Job Simulation – the complete preparation guide [2024]

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Not sure which job simulation assessment you will be taking? contact us! 

Take-home assignments are job simulation assessments in which you receive an assignment to complete remotely within a designated time frame, which can be a few hours or a couple of days. The take home assignment is a type of work sample test that assess the skills required in your position.

As such, the assignment differs according to your role. For example, for a software programming position, your assignment will be to write code; as a journalist, you will need to write an article; and as a social media specialist, you may be asked to create a campaign.

An in-basket exercise (also called in-tray exercise) is a job simulation test that assesses your work process and how you tackle, prioritise, and organise assignments. The name of this assessment derives from the days when employees had an actual basket on their desks where their tasks were piled up.

You will have a time limit to complete tasks like sorting and addressing emails, answering phone calls, and handling customer grievances.

These simulations are often part of the hiring process for administrative and managerial roles.

A virtual job tryout is a form of in-basket exercise that, using advanced technology, simulates the tasks you will perform on your job with a higher degree of accuracy.

This can be a live chat support simulation, writing email responses, or a cognitive assessment, as in the Deloitte Job Simulation assessment.

A Situational judgement test is a behavioural assessment that evaluates how you approach and handle situations. In this job simulation test, you will be presented with work-related scenarios and will be required to choose, rank or rate the most effective or ineffective course of action from a list of options.

The SJT is among the most common of the job simulation assessments, and it is taken as part of the hiring process for a wide range of positions in many companies and organizations, from big firms such as HSBC to the Civil Service.

Role-playing is a job simulation assessment that assesses your ability to communicate, transmit, and convey a message or an idea. In this assignment, you will need to act out your response to a work-related scenario or demonstrate how you would act in a certain circumstance. 

Although usually taken as part of a group assignment, it can also be part of an individual job simulation of companies that uses the HireVue platform.

A case interview, or case study, is a job simulation test that assesses your ability to analyse information, reach conclusions, use your critical thinking, make data-based decisions, and present them to your colleagues and managers.

You will be given work-related documents, and you will need to interpret data, plan strategic solutions, and present your recommendations according to your findings in a written form or in-front of your recruiters. For example, when applying to McKinsey, you may be asked to write and analyse key factors surrounding the launch of a new product, and a Deloitte Case Interview can include a report for a company that intends to acquire another company.

The case interview can be administered as part of a group assignment and as an individual job simulation.

A group test is a job simulation format that assesses your communication skills, leadership abilities, and peer relationships. 

Many assignments can be taken as a group, such as case interviews, group interviews, role-playing exercises, group presentations, practical work-related tasks, and group dynamics.  

A pre-recorded interview is a job simulation that, in addition to acting as a substitute for an in-person interview, can include various evaluation assignments, such as role-playing, case interviews, and SJTs, that assess job-related competencies, traits, and behavioural tendencies. 

In the pre-recorded interview, you will be presented with work-related questions or tasks that you will need to record your response in a limited time frame. You usually have up to two minutes to prepare your answer and up to three minutes to record it.

Your recruiters or hiring managers will view your recorded interview, and if you move on to the next stage of the hiring process, you will most likely be summoned to a traditional interview.

In recent years, the popularity of pre-recorded interviews has increased and is now becoming more advanced and even AI-based, such as the HireVue platform that is used by companies like Goldman Sachs, Cathay Pacific, and Coca-Cola.

Ability assessments are evaluation tests that measure your knowledge, skills, competencies, and cognitive aptitudes. The most common ability tests are numerical reasoning, and verbal reasoning, as in the Deloitte Job simulation assessment.

A personality profile, also called a Values Assessment, is a questionnaire in which you report your personal traits and preferences or choose, rate or rank statements regarding your characteristics and tendencies.

JobTetPrep’s Job Simulation Assessment Practice is  the ONLY online prep course tailored for the financial industry, with simulations and practice questions that follow the content, structure, and sought-after values and attitudes of the biggest financial firms’ job simulations, including EY, Deloitte, and HSBC. 

The Job Simulation Practice is currently the only preparation for the financial industry, focused on the values, attitudes, behaviours and pre-recorded interview questions you will address in the real job simulation.