10 Minute Excel Test

[skinfreak]

I am interviewing applicants for a job this week, and need to put together a simple and quick test to check the applicants Excel skills. Nothing too special, but important to see if they have an eye for detail and usability. Has anyone seen a good example of such a thing out and about?

Thanks!

 

[Domski]

Hi,

Depends what level of skills you're looking for. There's some people in my office who'd take then minutes to add a column of numbers up.

Seriously though, if you've got an idea of what skills you are looking for it might be easier to set up a basic test yourself. I've got some old ECDL papers if you'd like to use them for ideas.

Dom

 

[respree]

I'm afraid I don't have one to offer you, but personally, I would make up my own test that is custom tailored to skill-set requirements of the job, rather than to search for a boiler-plate test.

For example

1. Sum the column of numbers entitled Net Sales.
2. Take the Net Income and divide it by the number of shares outstanding (to derive Earnings Per Share)

would be far too simple for someone applying as Director of Budgeting of Planning

Whereas,

1. What is the fair market value of 100,000 shares of stock options granted on 1/1/2004, which had a strike price of $2.00, assumed volatility of 60%, risk free interest rate of 4.98%, assumed quarterly dividend yield of zero?

[The answer would be something like the formulas on this page.
http://www.spreadsheetmodeling.com/Black Scholes Option Pricing - Basics.htm ]

would be far too difficult for someone who only needs to use basic operators (add, subtract, multiply and divide) for their job (such as an accounting clerk).

It really doesn't take that long to come up with your own customized test (perhaps about an hour for 10 questions/tasks to perform).

 

[skinfreak]

This is pretty much what we've put together so far. Deliveratley screwwing with the dates column and omitting varibles etc...

We are looking for good Excel skills, preferably with some VBA but the essential thing is that they are confident in its use. Basic equeations would suffice as it would weed out the shaff pretty quickly...

 

[respree]

For more sample questions, one idea would be to just peruse some of the questions on this board to see if they can come up with the answers, based on the skill level required, of course.

 

[pErzzzzzz]

Here is my opinion for your exercise below ... can you do that ?? if can ... I think it's not problem to interview your jobs.

1. Make a charts (for presentation ex. colume chart, line chart, scatter chart, 2 axis chart relative, performance chart, correlation chart)
2. use the basic formular (sum, average, count, if, if(ISERROR), OR, NOT and logical as well)
3. match the data by use (OFFSET, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP) (this is important to manage your data)
4. condition formatting, subtotal, filter, sort the data, diagram, hyperlink
5. Basic for VBA programming, use Macro (for routiens operating jobs)
6. Formatting worksheet, Set Print Area, Passwd protections, Add-In Tools (Passwd ******* 555), knowledge for PDF creator.
7. Add, Adjust, Crop, Photoshop of Paint skill (I think if you can use the photoshop skill .. It will be good oppotunities but it will take a times more than 10 minute.
8. if advance can you understand the goal seek function ?
9. can you explain how to use all toolbars in the excel as quickly ?
10. the all functions depend on you type of jobs ? I don't know what kind of job you will go to interview ? if financial firms please look at mostly functions of finance. therefore banks, logistics, import, export, Sales, Insurance (very complicate) etc.

 

[Domski]

Add-In Tools (Passwd ******* 555),

If I was asked in an interview like that what I was like at cracking passwords I'd keep quiet. Not a skill most companies are looking for in a general Excel bod imho.