9 Creative Hiring Tests You Need to Know About - Spark Hire

9 Creative Hiring Tests You Need to Know About - Spark HireHiring can cost a pretty penny hiring mistakes can cost even more. In fact, a bad hire can cost companies upwards of $50,000, according to a 2013 CareerBuilder study thats a lot of pennies. Its not enough to base hiring decisions off of an interview alone. A candidate who looks good on paper and aces the interview may turn out to be a bad fit for yur company.To reveal the talent behind the interviewee, companies should test their candidates before fully committing. You wouldnt buy a new car without test-driving it first, right? So why invest in a job candidate before having them prove their skills?If you really want to put your job candidates to the test, check out these ninecreative hiring tests successful professionals have used or experienced during the hiring process1. Pre-Hire ProjectI am a big believer in the pre-hire project. Basically, this is a small project related to the main function of the job a candidate is int erviewing for. This is easy to imagine for writing or graphic design type roles, but it goes far beyond that in its application.For example, if you are hiring an outside sales person, you would have them develop a stsatzgy for how they would approach the market if they were hired. They will then present their approach to you in the next interview so you can discuss the various strategies and really dig into the true goals of the position.Pre-hire projects give candidates a chance to demonstrate their expertise. It also creates a great opportunity for conversation that is focused around the opportunities and challenges in the role. It goes beyond finding someone who is great at answering interview questions, and digs into how they actually get the job done.Rikka Brandon, Recruiting Hiring ExpertPre-hire projects create a great opportunity for conversation RikkaBrandon Recruiting HiringClick To Tweet2. Role PlayOur CEO, David Niu, will often role play with a candidate during a job i nterview based on a previous job. Weve recently hired a few new PR positions. Davids philosophy is that pitching the company to nachrichtensendung outlets is largely a sales job so he asks candidates to sell him on something. Ive heard him do role playing with candidates who were formerly salesmen or who worked on political campaigns.With me, he found out that I worked part-time at Guitar Center, so he asked me to sell him a guitar for his daughter. He had me stand up in a conference room and act just like I would while I welches working at the store. He asked a barrage questions, and was skeptical when I tried to sell him on a more expensive guitar.In the end, he left the imaginary Guitar Center without buying a guitar. I left the interview figuring I had blown it because I didnt close the sale. But, I got the job.Neal McNamara, Communication Manager, TINYpulseDo you ever role play during a job interview? Neal_McNamara does HiringTests Click To Tweet3. Telling QuestionsWe have a c ouple of clients who use really interesting hiring tests to question interviewees on key skills. For instance, test creative thinking for design or development type roles by asking, Give me five alternative uses for a paper clip.Weve heard lots of great answers from the more logical, use it to reset my iPhone to wear it as a pirate earring. The key is to think outside the packung and not be afraid to be a little unorthodox with your answers. Its a great way of testing how a candidate reacts under pressure.Steve Thompson, Forward RoleForwardRole_Ste wants to know 5 alternative uses for a paper clip HiringTestsClick To Tweet4. StorytellingI like to tell people about the time I caught the same fish two years in a row. I go through an elaborate story about reeling the fish in, how it fought with me for hours and, when I finally caught it, I knew it was the same fish from last year, that I lost just before it got in the boat.Then I finish the story there and wait. I wait for them to spea k. I figure that the people who are listening, and always at the ready, are going to ask, how do you know it was the same fish? If they dont ask that, I dont usually hire them.Idan Shpizear, 911 RestorationIdan Shpizear knows exactly how to make sure interviewees are listening InterviewingHacksClick To Tweet5. Hack a SolutionAs a company engaged in leading-edge IT, Linode has desperately sought qualified, open-source (Linux OS) candidates to fill multiple roles on our teams. And weve taken that one step further by sponsoring a competition among Linux developers Linux Challenge 9, where participants hack a solution for a posed problem. Winners get rewarded with swag and most likely job offers. Linode gets a true indication of a candidates skill set.Vincent Palochko, LinodeSolve a problem, get the job How Linode gets a true indication of a candidates skill set.Click To Tweet6. Write Your Own Job DescriptionLast year, while interviewing for a role, I was asked to create a job descrip tion from scratch. The only information I was given was the title of the role and the name of the organization (a well-known small nonprofit). This was a great task that probably elicited a number of responses, all indicative of the candidate they were and were not looking for.They needed someone who was resourceful and took initiative someone who was not afraid to take a very blank slate, and do some research on their own to create something from nothing. While completing the assignment, it was really important for me to nail their voice and style to be able to successfully complete this task.I thought this was a really smart way to evaluate my fit for their vacancy from a variety of different lens, and for the right person the task could even be perceived as a fun challenge.Samantha Simmons, Senior Manager, Executive Search, Koya PartnersA smart way to evaluate candidate fit create a job description from scratch samangraceClick To Tweet7. Create a CurriculumAs a job seeker I was once asked to create a curriculum for the company. Before attending the first interview, I had some homework to complete. Given the topics ahead of time, I had to create a working curriculum for the company. This included designing how their departments should function, how many employees should be in each department, how many team leaders were needed, hours of work, rate of pay, etc.This took me hours to complete, but it forced me to learn about the business in a different way, and from an insiders point of view. I believe they were looking for accuracy, business knowledge, ability to follow direction, attention to detail, and creativity.Kaitlyn Annaert, HR Manager, Voices.comHaving a job seeker create a curriculum shows business knowledge and creativity kaitannaertClick To Tweet8. ChallengeIn a recent job hiring process, I took a unique creative test designed to evaluate both my editing skills as a content marketing writer/editor and check if I have basic visual skills in the form of editing a PowerPoint or SlideShare presentation.The hiring manager gave me an existing presentation file that consisted of 40 slides and instructed me to cut it down to 30 slides, moving the superfluous slides to the end of the presentation. She also asked me to record my total editing time on the task, as well as insert comments/sticky notes to explain what I had edited out and why.Derek Handova, Content Marketing WriterCutting a 40 slide PowerPoint down to 30 slides is quite the task DerekHandova HiringTestsClick To Tweet9. Assessment TestDuring the interview process, we ask our candidates to write a 200-300 word article on digital marketing topics that they should have researched prior to the interview. This shows whether or not the candidate did their homework. Additionally, it tests the potential employees ability to respond under pressure.We typically give them thirty minutes to write the paper. Since working fast is an integral part of working at our up-tempo digital agen cy, this test shows whether or not the candidate can succeed under a tight timeline.I cant even begin to explain how much this test has helped our hiring process. People can give the most amazing interview and make you believe they are an ideal candidate. This simple test automatically weeds out unqualified candidates and separates the pretenders versus the contenders.Jason Parks, The Media CaptainHow to determine whether or not a candidate did their homework via Jason_Parks1 HiringTestsClick To TweetWhat ways do you test your job candidates before hiring them? Share your tips and tricks in the comments