In an environment that is becoming more and more competitive it is essential to know our own strenghts and weaknesses. To know which skills will give us a competitive advantage over others who are aspiring to the same job we are and which skills we need to be strenghening. It was this idea that motivated the International Master in Finance student, Anna Kireeva, a few months ago, to take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT), one of the most important tests world wide that evaluates which skills are currently of highest value for facing the new challenges of today´s business world.
All students at EADA have the opportunity to take the test for free. It consists of 100 questions about the business world and finance divided up into eight different sections: Analysis of Current Affairs, Economics, Maths, Anayltical Reasoning, Analysis of Financial Principals, Investment in Banking, Global Markets, Analysis of graphs and tables.
The test contains 100 questions about the business world and finance which have been drawn up by recruiters from important employment agencies based on new challenges in the business world.
The objective is that during the two hour test candidates make decisions based on the real problems and challenges companies face. The test also leads to great opportunities for student´s career plans as they are all entered into the BAT Data Based, a data base that recuiters from over 20,000 international companies consult on a daily basis when looking for talented people to fill internship or entry level positions. In fact recruiters from different employment agencies write the tests questions according to the demands of vacant positions and the skills required to meet these demands.
A Future Investment
Aware of the international prestige the test has and the career advancement it could provide Anna Kireeva didn´t think twice before taking the test. The result exceed her initial expectations because not only was she able to answer all the questions within the two hour period but she also received one of the best scores which put her amoung the top 5 of all the students from different universities from around the world.
The impact of these good results was immediate “As soon as the results were published I was inundated with job offers” Anna remembers, she also pointed out that her best scores were in the areas of investment banking, global markets and the analysis of finacial statements, ” the areas that interest me most because I want to focus on asset management´´. In fact one of the bonuses of the test is that the majority of job offers the students receive are related to the areas in which they received the best scores.
With all that considered Anna confirmed that her analytical skills are one of her main strenghts. However, the interpretation of graphs and analysis of current affairs are what gave her her lowest scores, “especially because of the lenght of the articles I had to analyse and how hard it was to concentrate because of the short amount of time we had”
Kireeva recommends the experience because it gives you the opportunity to learn what skills companies are looking for in candidates for thier job vacancies, what your own strenghts and weaknesses are and have the opportunity to contact important companies from all around the world.
Either way it was an experience she recommends to EADA students for the following three reasons: ” The test prepares you for a job interview because all the questions were written by recuiters from the finance and business sectors. It is also a way of contacting important companies from around the world. Last of all I consider it a career investment because it allowed me to discover the areas in which I am strongest but also the ones that need more work”.