INTERVIEW WITH CORSTIAAN SMIT FROM HELLOTEST

When Corstiaan Smit graduated in 2011 and started applying for jobs, he frequently had to take assessments. However, he noticed that unlike his friends, he didn’t particularly enjoy them, and they weren’t becoming any easier for him. Together with his partner Niels Poelsma, he founded Hellotest to help people prepare for assessments. Over the past ten years, the company has grown to become the leading platform for helping individuals with aptitude tests, which are increasingly used in job applications. In this interview, Corstiaan shares more about how Hellotest was founded, what they do, and provides some tips on how to prepare for assessments.

Can you tell us more about how Hellotest started?

“In the beginning, I provided training to student associations in the evenings alongside my day job. I quickly noticed that this was growing, and I could make it a full-time job. Together with Niels, whom I knew from my studies, I concluded that it would be beneficial to offer the training online. Niels had a good understanding of website development, so he built the site. We complemented each other well. Now, he is responsible for online marketing and the website, while I am responsible for the courses and their content.”

What motivated you to start providing training for assessments?

“I offered the training because I wanted to help people prepare. You spend years working toward building a career, only to face an assessment or test that can determine whether or not you get accepted into a committee or an internship. It always felt a bit odd to me how much these tests could impact an opportunity that aligned well with one’s studies and skills.”

How do you ensure that you can help everyone?

“In the Netherlands, there are about twenty different test developers. They all have different types of assessments with various types of numerical sequences, which makes preparation more challenging. Naturally, we want to help everyone as much as possible, so we have nearly a thousand companies using our tests, and we have almost twelve thousand questions in our database. This way, we can create customized practice packages. If you practice well, you can usually pass the assessments. Of course, there’s no guarantee if you’re just having a bad day. But we’ve found that even a small improvement can lead to significant success.”

Why do companies use assessments?

“Companies want to find the best candidates, and they obviously do that by looking at your resume and motivation. However, they use assessments as an additional measure to determine if you’re the right fit. If you score well on these capacity tests, it’s a good indicator that you’ll perform well in the company. But you also need to be motivated and have completed the right studies. It’s a part of the selection process. In general, it’s a good predictor of how you’ll perform. It’s a solid, objective tool!”

Do you have any tips for our readers?

“For many tests, it’s wiser to make an educated guess rather than leave a question blank. If you truly don’t know the answer, first try to eliminate a few options. That way, you don’t have to guess completely. Also, try not to spend too much time on a question you don’t know. Some tests are designed to be tight on time. Stalling on a question where you don’t know the answer is not productive and is a waste of time.”

“Additionally, there are many different ways to take an assessment. You can work very precisely and slowly, which may lead you to run out of time. You might also rely more on your intuition when answering, which can make you faster but may lead to more mistakes. It’s best to find a balance between these two strategies. Work in a structured way, and don’t linger too long on questions you don’t know. It’s very important to find what works for you. But there’s more than just one trick; you also need to understand things like math and reading. Next to intelligence, knowledge also plays a role, and that’s something you can prepare well for!”