It’s surprising to me how few employers do these as part of their interview process.
In my experience, most job interviews (for marketing functions) go like this:
- Screening (usually phone) interview with a recruiter to ensure core job description needs are satisfied
- Phone interview with the hiring manager or some stakeholder in the interview process
- Onsite interview(s) with hiring manager and other stakeholders
- A final conversation to negotiate offer terms or resolve any last questions
Besides some scenario or role play questions in the in-person interviews, far too few employers use actual take-home tests as part of their hiring process (for marketing hires). And I’m not talking about multiple choice questions. I mean give the candidate a real (or pseudo-real) problem, and have them solve it, on their own, as homework. Give them time to do it. If it’s useable work of value – pay them to do it. Or make a step of the hiring process a work-along day where the candidate is actually working on a project with your team. To be fair, this exists, but it’s the exception. Weirdly it’s the bigger companies paying the highest salaries that don’t seem to care about this approach.
It’s way too easy to sound like a good candidate, but the only way to know is to see how they work on paper or in action.
As a hiring manager I always create tests for my candidates. Sometimes it’s a simple skill test to confirm they know how to run basic calculations in excel, or it’s more of a story problem to tease out their thought process on a marketing challenge.
As a candidate I look for the test as a sign of a company’s due diligence – I want them to be keen on finding the best candidate for the role, and being willing to commit the resources to do it right. I want to make sure this opportunity is something that is the right challenge for me – not completely outside my wheelhouse, but also not completely beneath me.
The only reason i can muster for why more organizations don’t do this is the time investment required. But if your goal is to find the best talent – isn’t that investment worth it?