Using Skills Assessments

There is a fundamental difference in "learning" material and "understanding" material..

We have found in the IT industry that there is a big disconnect between learning material and understanding material.  A prime example lies in the very persons that support your systems.  Ask your windows administrator these questions:

Q.  Does a process run?   Answer

Q.  What is a page-in?  Answer

Q.  What features are new in Windows 2003 R2?   Answer

 

They most likely will get #3 right but miss #1 and #2.  So, what does this mean?  It means that they understand how to read an FAQ or a "What's New" bulletine, but they lack an understanding of how windows actually works.

Test your developers with these simple questions:

Q.  What does encapsulation mean in object oriented programming?  Answer

Q.  What is a virtual function?  Answer

Q.  What is polymorphism in OOP?  Answer

The point of the questions is not to trick someone or make them feel inadequate.  The point is to show that in most IT jobs, to be effective, you have to "understand" the material, not just memorize it.

For the developer questions, a developer should be able to give you several examples of the three questions to prove that they "understand" the material.  If all they can do is voice a definition but cannot give a real world example, then they do not understand what the terms actual mean.

There are many certifications available--some good and some bad.  For some businesses, it is about how many certifications a person has that shows their worth.

At Forensic IT, we believe in finding out not what a person knows, but to what level they understand the material.  In IT (especially support), a person has to be able to map a problem statement into an architecture in order to discern which data is needed to explain the issue.  This requires understanding of how windows works--not which features are available.

Our skills assessments work toward the goal of understanding and not text-book definiition.

We provide sample random timed skills assessments that individuals can use to see if they understand the material or not.

They took the class so don't they know the material?

Skills assessments have their place in evaluating current employees for promotions and raises..

You can use our skills assessments to determine deficiencies in worker's knowledge.  They can help you decide which training classes to send your workers to or whether certain training is beneficial. 

Use Skills Assessments to Hire

Filter out the candidates that do not understand the material.

Most companies do not specialize in IT, so how can they effectively hire an IT person--from the information on the resume?  Not likely.  Many employers are reading this right now and thinking of the IT person that they hired who did not know anything. 

Example:  Your company is a law firm.  You focus on law--you know law--that is your business.  You do not know IT and have no idea how to hire a good administrator or programmer.  What questions do you ask?

By using our skills assessments combined with job postings, you can have us do the filtering for you.  We can filter out candidates that do not meet your criteria and let you focus on their fit within your organization--not whether they know how to program or not.

Even if you are an IT company, you may have detailed interview questions that help you filter out candidates, but wouldn't rather spend more of your time doing something else?  Let us start the filter process for you and get you better candidates from the start.

It is free for individuals to post resumes and take skills assessments.  Employers can then combine skills assessments and resumes to find the most qualified candidate.