Episode 88 – Mastering graduate job online tests, with Job Test Prep

March 9, 2020 Podcast

Welcome to the 88th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, and today I have a very special guest for you on a topic which can strike fear into the hearts of many a listener. Yes, I revisit the topic of how to pass the online psychometric, verbal, numerical, personality, behavioural and situational judgement tests that you will have to face when you apply for a graduate job. I’m joined by testing expert Arbel Yellin from the online testing site JobTestPrep, who have helped hundreds of thousands of graduates from around the world get ready and practice for these vital tests. In today’s episode we explore everything to do with online assessments for graduate jobs and just why it is so important to make sure that you practice, practice and practice. We cover, the one thing you NEED to be doing during graduate job online tests, strategies for passing situational judgement tests, and insider secrets for numerical and verbal reasoning tests. We look into exactly how many questions you need to be answering, and the % you need to be getting correct on each test. We delve into whether you should ever be guessing, and the power of making educated guesses. We also touch upon how JobTestPrep’s ‘Prep Packs’ can set you up for online testing success. Stayed tuned to the end of the episode as well as we also have a special listener offer to get 15% off all of the JobTestPrep site. No matter where you are in your job search, if you’re still thinking of who to apply to or in the graduate application process for someone at the moment, this is an episode which you aren’t going to want to miss. Now the only link you need to remember from today is www.graduatejobpodcast.com/JobTestPrep, as that has all of the links to everything which we discuss and a full transcript which you can download, so make sure you head on over there.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • The one thing you NEED to be doing during graduate job online tests
  • Strategies for passing situational judgement tests
  • The number of questions you need to be answering, and the % you need to be getting correct on each test
  • Insider secrets for passing online assessments
  • Top tips for acing numerical and verbal reasoning tests
  • Why educated guesses can be so crucial to achieving top marks
  • How company specific ‘Prep packs’ from JobTestPrep can set you up for online testing success.

Don’t forget, also make sure you check out https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/subscribe which links to how to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and by email. So, something for everyone there.

SELECTED LINKS:

Transcript – Episode 88 – Mastering graduate job online tests, with Job Test Prep

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, graduate recruiters and career coaches who bring decades of experience into a byte size show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had when I graduated.

And welcome to the 88th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast coming all the way to you from the lovely Philippine island of Coron, and today I have a very special guest for you on a topic which can strike fear into the hearts of many a listener. Yes, today we revisit the topic of how to pass the online psychometric, verbal, numerical, personality, behavioural and situational judgement tests that you will have to face when you apply for a graduate job. I’m joined by testing expert Arbel Yellin from the online testing site Job Test Prep, who have helped hundreds of thousands of graduates from around the world get ready and practice for these vital tests. In today’s episode we explore everything to do with online assessments for graduate jobs and just why it is so important to make sure that you practice, practice and practice. We cover, the one thing you NEED to be doing during graduate job online tests, strategies for passing situational judgement tests, and insider secrets for numerical and verbal reasoning tests. We look into exactly how many questions you need to be answering, and the % you need to be getting correct on each test. We delve into whether you should ever be guessing, and the power of making educated guesses. We also touch upon how Job Test Prep’s ‘Prep Packs’ can set you up for online testing success. Stayed tuned to the end of the episode as well as we also have a special listener offer to get 15% off all of the Job Test Prep site. No matter where you are in your job search, if you’re still thinking of who to apply to or in the graduate application process for someone at the moment, this is an episode which you aren’t going to want to miss. Now the only link you need to remember from today is www.graduatejobpodcast.com/JobTestPrep, as that has all of the links to everything which we discuss and a full transcript which you can download, so make sure you head on over there. Right, lets crack on with the show.

James Curran: A very warm welcome to Arbel Yellin, product manager and former test developer to online testing website, JobTestPrep. Arbel, a very warm welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Arbel Yellin: Thank you very much, James. How are you?

James: I’m very well, thank you, and I gave you the very briefest of introductions there, so maybe do you want to introduce yourself properly to the listeners with a little bit about JobTestPrep and what is it you do for them.

Arbel: Okay, yeah, I’ll be happy to introduce. Now, JobTestPrep, the company where I work, it’s an international company. We were founded in 1992. We have a few offices around the world and dozens of employees. We have 10 sites, but the two major ones are jobtestprep.co.uk, and jobtestprep.com, and they’re for job-related assessment tests.

What we do is we offer online preparation for assessments that people encounter on their hiring process, whether it’s to a law firm, or to the public service. It can be aptitude tests, psychometric tests, personality and behaviour tests too. Now, these prep packs, which we like to call them, preparation packages, help thousands of candidates every month, and we try to help the customers get high scores on their exam and move onto the next step, which is usually interviews, and hopefully get the job.

We prepare, like I said, candidates in both the private sector and the public sector, and we are constantly trying to improve our practice test to give our customers the most accurate preparation. Our company has many departments: customer success, test development, technology, marketing, content writing, and product management, which is where I am. On my day-to-day work, I do a lot of research on our current product and our future product.

I try to keep a close eye on the market and also on our customers because they usually know the best. I work with analytic tools, SEO tools, if you know, and I approve and edit the site content. Like you said in the introduction, I worked two years as a test developer writing questions and explanations. So, I also know the product very well from within.

James: Excellent. And as you mentioned, it’s such a crucial stage in the application process, the psychometric testing stage. You could be the perfect candidate, the best interviewer in the world. But, if you failed the online testing stage, it doesn’t matter how good you are. You’re never going to get there. And from speaking to some of the recruiters that I’ve had on the show, and they say just how many people fail at this stage, they’re getting rid of up to 80% of candidates that are falling at this hurdle. It’s such an absolutely crucial thing that people just need to practice and practice to get good at.

Arbel: Exactly. This is the purpose of this stage, to screen out candidates, because big companies like the army or big institutes, they are very large, full of candidates, and they want to filter so they will get the best ones.

James: I remember speaking to one of the recruiters, and they say they get 30,000 applications for 40 places, and it’s just not possible to interview everybody, or to sift through that many CVs and details. So, using online testing is just a way where you can very cheaply and very easily just whittle down the people that don’t meet the grain.

Arbel: Yeah, and it’s not that these tests are proven. It’s not that — these candidates that are filtered, there could be a lot of candidates that are really good for the job. These tests are good, but there are exceptions, you know.

James: Yeah, it’s just the necessary evil that, listeners, no matter what company you’re applying to, at some stage, you’re going to have to do some form of verbal, numerical, psychometric, diagrammatical, or whatever it might be, they’re going to make you do some of these tests. So, it is something that you really do need to make sure you are on top of your game. Starting at the beginning, how do you go about creating the tests and making sure that they are really close matched to the real ones that people will face?

Arbel: We start with market analysis to figure out which tests are commonly used within certain companies, fields, and even states, if it’s the U.S., and once we know search volumes, people search for them, we start with the research. We use what’s called grey literature, which is technical reports, business documents, newsletters. We have also online sources like blogs or message boards, forums, also commercial data, and of course, above all, our dedicated customer base that helps us fine-tune to what exactly is in the test.

After that, I like to introduce our gifted product development team that they create new questions, answers, explanations, and study guides every day, and every question on the preparation pack we send out, at the end, every question goes through a very important review process so we know it’s good. At the end, our goal is to give the customer the best possible simulation for the test, of course.

James: How confident are you that the tests are as really close-matched to the ones people will face?

Arbel: We are very confident. I mean, you should check it product by product, but after we send out the product and the customer prepares with us, we usually know after he takes the test if it’s a match or not a match. Most of our products are really, really close to the actual test. It can sometimes be different like format, or how you take the test, if it’s on paper, or where the question appears on the screen, but it’s very close to the real test.

James: I was on the website today going through some of the practice prep packs that we’ll touch upon later in the interview. It’s sort of been a good few years since I’ve done any online maths, and numeric, and verbal tests, and I was certainly very —

Arbel: How did you do?

James: I did alright in the numerical on, but the verbal one was, “How closely does this statement match this statement here,” and I was quite rusty on those ones, so yeah, I needed a bit more practice. As you said, it was good then where I didn’t do as well. You can see where it tells you, it goes through the explanation of what exactly it is that I did wrong. So, it’s good that you’re not just guessing about how you didn’t answer it correctly.

Arbel: Yeah, the explanations are very, very important because that’s the way the customers learn and perfect their study. It’s not just seeing if you got it right or wrong. It’s every question seeing the explanation and seeing how you can improve.

James: And have tests changed much over the last few years, the types of questions that have been asked by the companies, or has it stayed pretty consistent?

Arbel: I think it’s quite consistent, but maybe there’s a bit of a tendency now to test not only your cognitive skills, but your behavioural and personality attributes. You have very Hogan Caliper predictive index. These kinds of tests, it’s very hard to prepare for them. You don’t know how to prepare for them, but we offer also preparation for them with study guides that really explain what you are about to do and what is expected of you. But yeah, the major ones are numerical, verbal, mechanical also for many positions. You have, like I said, the personality and you have the SJT, which is very interesting, the situational judgment test, which are very, very popular.

James: And you mentioned Hogan there as one of the companies. Do the tests vary much between the common test companies like Hogan, Kenexa, Criteria?

Arbel: Yeah, the tests can be very different from one another. I mean, like I said, for example, if you take the verbal abilities, they can come in very, very different formats, which changes the whole way you go through it. You can see a passage. Like reading comprehension, you can see grammar and punctuation questions. Also, the numerical skills can come with graphs or tables. The answers can be very different.

For example, the Talent Q test, you are given 20 answers to choose from. It changes the whole way you work with. Now, a very frequent category, by the way, is the cognitive ability test, like CCAT, Criteria, PI Cognitive Assessment, GIA, McQuaig Mental Agility Test. These kinds of tests, they cover many subjects under one roof, they are very short, and the time constraints are very challenging. You have to answer 50 questions in 15 minutes. Every question is different. The difficulty gets only harder, and by the way, you are not expected to finish the test on time. These kinds of tests are very popular in the last few years, specifically the CCAT, which is very, very popular.

James: So, 50 questions in 15 minutes?

Arbel: Yeah, 15 minutes.

James: How many would you be expected to answer and how many would you be expected to get correct in a test like that?

Arbel: I think above 30 questions answered correctly is a very good score. By the way, you get the score immediately after you finish the test, and you are told in what percentile you’re on. 27 will get you past almost every position, but not always get you the job because if other people scored higher than you, it will be hard. I mean, I saw several customers have said they finished the test on time. I’m not sure if I believed them, but if you get to the 40-plus questions, then you got most questions right, it’s good. It’s very good.

James: Definitely. I’ve not had to do that one myself, so I’m quite glad actually.

Arbel: By the way, JobTestPrep is not in the thousands of customers, so for my position, I did a home assignment, which I think was much, much harder than every test I see in our products. Like, it took my five hours to complete this home assignment, and it was very, very hard. So, not always it is the best to do something for a small company.

James: Yeah, that’s true. So, you mentioned situational judgment tests. Could you maybe just give a bit of background of what they are and what people might face when they have to do one of those tests?

Arbel: Yeah, sure. Situational judgment test, or in short, SJTs are, like it sounds, you are tested on how you behave and how you react to certain scenarios. For example, you are told that if it’s for the public sector, it’s a good question. You are told that one of your friends cheated on the test, and you want to see, and you are asked, what, with the following answers, will you do mostly and what will you do least. So, we need to grade. And for every answer you choose, on the backend of the test, you get points for specific characteristics. So, SJTs are tough to prepare for.

By the way, in UK, for example, you have the public health specialist test that was in January, many, many candidates, and they had SJTs on their test, and it was SJTs that were specifically for the public health sector. For example, the ideas, the qualities that they ask are different from corporate companies. For example, in the public health sector, you are not allowed to do extra hours. You need to solve the problem on time, be creative. While in corporate systems, you are expected to do extra hours.

James: With SJTs then, would you recommend then — because, often, when I’ve done them, you sort of get an idea of what they might be looking for in terms of the characteristics. Is it better to then be honest with actually in certain situations, are you the — because I did one of the practice ones today, and it was how social you are as a person. So, when you’re at a party, are you the life and soul of the party? Strongly agree to strongly disagree. Is it better to go with actually what’s honest, or do you think it’s better to go with what you think that they might be looking for in that role?

Arbel: That’s a very good question, actually, and it mostly applies for personality tests, by the way, but also SJTs. I think the answer should be in the middle because you don’t want to be brutally honest, but you don’t want to give the employer exactly what he’s looking for, because most times, he will see that, and he will know that you are lying on your test. So, you need to find — I say be honest, but still know what is expected of you. By the way, there’s also something that is called integrity test, and there you are asked, for example, “Did you ever steal anything?” and people that will write, “No,” probably won’t get the job because everybody steals. Sometime in their life, somewhere, sometime when they were a kid. For example, you want to be honest, but you still want to follow the expectations of the employer. I’m sorry if the answer is not concrete.

James: No, that’s a really good answer, and yeah, there’s always that grey area in between. If you’re doing a proper application to a company, you’ll have read up on the company, you’ll know what the company is looking for from the role, you should know about the role and the type of people that they’re looking to recruit from. So, you should have that idea in the back of your head, and I think it’s a really good answer that you don’t want to be to the complete extreme saying that, “I am the ideal candidate.” You want to be honest, but you want to go towards the side of what it is that they’re looking for. And as you mentioned, your different companies will have different criteria about what it is that they want.

Arbel: Exactly. The things that are expected from a program developer is different from a customer service worker, very different.

James: And also, within specific industries, I know when I’ve spoken to recruiters from different law firms, and some law firms pride themselves on being collegiate and friendly, places to be, and other law firms pride themselves on being super-aggressive, super-driven, and accordingly, the candidates that they look for will be different according to those different criteria.

Arbel: Exactly. I really recommend listeners, when they search for a job, go to the website, read the about section. Sometimes, it will actually say, black and white, what is expected of you. Also, in the public sector, it happens a lot. You have the list of qualities that is needed for this specific position.

James: Excellent. We mentioned SJTs, so maybe then moving on to some of the more bread and butter tests that people will face, so the verbal and numerical tests. Do you have any hints and tips, then, on how people can prepare and go about making sure they pass those tests?

Arbel: Yeah, of course. First, I think it’s very important to say that your preparation needs to be right. Even before that, you want to see that it’s not enough that just reading the instruction on the day of the test. You want to prepare. Now, when you prepare, try to get as much information on the actual test as you can from JobTestPrep, but also from the official website of the test that you’re about to take of the company you’re about to go to. Even reading in forums helps a lot.

For numerical reasoning, specifically, by the way, you want to make sure, as early as possible, whether you’re allowed to use a calculator or not. This is very important because it will determine your whole learning process. In both numerical and verbal tests, reading the questions carefully is very crucial. You want to make sure exactly what you’re being asked about. Sometimes the question can be negative. Are you being asked what’s correct or what’s not correct? Because, then you will fall for distractors in the answers.

Specifically, in numerical tests, I think you should note units and make sure you have the correct ones, whether it’s miles, kilometres per hour or meters per second, for example. There’s a lot of graph and table questions, and the way to go with it is like we call it a graph – question – graph. You want to look at the graph to understand the general idea it depicts, then go to the question, see what you are being asked, and finally go back to the graph, or table and look specifically for the relevant information.

By the way, this method can work great with reading comprehension passages in your verbal abilities. You want to see what the passage is about? Then, go to the questions, see what you’re being asked about, and go to the passage and find it. What’s more, I think in verbal and logical reasoning, it’s very, very important to never base your answer on your own personal or general knowledge. You should always base your answer on what’s exactly in the text. Logical reasoning is very important to do so in critical thinking, stuff like that.

And last tip I can give, it’s for all kinds of multiple-choice test, is to work with the answers. Sometimes, you can eliminate some very quickly, and even if you don’t know the exact answer, you know what’s not the right answer, and other times you can just solve the question using the answer, putting the answer instead of the X in the equation, for example.

James: Yeah, I love those. Some brilliant tips there, and just going through one of them. So, one of the clients I coached was recently at an interview for a consulting company, and they told everybody, “Leave your bags in the room, and then come through”, and then they went through, and they had to do numerical tests. But, a lot of people had left their calculators in their bags, but their company didn’t let them go back to get them. So, then they had to use the calculators that they were given. So, often these were just really basic ones compared to the ones that they maybe had brought with them. So, yeah make sure if you are able to use a calculator and you want to take your own calculator, make sure you keep it on you throughout the interview, and you’re working with a calculator you’re used to, as opposed to some dodgy one that you’re given on the day.

But, yeah reading the questions is key. It’s so easy to, when you’re under time pressure, and all of these tests, you’re going to be under time pressure, and the temptation is to skim them very quickly, and it’s so easy then just to be caught up in the intentional tricks that the devious question-setters put into the questions for the people who aren’t paying attention. Because, there’s always two — as you said, you can always, maybe if there’s five different options, you can probably get rid of two straight away for being outliers. But, then as always, a couple of ones where you know it’s going to be either one or the other. There are always some obvious ones that — well, not obvious, but easy ones that you can pick by mistake with those questions.

Arbel: Exactly. Actually, that correlates to another tip I can give for tests in general, which is about guessing. There’s complete guesses and you have educated guesses. And educated guesses can get you the right answer 50% of the time.

James: That’s actually true, and just building on that question then, in terms of guessing, do you think it’s better to go for accuracy and to only answer, maybe, the questions that you’re definite about, or to go for the educated guesses, and then probably get some wrong? What, from a company’s point of view, do they prefer to see, say, 15 questions answered and 14 correct or 25 answered and maybe 15 correct, but a lot more wrong?

Arbel: That actually greatly depends on the test itself. Most tests, you want to answer all the questions because you’re not getting negative points for mistakes. In most tests, a wrong answer would be the same as not answering at all. So, you want to guess everything. But there are a few tests that you’re being reduced points for wrong answers. So, you have to check, exactly, for this specific test. It’s on a case-to-case basis. What I can say, for certain though, is that, like I said before, you don’t want to waste too much time on answers. A rule of thumb is that if you are 40 seconds looking at a question, and you still have no idea what to do, you probably need to guess that right away. I mean, the time constraints are a very big consideration. The time pressure is very hard, and even one question that you took too much time on it can ruin the entire test.

James: Yeah, especially if you get into that mental loop of thinking, “I don’t know this one,” and then you move on, but you still think about the previous question that you didn’t know. I found, in my experience, there were some questions I could do very easily and very quickly that, maybe, only some questions needed one calculation, and you could get to the answer.

But then there’s other ones where you need to calculate a percentage increase for five different things sold, and then have to then do something with those five things. So you were talking maybe 15 calculations to get to the answer, whereas you could just quickly go through, do all the questions which take one or two calculations, answer them correctly, then go back to the ones that you knew were going to take you a few minutes, but were quite easy to do, but just involved multiple calculations to get there.

Arbel: Yeah, but you know, there are some people that will say that these questions, specifically, is much easier for them compared to the other question because that’s their strength. Now, with the whole preparation process, it’s a question whether you go to fix your weaknesses, or you go to improve your strengths. So, this is really something that you need to consider when you practice. Definitely, you want to know what’s your strength and what’s your weaknesses. And if you see that you can’t really improve on your vocabulary in a week, maybe let go of it, and when you see a vocabulary question that you don’t know the answer to it, just guess.

James: I found doing some percentages quite easily, but ratios were really difficult. So, I definitely worked on improving my strengths as opposed to tackling the weaknesses, just then to leave the ratio questions to an educated guess.

Arbel: Right. That could be a good way to go.

James: And I liked, really, that point. That’s definitely a good way to think about it. And one of the things, the recurring theme that’s been coming through from all of these is practice and just how key practice is throughout all of these questions. Nobody was born with an expertise in answering verbal, numerical, and psychometric tests. It is just something that you need to practice, and practice really does make perfect, which leads us nicely onto — you mentioned earlier about the prep packs, so the preparation packs that you have. How do you go about creating these for different companies, maybe just to explain to the listeners again just what exactly they are?

Arbel: We have specific prep packs for every specific test or company, or sometimes position. We have a very, very, very big pool of questions we have from many different categories that we have written through the years. Sometimes, we need to write new questions for specific tests that we didn’t know. And these prep packs have like the test battery with all the categories in it, and all the tests inside the categories, and each test has the questions and answers.

So, for example, the public health specialist, we made a prep pack that has the Watson Glaser Test, the RANRA test, which is numerical. Watson Glaser is critical thinking. Also, the SJTs, we put all of them inside one prep pack under the categories so people will find it much easier to practice for this position, because this position, actually, has three tests in it.

James: And how do you know, then, for the prep packs, which company’s tests you need to include in each one?

Arbel: There’s a lot of information on the web. Like I said before, official information, sometimes, you can find sample questions, you can find study guides, or exam invitations, stuff like that. We get a lot of information from our customers. Actually, the unsatisfied customers, which can come every now and then, they give us the best information because they will tell you, “This is not what I practiced. It was different.” That way, we change exactly to what he says. I mean, the customers, really, they know the best, and for every unsatisfied customer, we improve a lot of questions.

James: Brilliant. And I was going through some of the prep packs that you’ve got for some of the companies that we’ve had on the show, such as Royal Mail, Mars, Ernst & Young, just to name a few, and I was really impressed with just how comprehensive they were. So, for example, the Royal Mail one included nine different numerical tests in two different styles. There were nine verbal tests, there was two verbal and numerical tests, there was three logical tests, and then there was 55 personality tests. So, you definitely are going to be well-practiced for the real thing with those.

Arbel: Yeah, but you are also — I don’t want to scare customers because sometimes a few hours of practice can really help you. I mean, we are the biggest company that has the biggest amount of tests. But, even a few hours of just getting to know what you’re going to face can really help. Even if you won’t improve your numerical reasoning too much, you’ll still improve your testing anxiety when you come to the test, and you know, “I know these questions. I’ve practiced it.” You get familiar with the test and you can say it’s much easier to practice, to go through it.

James: Yeah, and listeners, make sure you stay tuned as JobTestPrep have very kindly given our brilliant listeners a 15% discount code for all of their tests, which we will reveal at the end of the show. So, Arbel, with the prep packs then, what should people do if there isn’t a specific prep pack for the company that they’re interested in? Which tests or packs should they use?

Arbel: First, I think the best way to go, especially with JobTestPrep, is to contact us. On many of the pages, we have product managers that have written the pages and have their emails there. I actually answer customer emails every day, and you have our customer success team that can answer emails really, really quickly and forward it to the right place, and you really help customers get the right practice.

So, I really recommend using our customer success team, and I think it’s important for — I mean, I think we have practice for almost everything, but if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, I really, really want you to tell me so I can make it for you and for other candidates. I really do.

James: Brilliant, and listeners, make sure you check out the show notes at GraduateJobPodcast.com/JobTestPrep, as I will link to the email address that you can use to get in touch with the customer success team, and also, of course, links across to JobTestPrep themselves. So, make sure you check the show notes there where there’ll be a full transcript of everything that we’ve discussed today.

Arbel: Nice, very good.

James: So, Arbel, how does it work? Do you buy just access then to the specific packs, or can you buy access to everything you do on the site? How does it work?

Arbel: You can buy a specific prep pack. You can buy a one-week license for this specific prep pack, and you can also buy a three-month license, or sometimes even six months for the whole site. Because, sometimes when people go through hiring processes, and the job hunt is very long, and they go through several tests, then sometimes it’s very good to actually have a license for the whole site. It actually doesn’t cost that much more than the specific license. And also, we see a lot of returning customers that actually prepare for the same test. Again, it happens a lot in the public sector, actually.

James: I’ll jump in. Yeah, I’d definitely recommend the extended package. When I was applying for graduate jobs, that’s what I did. And the advantage of that, A, you need to start practicing early because you don’t know when you’re going to be asked to do the test. And often, when you do get asked to do it, you don’t have much notice. You might have just three days, five days, or seven days until you have to complete it. And if you’re starting from — it’s a standing start, you’ve done no practice since your GCSE Maths, you’re going to be racing against time to get up to speed.

So, it’s good to start the practice phases early as you can to make sure that it’s not going to be daunting when you do get asked to do one. And then also, another advantage is there could be a big gap between doing the test initially, and then if you’re successful in getting through to the assessment centre, the odds are you’re going to have to do the test again just to prove that you weren’t cheating, and somebody wasn’t doing it for you. So, the timeline between doing it initially and then doing it at the assessment centre could easily be three, four, five months. You know how slow these companies can be to get back to you. And you do want to be practicing in the meantime, as well.

Arbel: Also, sometimes you need to do a cognitive test in the beginning, then prepare for an interview, then prepare for a personality test, which are also stuff that we prepare people for. So, you want to get a long time. Yeah, it’s good.

James: And any other advice to how people can best make use of this site?

Arbel: I said use our customer support team, and I think also use, like we said, a long period for the whole site. What’s more, I think it’s very important to also be aware that we make mistakes sometimes, and we really want the customer’s feedback. For every specific question, we actually have room for feedback that we can improve the questions. We’re not perfect, you know. Something that doesn’t really involve JobTestPrep specifically, but the whole hiring process you go through is that you want to ask for as much information as you can from the employer.

Because, sometimes employers can be very vague about the online assessment. They will just tell you, “Come this day, do an online assessment,” and won’t tell you anything else. And if you’re going to ask them and say, “Can I know what exactly I’m going to face? Can you send me sample questions? How can I prepare?” I think it shows the employer that you’re really into the job and you want to be the best that you can be. It’s really good that you do it because you’ll know what you’re going to face, and you know how to prepare. I think it’s important to ask them.

James: Brilliant advice. I love that, and forewarned is certainly fore-armed for these tests, and ultimately, it comes down to practice, and if you know that the tests that you’re going to be facing are Kenexa tests, or Hogan tests, or whatever it might be, you’re able then to focus your attention on those specific tests. And yeah, all it takes is one simple question to the graduate recruitment team. They will be happy to help, and of course, as you mentioned, it shows that you’re interested, which always makes you stand out.

Arbel: Exactly.

James: So, Arbel thank you. That’s maybe a brilliant point for us to finish the main part of the interview on before we move on to our weekly quick-fire question round. So, starting first, what one book do you recommend that listeners should read?

Arbel: I think this is a hard dilemma between two books or two series of books, which are Harry Potter, of course, and the Ender’s Game. You know Ender’s Game?

James: I’ve not heard of that one.

Arbel: I think, because, probably most listeners or all of them, sometimes, read Harry Potter, I’ll go with Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game, it’s one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It’s a great series too. Actually, there was a movie that came out a few years ago, but don’t see the movie. It’s bad.

James: Who’s that by? I’ve not actually come across that one at all.

Arbel: I think Orson Scott Card. It’s sci-fi.

James: I’ll have to check that one out. I’m on holiday at the moment, so I’ve got plenty of reading time, so I will try and hunt down a copy of that. But, again, listeners, it will be linked to in the show notes. So, next question. What one website do you recommend that listeners should visit?

Arbel: That’s easy. JobTestPrep, of course. No, I’m just kidding. I’ll have to go with something that is called BuzzerBeater.com. It’s a very, very old and not really — it doesn’t pass the standards for today’s websites. It’s a web-based basketball manager game. I’ve been addicted to it for over 10 years, and it’s amazing.

James: Oh, wow.

Arbel: Yeah, it’s a very tight community, about 20,000 people around the world. It’s amazing. I love it.

James: Okay, and again, that’s not one I’ve come across, but listeners, give that a go and you might end up playing against Arbel himself on that one. Probably get beaten by you, won’t they? If you’ve been playing it 10 years, you should be a bit of an expert.

Arbel: Yeah.

James: So, final question then. What one tip do you have that listeners can implement today to help them on their job search?

Arbel: Actually, from my personal experience, the most important thing to do before your job search is to envision your ideal job. Before you even try to go to companies or institutes and apply, try to think what do you want exactly. I mean, go to the details. How much do you want to get paid, how many hours of work do you want to do every week, where exactly should the job be stationed? I mean, try to answer as many questions as you can so you will know exactly what you want, even if you’re not entirely sure of the specific position or place. By the way, this works excellent with apartment hunting too. I think it’s really wise. Even write it down. Try to write down what you want. It will get you focused.

James: I love that, because so many job hunters don’t do that thinking at the beginning, and then end up taking the first thing that comes along when this might not be the right role for them. So, if you can completely echo that, if you can do that thinking at the early stage, it can stand you in good stead for all the way through your career.

Arbel: I really agree, yeah.

James: Arbel, thank you so much for coming on the show today. What’s the best way that people can get in touch with you and also get in touch with JobTestPrep?

Arbel: Actually, they can email me for my product manager email. It’s ask_arbel@jobtestprep.com, and they can go to the JobTestPrep.com or JobTestPrep.co.uk and go to the Contact Us page and just send us an email, try to contact us, and we’ll help you as much as we can and as quickly as we can. Yeah, that’s the way. By the way, we have also a Facebook page, JobTestPrep. You can find us there and send us messages there.

James: Excellent. Arbel, thank you so much for appearing on the show today.

Arbel: Thank you very much, James. It’s been a pleasure, I really enjoyed it, and everybody here is excited about the show too. Thank you so much.

James: Many thanks to Arbel for his time and insights. Lots of cracking advice for you to work through in today’s episode. I know online tests for graduate jobs are painful, I’ve been through them, but the secret as we discuss in the episode is to practice, practice and practice. The temptation can be to scrimp and try and just use the free ones you can find on the net, or some old book bought online. This is definitely a false economy, invest in yourself so you can maximise your potential. If you get a rejection at this stage after putting in a great application, you will be absolutely kicking yourself that you didn’t invest the £30-50 to practice them properly. Now to help with the cost JobTestPrep have kindly given you wonderful listeners a special 15% discount code of all of their tests which is valid through to the 4th April 2020, simply enter code ‘GJP2020’, that’s code ‘GJP2020’ to get 15% off. If you appreciate the content which I have been putting out and would like to support the show, click on the links to JobTestPrep over in the show notes at graduatejobpodcast.com/JobTestPrep, as it’s an affiliate link and we receive a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything at all, but it helps to cover some of the running costs for the podcast and it will be much appreciated. So that just about rounds off today’s episode. If you have any questions, comments, or if you would like some on one coaching to help you with your graduate job applications, interviews or assessment centres, drop me a line at hello@graduatejobpodcast.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Join me next time when I have part 2 of my series on getting a graduate job as an Employment Specialist with IPS Grow. It’s a goodie. All that remains is to say I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but more importantly I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next time

*Please note that the links above are affiliate links. These come at no cost to you but help to support the running costs of the show.