At NEF, all candidates sit psychometric tests in verbal and numerical reasoning before joining our programme. While this might seem surprising, here are five reasons why it’s a key step in beginning your entrepreneurship career.
1. These skills matter
If you’re looking to start your own business, there will probably be times when you are called upon to play multiple roles – it’s not enough to just have exciting ideas when you can’t make them add up to a profitable enterprise.
In the same way, you may be great at balancing books, but unless you can write a clear explanation of your key selling points, you will struggle to get the word out.
2. You need to know your strengths
That said, even if you do have to take on multiple jobs, you need to know when it's time to defer to someone better. NEF don’t expect everyone to ace both parts of the test – they just look for potential that you can develop.
These tests help assess your capabilities in key areas so you know what to work on, and what to prioritise when you get started – if you know that putting the accounts in order is going to take you twice the time as writing your sales pitch, you can plan accordingly.
3. They're an industry standard
Just because you have chosen the route less travelled, doesn’t mean you can completely ignore what the established businesses are up to. Many large companies, from banks to law firms, use some form of psychometric testing to assess the skills of their applicants.
These are going to be your competitors when you look to disrupt the market, and you need to know that you have the skills to keep up with, and surpass, them.
4. It gives you the recruitment experience
You may decide that sitting tests doesn’t suit you, or you may find that it’s a valuable way to work out what your strengths are. NEF gives you the experience and skills to build your own business future in a way that you see fit, and that starts from the moment you apply.
You may decide to employ psychometric tests in your own business, or you might assess applicants via a surprise game of volleyball – it’s entirely up to you, but we make sure we expose you to as many options as possible.
5. NEF looks for the best
The New Entrepreneurs Foundation Programme is a 12 intensive month scheme, designed to produce the next generation of business leaders. We look for those who have the skills to make their mark in an entrepreneurial work placement, who can stand out in monthly skills workshops and who can wow at our networking events.
The programme can give you a huge amount if you’re ready to take it, but to be able to do that it can only focus on about 35 extraordinary young people - we’d love for you to be one of them.