Aptitude tests in the IT sector.

experiMental

I have a choice between moving to another country or staying here and doing a short course in IT-related area to increase my skillset for entering an IT career.

I have already got experience in web design/development roles, but I would like to focus more on the development side of things and eventually move into software development.

I would like to know the following:
1.) is there a high occurrence of aptitude tests in software development and web development roles? Do most employers use those tests for initial employee screening?

2.) Do many employers use timed technical-based tests, such as programming skills?

I have already failed a number of aptitude tests, so I don't want to finish a course and then find out that I can't enter any related jobs.

I would greatly appreciate any constructive replies.

Thanks!

matrim

From my experience the majority of development roles (especially more junior roles) have some form of aptitude test although the test type varies a bit.

The majority will include some form of basic questions about the language the job is going for, with maybe a bit on databases and general IT. And some will include general problem solving / IQ test style questions.

If the company doesn't have a written technical test expect to have some form of technical interview where you have to show knowledge of the area similar to what you do in the test (although this will happen even if you have the test anyway).

But TBH most of the technical tests I've done are a breeze. With questions along the line of "here's a code snippet. Where is the error? / What's the expected outcome?"

What specific problems have you had with them?

experiMental

I have done IBM's IPATO test and I just wasn't fast enough. Also, I've done a lot of other tests such as data analysis (look at a massive table of entries and try to answer as many questions based on it as possible in under a minute) and data matrices. Also, I wasn't quick enough. I haven't made errors, but I just didn't reach the standard which is required.

If this is the case, should I consider entering the web/software development career at all?

matrim

experiMental wrote: »

I have done IBM's IPATO test and I just wasn't fast enough. Also, I've done a lot of other tests such as data analysis (look at a massive table of entries and try to answer as many questions based on it as possible in under a minute) and data matrices. Also, I wasn't quick enough. I haven't made errors, but I just didn't reach the standard which is required.

If this is the case, should I consider entering the web/software development career at all?

Did you hear back that you weren't fast enough or was it just what you thought?

I did the IBM one a good few years ago and remember that at the time I thought I had done badly as I didn't get through it all but was still called for interview. They then told me that the didn't expect most candidates to finish it all in the time allotted.
From chatting to other people after it might have been that they wanted to see whether you'd try to do as many correctly as you can or rush through them all even if the answer is wrong.

I've never seen one like the others you mentioned so don't know about them.

You really can't tell if you should enter the career from a couple of tests. I know people who suck at those tests but are great programmers and vice versa.

If you have the underlying knowledge you will eventually get passed one of them and can then prove it to them face to face. In my last job I was sure I had flunked the test as there were at least 3 answers that I didn't know off hand. But luckily there was a Q&A straight afterwards where I was able to show that I had the knowledge of the area but not that specific command and knew where to look to get the answer.

javarlz

Basically all the employers will ask you to do a technical test or at least a technical interview... sometimes both of them.

If you don't feel like doing this tests maybe the development roles are not for you.

Frankly speaking I think many of them are stupid and don't actually prove anything about your skills to get things done and develiry things. Some tests are nice though and we can see they are necessary, mainly for more junior roles as said previously here.

If you are a senior then a technical interview should suffice.

experiMental

Thanks for your insight. I have no trouble in solving engineering/technical problems. In fact, I've got international awards in that area. I've even got called to pitch my project to National Digital Research Council for a 20 grand fund. I wasn't successful, but as I was selected along with 69 candidates from all over the world, it's probably saying something.

Is this enough to offset my poor performance in aptitude tests, when I'll be applying for strategic development roles?

javarlz: I don't have anything against technical tests. I'd actually be very willing to do them. It's a bit worrying for me that some of them have unrealistic time limits. I've heard this from some people who done the online-based tests. What really concerns me is the reliance on aptitude tests by recruiters in the IT sector.

javarlz

It all depends of the company, but to many of them it's really imporant (vital) to get a job offer.

Google for instance, their selection process is composed by +- 8 different phases and around 6 are technical tests and interviews with white board coding etc..
Doesn't matter if you have great CV, actually everyone that goes to the interview also does... they pick only 2-3% of the CVs received to join their selection process.

Most of the companies are pretty much like that, with shorter and easier process/tests though...

If you are good in development you should just work on your "tests skills"... do many of them at home. Search on the internet you can find loads and practice.
The first ones will be tough but at some point they are very similar and you can do it easily... that's also one of the reasons why I said they don't really prove something.

experiMental

Lastly, this is not entirely related, but Is there a genuine skills shortage for web developers in Ireland? Would it be possible for me to get an entry-level development role in a company after 1 year of graphical web design experience and a 7 month course in web development?

Mr. Loverman

experiMental wrote: »

Lastly, this is not entirely related, but Is there a genuine skills shortage for web developers in Ireland? Would it be possible for me to get an entry-level development role in a company after 1 year of graphical web design experience and a 7 month course in web development?

Define web developers... the reason I say this is because there tends to be demands for very specific skills, e.g. there isn't a demand for cold fusion web developers (it's the bit in italics which is always important).

Do you have a job offer abroad? If so I would take it. It would be a great life experience.

javarlz

Web Developer is a bit vague but generally speaking the roles look for skills like:
- CSS (tableless etc)
-JavaScript + AJAX (JQuery is also good to have)
- HTML
- PHP (or Python, Perl, Coldfusion etc...)
- MySQL database

(Linux and a web server like Apache is also good)

If you have 1 year graphical experience + 7 months course you can probably get a junior position.

For these roles they use to ask for an online portifolio, so create a couple of websites... also create your personal site/blog and include a session for your portifolio.

I would say if you have this experience + 2-3 hosted websites and your personal page with your portifolio (to be included on your CV), you will probably get a job.

Of course your websites need to be nice and using the mentioned technologies.

couerdelion

Most of the development jobs I have interviewed for (either as an interviewer or interviewee) have had a technical test as part of the interview.

Usually I would set a list of questions that would be a challenge to complete in the allotted time. Part of the inerview is then for you to explain why you answered in the way you did as opposed to if you are right or wrong. I would be looking for a problem solver who thinks in a logical manner just as much as a competent programmer.

experiMental

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

Do you have a job offer abroad? If so I would take it. It would be a great life experience.

I have an offer for an internship in Amsterdam that pays less than a living wage. I simply can't afford it. I've lost my part time job a good few months ago and also spent all my savings. This is why I'm looking to do an additional course in order to improve my back-end development skills and knowledge.

As far as web development skills go, I'm looking to learn PHP, Server-side software (this is an area where there are a lot of different systems that I'm not familiar with), Java Script, JSON, jquery, etc. These are some of the technology that many developers here use, but if you can pinpoint which ones are in particular demand, this would be great.

InReality

I would not let aptitude tests put you off.
When I was looking for a job x years ago , I think I did 3 aptitude tests , out of maybe 100 cv's , 10-15 interviews.
And one of those was for the ESB