Applying for a job can easily give anyone the jitters. For one, scoring a career nowadays is difficult because of competition, and another one is, meeting up with a stranger is just an anxiety-inducing situation. That’s why the feeling of walking out of the interview room is akin to the kind of relief you get from knowing that your favorite pizza variant has not sold out yet.
However, an interview is just a minor part of the recruitment process. There is a dreaded pre-employment assessment giving you high-school feels all over again. Various companies do it differently. Some do interviews before evaluations, while others do it the other way around. Nevertheless, this interview-assessment duo never fails to turn the butterflies in your stomach into an entire ecosystem.
To help you out, here are three tips to pass pre-employment assessments for any job.
Test Yourself
Back in college, when the professor hands out the examination papers, anxious, can easily be watered down by a prior review the previous night. The same thing applies in pre-employment assessments—reviewing is your best friend.
However, reviewing in college is slightly different from preparing for your employment assessment the next day. For one, you can no longer procrastinate then cram afterward. And next, you have no idea what kind and type of assessments the employer will give you.
That said, you still have several options up your sleeves that you can check out. You can search internet forums to see whether people who have applied to the company have posted something about the assessments given. Fret not it, is not a form of cheating.
In addition, you can lookout for a skills tests library that acts as a repository of common pre-employment assessments. Since psychometry works in a way that related assessments, in use to cross-check their reliability, chances are, the assessment you see in these libraries relates to the actual evaluation that you will have.
Conversely, you can revisit somewhat any test for your preparation. Since most comprise of pre-employment assessments with personality and aptitude tests, you can look at similar types of tests to get used to the feeling of taking them.
There Is No Wrong Or Right Personality
Contrary to popular belief (and as mentioned), pre-employment assessments don’t just measure your intelligence or how well you can spot typing errors in a thousand-liner spreadsheet. Pre-employment assessment attempts to measure both your intellects and quantify your personality.
Some may take 10-15 minutes, while others may take longer depending on the assessment. Other assessments may look like they intend to measure your intelligence, but you can check out the test booklet to know the factor it estimates, or you can ask the test administrator about it.
It is especially significant for people who get anxious over tests. One misconception about personality tests is appearing to have a right personality, when there is no wrong or right when it comes to it. It is even a misnomer to associate the terms to character, especially in an employment context where fit is essentially more than having the right personality.
Furthermore, some personality scales have a lie scale embedded within their items. The test administrator can check into this, and once proven you have lied will do you more harm than good. Remember that being honest while taking psychological tests is a universal component that all scales measure.
Relax
One of the things that you had most likely felt during the assessment is anxiety. Depending on the situation, you may even exhibit signs of panic attacks. You will be short of breath, you will sweat a lot, and you may even notice that the room becomes colder than it is. When you have any or all of these, remember to take a deep breath.
It is essential to acknowledge and understand that no quantity of preparation will make you resistant to feeling anxious when taking pre-employment assessments where there’s a lot at stake. While preparing does help you a lot, accepting that to perceive things is an integral part of anyone.
Moreover, worrying and forcing yourself to ‘ace’ the pre-employment assessment will make it worse. Just as you know that scoring high in these tests will increase the likelihood of getting hired, you must also understand that any good HR manager knows that pre-employment assessments are just a part of the entire recruitment process.
There’s the interview, prior experience, and ultimately how well you held your high up the entire process. Ever heard of ‘grace under pressure?’ It turns out you can immediately show the recruitment team that you can indeed strut out of that situation without a doubt. In the meantime, check out this post to help you deal with the interview heebie-jeebies.
Bottom Line
Being hired to your dream job may perhaps be the most unforgettable moment in your life. All the anxiety, the worry, and the preparation that you do show much you want it. But, never forget to take a rest and again, breathe!