;save the document to a specific folder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>ask the applicant to form a graph using a spreadsheet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>have the applicant put together a simple presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>ask the applicant to run a simple internet search by searching different websites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For specific computer knowledge in regards to a payroll system or recruitment system you could set up similar tasks for applicants to follow.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By observing the applicants work produced or by accessing their behaviour while performing the tasks you will be able to evaluate the applicant\u2019s competency level in their computer skills.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you are overwhelmed by this idea, then you can jump online and for little cost have each candidate undertake a \u2018computacy test\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is a computer literacy test. These tests can target a defined suite of programs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ordinarily these will test the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keyboard usage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Windows<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Computer Settings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Emailing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Computer Software<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Computer Hardware and Networking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Internet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is recommended to test for skills that are essential.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this way you are certain that your preferred candidate has the base level of skills required to undertake the role from the outset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article first appeared on September 27th, 2010. &nbsp; I\u2019m looking to hire someone with specific computer and editing skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}