Job-hunting is becoming a battle of wits, with candidates expected to demonstrate a vivid imagination as well as good personal hygiene as ANDY TATE reports

A new survey suggests companies are adopting some unusual recruitment practices to ensure they get the best applicant.

Finding a job used to be such a simple process.

Candidates would send off a letter or fill in a form, then head off to an interview to be asked why they wanted the post and what they would bring to the firm.

The questions might have varied slightly from job to job, but candidates could feel reasonably confident they knew what was coming.

Not any more.

Job seekers have reported a peculiar and daunting new trend in recruitment practices, and Swindon businesses are not immune. Some applicants have been asked what sort of fish they would choose to be and why.

Others have been set the challenge of constructing a bridge out of straws.

And one during an interview for a role as a commercial contract lawyer was asked to play the piano and impersonate an animal.

Research by recruitment website reed.co.uk suggests three quarters of all job seekers are undergoing many more tests and assessments when seeking new jobs than they did three years ago.

And more than half of all bosses agreed they were using more formal recruitment tests and procedures than before.

The traditional face-to-face question and answer interview is being replaced, or combined, with a variety of unusual assessments.

Personality questionnaires, psychometric tests, presentations, work stimulation, in-tray and group exercises, role-play, logic tests, and even physical stamina tests are all becoming more widespread.

Leon Benfield, manager of Chiquitos in Greenbridge, told of how one interviewer had asked him to tell a joke.

"He said to me, 'If you can make me laugh you'll be fine'.

"He just wanted to see my funny side."

Mr Benfield, who succeeded in amusing the interviewer on that occasion, said he was considering introducing some quirky questions into Chiquitos' recruitment process.

"If you were at the roundabout what song would you sing?'" was one he was toying with trying out.

"I might ask them to tell a joke too," he said.

"You've got to show them the fun side of working for the company."

Carl Evans, deputy manager of Pizza Hut in the Orbital Retail Park, Abbey Meads, said one of his artillery of questions included: "How would you perceive yourself as a customer maniac?" to which successful candidates would be expected to explain the lengths they would go to please and astound the restaurant's customers.

"It's to make sure our standards go that extra bit further for our customers," he said.

Charlotte Beer, who recruits for Adecco employment agency in Commercial Road, uses a computer-based testing system with "pretty much every type of test you could imagine on there."

Some of the programs ask the candidate to follow on-screen instructions to perform simple tasks. Others test skills like typing speed and software experience. And one asks questions designed to find out how the candidate would react in certain situations.

"It is to see if you would be better working in a high pressure or quiet environment," said Ms Beer.

This kind of psychometric testing has been in use for a few years now, and according to Ms Beer it is a good way of bringing to the surface any negative qualities a candidate might be hiding.

"They are generally quite honest when faced with the truth of their own answers on the computer," said Ms Beer.

But although Adecco makes use of psychological quizzing, Ms Beer said it was no substitute for the traditional interview.

"Someone could tap away at a computer and give the answers they thought we wanted to hear," she said.

"It's only when you delve a bit deeper you can find out what they are really like."

Joanne Ward, of Victoria Road-based Catering Services International, recruits a range of catering staff for restaurants in Swindon.

She said in interviews she largely asked questions specific to catering, using her own knowledge of the industry.

"When we are looking for people we know what companies want because we have done the jobs ourselves," said Ms Ward.

Two of the tasks she expected candidates for chef vacancies to complete were to list the ingredients for a bchamel sauce, and to write a simple hot dinner menu for a party of 12 at £19.95 per head. This would test the candidates' knowledge of the cost of different ingredients as well as their choice of menu.

"It depends what you are trying to get out of your candidate," said Ms Ward.

David Ferrandino, director of reed.co.uk, said although looking for jobs could be stressful, job-seekers thought more highly of employers who offered well-organised assessments.

"Some even find the experience fun, as well as valuable in building their skills and confidence for the future," he said.

Would you believe it?

Research by reed.co.uk found job-seekers had endured the following assessments:

Asked "if you were a fish, what fish would you be and why"

Having to construct a horse using only paper

Asked to play the piano and impersonate an animal

"A 20-question psychometric test undertaken in a cafeteria."

"An assessment that focused on unscientific handwriting sampling."

"An in-tray exercise that was impossible to complete, even for senior management with years of experience!"