The resume has long been the source of truth when reviewing candidates for an open position. The problem with this is that resumes only tell half the story. Sure, it can be useful to know where a candidate went to school or where they worked in the past, but perhaps even more important are the social, emotional, and behavioral skills that the candidate developed as a result of these experiences.
Vendition believes in potential over credentials — that soft skills are more important than hard skills when it comes to entry-level talent. Backed by years of psychological research and our commitment to making sales more accessible to a broader audience, we created the Vendition Success Aptitude Test (VSAT) to give our hiring partners the full story on top entry-level talent.
The Limits of the Resume
At first glance, the idea behind the resume makes sense — a one-page document listing a candidate’s most relevant experiences, educational background, and technical knowledge surely tells us everything we need to know about how that person might perform on the job, right? We think not.
For one, you can only fit so much information onto a single page. Candidates are forced to leave out experiences that may not seem relevant to the position, but were critical to developing invaluable transferable skills. On a related note, most people are taught only to include “hard” skills in their resume: experience with Hubspot or Adobe Creative Suite, expertise in Excel, and things of that nature. But non-technical or “soft” skills — like resilience, coachability, and leadership — are actually more important for entry-level positions (more on that later).
Additionally, many companies use artificial intelligence to quickly screen resumes, something that is understandable given the high volume of applications received. However, the use of this technology only further distances us from what should be our goal as employers: to get to know candidates for who they really are, all the while keeping their humanness at the forefront of the hiring process.
The team at Vendition realized that resumes simply were not enough to assess a candidate’s potential, so we set out to find a way to get the full story on entry-level talent.
Foundational Research: The BESSI Test
Our quest began with Brent Roberts, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the brains behind the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (or BESSI, for short).
The BESSI stemmed from research which proved that personality is changeable — meaning that what people commonly think to be inherent “traits” are actually skills that can be learned, developed, and improved upon. Now, the BESSI assessment serves as a benchmark to let people know which social, emotional, and behavioral skills they perform well, and where they might want to work to improve.
The interesting thing about the BESSI test is its prioritization of these social, emotional, and behavioral skills over the technical skills commonly found in resumes. According to Brent, these “soft” skills “are the essential skills which empower us to use our technical skills on the job.” What they’ve discovered over their years of research is that non-technical skills are actually better indicators of success in many professions. With that in mind, scoping out a candidate’s soft skills during the hiring process becomes more important than ever.
The Vendition Success Aptitude Test
Based on the groundbreaking research behind the BESSI test, we created the Vendition Success Aptitude Test (VSAT). This assessment tests for 5 key characteristics of high-performing entry-level professionals: self management, social engagement, cooperation, emotional resilience, and innovation. We call these characteristics “The 5 Domains,” and each of these was carefully selected based on what we’ve learned from our years of experience guiding candidates into entry-level sales roles.
Moving forward, our hiring partners will be able to see each candidate’s relevant educational and work experiences as well as their final VSAT score, which combines the candidate’s self-assessment and Vendition’s rigorous screening process.
To put it plainly, the VSAT is a relevant addition to Vendition’s already thorough recruitment strategy, but does not replace the human component our hiring partners know and love. Our learnings from the BESSI research are further proof that our process works, and that we are — and have been — moving in the right direction.
Get the Full Story with Vendition
We believe that effective hiring goes beyond the resume and gets to the root of a candidate’s character. With the VSAT, in combination with Vendition’s already thorough vetting process, hiring partners can get the full story on top-quality candidates before the interview process even begins.
Ready to give it a try? Connect with us today!