Questionnaire to determine analytical thinking?

April 6, 2005 6:46 AM

Our Regional Manager is creating a new position in the company. The successful candidate will coordinate the flow of financial, staffing, and other information from several of our company's sites. Once the data is collected, this person will consolidate it and will need to analyze it for trends before presenting it to the Regional Manager. What he's looking for is a person who has a knack for recognize trends and identify anomalies in large pools of data. He's asked me to check around to see if there is some sort of questionnaire or test that will help identify this trait in potential candidates. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Something free is always good :-)
posted by galto to work & money (5 comments total)

When we hire for technical positions, we will pose real technical problems and ask the applicants for thoughts on how they would solve the problem.
For your case, it might make sense to provide real or dummied data that has already been analyzed and compare how applicants approach the problem and what level of insight they provide.
In other words, create your own custom quiz with data you already have.
This approach has been quite successful for us.
posted by forforf at 7:03 AM on April 6, 2005

forforf, your answer is the reason the job is being created. No one at the company knows the answer, if I read the question right. So the hiring company needs a qualifying test to find the applicants best suited for the position. The position being filled should have a title that correctly defines this position. Having that may lead to finding the right test to be given to the applicants.
posted by thomcatspike at 7:39 AM on April 6, 2005

Maybe borrowing a few pages from a math GRE prep book might do the trick.
posted by trharlan at 8:00 AM on April 6, 2005

Some companies specialize in creating appropriate tests to find the right candidate for the job.

One such company, used by a client of mine, is People Answers. Their service is not free - but their reports are certainly comprehensive. Very helpful for hiring new personnel in different positions within a company.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:42 AM on April 6, 2005

There is training for this kind of work. Ask for candidates that have it.
posted by ewkpates at 10:32 AM on April 6, 2005