India is a country with a population of over 130 crores. According to a latest survey report published by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE:2018-19), India presently has 993 universities and 10,725 autonomous institutions. It is estimated that the total enrollment count for higher education in India is approximately 37.4 million, out of which 19.2 million are male and 18.2 million are female candidates. Naturally, all these people will start looking for jobs as soon as they pass out of their respective institutions. Unfortunately, the lane to the market of employment is too narrow for this huge crowd to fit in. When a person applies for a job role based on his academic course, it is assumed that the candidate will have sound theoretical knowledge of the same, and will crack the interview. So, how will the recruiters streamline the number of people to be interviewed? This is where the reasoning and logic test comes into play.
An interview may be fine for judging the candidates based on their behaviour and body language, but a thirty-minute talk is not enough to understand their competence. For certain functions, such as engineering, it is crucial for the candidates to pass a reasoning test.
Ganesh Chandan V, chief human resources officer, Tata Projects
It is assumed that people with sharp logical thinking and good reasoning have the capacity to efficiently apply that knowledge in practical situations. Earlier, the logical thinking and reasoning tests were limited to the government recruitment processes. Reasoning has been a part of generic interviews in the government sector, and it is relevant to a great extent. Reasoning helps recruiters understand the thought process the candidates are likely to use to apply their knowledge while working, irrespective of the sector they work for.
People with good reasoning sense will be able to assess various situations and also justify their actions on the same. Interviews lend an opportunity to the recruiters to speak to the candidates and judge their body language while replying to certain questions. However, according to Ganesh Chandan V, chief human resources officer, Tata Projects, “An interview may be fine for judging the candidates based on their behaviour and body language, but a thirty-minute talk is not enough to understand their competence. For certain functions, such as engineering, it is crucial for the candidates to pass a reasoning test. This helps recruiters understand their skills of applying their knowledge in the field. Engineering is the pure science of application of theories. While these theories may be easy to learn, one may face hurdles while applying them practically. Therefore, before hiring engineers, especially freshers, we prefer testing their logic and reasoning. However, we do not do it for other roles.”
Gut feeling may work up to 10 per cent, but not 100 per cent. Answers to the reasoning test give us the idea of the original thought process of the candidates helping us evaluate their understanding of the job function.
Rajani Tewari, HR director, Viiking Ventures
A resume or a cover letter may be written well using creative skills. However, it is only during the interview that the truthfulness of the resume can be found validated. Candidates with great communication skills may impress the interviewer with their words, but their competence can only be proved through tests. This is where the role of reasoning and logic comes into action. Candidates with sound knowledge of the job role may win over the employer through relevant answers. But their risk- taking capacities, getting into the desired moulds in accordance with the situation, scene management, and so on are the areas that reasoning helps determine. The recruiter may test the candidates in several ways:
1. By asking them to find solutions to a hypothetical situation
2. By presenting a set of MCQ of random reasoning
3. By asking them how they will execute certain projects
Candidates may play with words during the verbal interview to impress the employer, but that will not allow the employer a peak into the way the candidates actually think. Reasoning is a trick that will work on the part of the recruiters to find out the real thought process of the candidate. Commenting on this, Rajani Tewari, HR director, Viiking Ventures, says, “We want to remove the system of human biased hiring and replace it with hiring based on efficiency. It is highly important to bring down the count of hiring on the basis of impressive answers. Gut feeling may work up to 10 per cent, but not 100 per cent. Answers to the reasoning test give us the idea of the original thought process of the candidates helping us evaluate their understanding of the job function.”
However, she also adds that these are just the basic indicators and should not be treated as the ultimate qualifiers. On the basis of these indicators, HR may decide whom to call for the second round of interview. “Today, reasoning is highly important, but there are always different aspects to a hiring process. Therefore, while logic and reasoning may be the indicators of competence, these shouldn’t be treated as final qualifiers,” advises Tewari.
