Author Topic: New to applying for jobs  (Read 1927 times)

Mr.BondsBeard

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New to applying for jobs
« on: February 27, 2017, 05:06:53 AM »
Hello everyone,

I have recently obtained my graduate degree in political science and have started applying for jobs. During the application processes I will have to take several tests (IQ, assessment, capacity, personality). Seeing as I have no experience with these kind of tests (or applying for professional jobs in general) I am looking for some advice/guidance. Can you share some tips and tricks on the entire process? Do you know where I am able to train for these tests? Any thoughts are very welcome.

Linea_Norway

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Re: New to applying for jobs
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2017, 05:14:49 AM »
IQ tests can often be found by searching on the internet. Practicing IQ tests will make you better in answering IQ tests and give you a slightly better score. The personality tests are supposed to reflect your personality. Just fill them out as good as you can. But it helps to fill in that you are good at working with others and good at working individually (all round person). And if you try to tweak the answers into a certain direction, but aware that questions often are repeated in another form. Think of a scenario and stick to it all the way.

It helps to build up a load of confidence. Be confident about your skills and good characteristics. Before the interview, try to visualize a successful scenario beforehand. Don't get scared if you get interviewed by 4 people at the same time. Practice for yourself the nasty interview questions: what are your bad characteristics? Make sure you can give 2 that are not that bad.

Mr.BondsBeard

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Re: New to applying for jobs
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2017, 05:43:15 AM »
Thank you for your reply. I've found a few sites where I can practice and I signed up for several workshops provided by the university meant for starters on assessments, how to prepare for interviews etc. Overall I'm quite excited to start the entire job hunting process!

AshStash

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Re: New to applying for jobs
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2017, 08:07:11 AM »
Having spent a lot of time recently applying for jobs, one thing I will say is to take advantage of any opportunity provided by your university to do practice interviews. I found the feedback from these to be hugely helpful, particularly in introducing me to the STAR (situation, task, action, result) technique of structuring answers and then in evaluating how well I was actually applying STAR in situ. Ultimately this helped me build up an arsenal of well-structured examples which I could apply to a range of standard interview questions.

Good luck!

 

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