Employability test simplifies job hunt

[1]

Scouting for jobs after graduation just got easier for final year students of Delhi University. In a drive to prepare students for the professional world, when DU launched the employability test last month, little did the authorities know that it would find so many takers. For the exam this month, reportedly over 21,000 final year students have registered. As the University’s central placement cell (CPC) takes the plunge to create a proper systematic job market for students, those who appeared for the exam tell us their side of the story.

“The test has many advantages. For one, now we don’t have to sit for the basic test over and over again for different companies. The test covers all aspects like English comprehension, quantitative and logical abilities. And it’s open to students of all streams. So it will benefit students from fields like Computer Science which are not very popular with companies at the freshers’ level,” says Shelly, a final year student of Hansraj College.
Some students who are eagerly waiting for the results, don’t want the companies to gauge them solely by their test scores. “The only drawback is that now the students have only one chance to prove their mettle as all the companies that come thereafter will rely only on the test scores before selecting students. Sometimes one isn’t at one’s best on the day of the exam. So I don’t think companies should only depend on these scores,” says Anubhuti, a commerce student who appeared for the test on January 8.
DU has tied up with Aspiring Minds for the employability test, which is called AMCAT (Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test). Students tell us that the company won’t interfere with their selection process. “An official told me that every company uses its own criteria based on different AMCAT Module scores to select candidates, so Aspiring Minds will not interfere in the selection criteria,” says Ritwik, a student from North Campus.
Which means, that even if you do not perform well in some modules, there is a chance that you will be short-listed.
However, Vaishali Narang, a Computer Science student who appeared for the test in December, says that the test only deserves 20 per cent of the total weightage of the interview process. “The difficulty level was mediocre. I just felt that they focused on our mathematical skills, which aren’t really important as companies focus more on your personality skills. So those who don’t score too well in the quantitative section might just lose out on a job on the basis of just one of the four elements in the test,” she says.
Anubhav Swaroop, a student of Hansraj College who’s on the hunt for a job these days, says that sitting for a single entrance has saved him the trouble of visiting the university on a daily basis to check on the recruitment process. He says, “It’s convenient for both — companies and students. Now they don’t have to spend so much time on first coming here and then conducting their own tests as the university has done that already. I recently appeared for an aptitude test in one of the recruitment firms, and realised that their test was quite similar to the one in DU.”