Job Search Challenges: Job-Specific Assessments and Projects

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Demonstrating Your Skills

Employers are trying to find someone to solve the unique problems their business has. Recruiters and hiring managers will want to make sure that candidates have the skills and competencies included on their resume. Let's look at a few ways employers might verify candidate abilities during the hiring process.

About Assessments and Work Samples

Depending on the company, the newness of the position, and the level of the role, there may be more to the interview process than talking with all the stakeholders.
Potential employers may also ask you to complete projects to demonstrate key skills.

Some employers may rely on your existing portfolio and review your previous work. In other cases, employers may ask you to complete specific work samples as a part of the interview process. This means completing unpaid work during the hiring process to demonstrate your skills as they more directly align with that role. In addition, they might ask you to complete assessments as well.

My Experience With Assessments

As a part of a few hiring processes, I’ve been asked to take various tests to assess my tendencies, abilities, and aptitudes. Key focus areas often include problem-solving, strengths, work style, spatial ability, logical thinking, and temperament. 
For one role after layoff #7, the first two “interviews” with one organization were online assessments that compared my test results to a role-specific and company-specific ideal profile. For that job opening, I had 2 “interviews” like this and received a rejection email without interacting with actual people. For another hiring process, I took online exams on logical reasoning, general intelligence, and basic math before I was eligible for a phone screen. 
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In some cases, assessments may be a prerequisite to meeting with a human interviewer or may be included later in the process to gather supplemental information right before making an offer.

Concerns With Assessments

While assessments have value, they may not help employers find a better candidate. Assessments can be useful when they are used to verify skills relevant to performing a specific position well.  However, some assessments may be checking for skills not required for a given role.  In addition, some assessments are not intended to be used during the hiring process and may introduce irrelevant or biased information into the hiring decision.

My Low Time Committment Projects

As someone who works in the field of learning and development, I expect a potential employer to ask to see my portfolio. In many cases, during the application process, they will ask for a link to an online collection of work samples. On occaision, potential employers will ask for reccommendations on which of my work samples they should review more closely that align with the specific skills for any given role.  I'm also ready to talk an employer through my work samples and highlighting my process in developing those materials. 

I also expect to be asked to demonstrate my ability to present content to a group. On many occaisions, I've been asked to deliver an interactive 10-15 minute presentation on the topic of my choosing to a panel of interviewers. 

For a manager role, I've often been asked to put together a 30-60-90 day plan outlining my initial onboarding and how I would identify and prioritize projects. 

My High Time Committment Projects

As I’ve progressed into higher-level roles, the projects have become more time intensive and elaborate. Here are a few examples:

​For a consultant role, I was tasked with creating an innovative plan for employee onboarding for new contractors and full-time employees. For this project, I designed a pitch deck to garner buy-in from stakeholders on the solution. I delivered that presentation to a group including the hiring manager, additional managers, and team members. I also designed a blended learning solution that leveraged subject matter presenters and accommodated people having distributed locations and start dates. 

For a manager role, in addition to a 30-60 day onboarding plan for myself, and created a list of equipment, software, subscriptions, and additional resources needed to begin creating videos for the company. 

For a program manager role, I was tasked with creating an innovative onboarding program to teach new full-time staff about company products. I designed a new hire career fair with multiple tables showcasing different products, complete with a passport for trainees to collect stamps. Those trainees who visited each table and filled out their passports were enrolled in a prize drawing for a bigger company-branded prize.

For a director role, during the initial application, I answered several essay questions along with my resume and a cover letter. Later in the interview process, after taking two professional assessments, I was also tasked with completing these three projects: 

• Complete data analysis and make three recommendations for the next steps to improve the performance of three specific courses.
  
• ​Create a project plan for a family vacation to a foreign country within a designated time frame and address key project management components. I created a 6-page project plan outlining roles, responsibilities, decision-making processes, timelines, and budget.
• Project future staffing needs and budget based on current workload, job titles, staffing levels, and projected future workload.
  
  

For another director role, I signed a non-disclosure agreement and was asked to design a section of a course for one of the company's current clients. I also  completed a half-day of work (unpaid) in their office. This included running an internal meeting, doing additional work on one of their current projects, and presenting my proposed solution to the client. 

Concerns With Projects

Ultimately, I did not receive job offers for any of these roles where I completed more elaborate work samples. I also found it frustrating to be tasked with what ended up being hours and hours of skilled work without being compensated, or ending up with a job offer.  

In the abstract, I’ve seen many people bluster on social media about what they won’t do as part of an interview process. I also don’t necessarily disagree with the boundaries those people suggest. I do know that making that decision feels much different in the throes of job searching. When being asked to do a few projects to help you get a job you think you’ll love, it’s often hard to say no. Here are a few suggestions I have for deciding what you personally are willing to do as a part of the interview process.

Strategies to Adapt

• Decide in advance how much time you are willing to spend completing projects as part of the job application process. For example, would you be okay with 1, 2, or 5 hours of project work to demonstrate your skills? Determine the maximum hours of work you are willing to do before you are in front of a potential employer. This will help you make a better decision when the situation arises. Only you can decide how much unpaid work you’re willing to do for any given job.
  
  
• Think about how you might communicate your boundaries during the interview process. You might commit to a specific number of hours of work, offer to do paid work for a reduced hourly rate, or decide to withdraw. Thinking about this before an actual situation is presented to you will help you make a better decision later on.
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• Be ready to assess the projected workload against your interest and likelihood of getting the job. You may need to revisit your previously made decision at the time the work is presented.  As you are closer to the final stage in the hiring process, you may be more willing to take part in a project. Know that your decision on what or how much to do will vary with each opportunity.

Learn More

• The Layoff Lady: Work Samples and Portfolios: 5 Steps To Create Your Portfolio
• The Layoff Lady's Ultimate Guide To Answering The Question, "I Just Got Laid Off--Now What Do I Do?"​
• The Layoff Lady Book: Seven Lessons From Seven Layoffs: A Guide​