A resume says journeyman. A licence says the state agrees. Neither says whether the person can read a panel schedule, size a conductor, or tell you why a compressor is short-cycling. A short assessment before the interview answers that in fifteen minutes, on a phone, and it changes which interviews you bother to hold.
What to test, by role
- Electricians: NEC fundamentals, wiring methods, circuits and panels, motors and controls, troubleshooting, and safety. Code knowledge separates a licensed journeyman from someone who worked next to one.
- HVAC technicians: refrigeration cycle, electrical basics, airflow, diagnostics, and refrigerant handling. The diagnostics section predicts service ability better than years on the resume.
- Plumbers and pipefitters: code, materials and joining methods, drainage and venting, pressure testing, and safety.
- Welders: process knowledge is testable; the weld itself still needs a coupon. Use the written test to decide who gets the booth time.
- Project engineers and coordinators: reading drawings, RFIs and submittals, scheduling logic, and cost basics. Software fluency is a question, not a test.
- Superintendents and foremen: planning and sequencing, safety leadership, quality and coordination. A scenario-based test works; a trivia test does not.
Keep it short, keep it real
Twenty questions, fifteen minutes, on a phone, no login. Longer than that and the good candidates, who are employed and busy, stop halfway. The questions should read like the job: a panel schedule to interpret, a symptom to diagnose, a drawing detail to explain. Pure textbook recall filters out people who are excellent in the field and rusty on the vocabulary.
Where the test sits in the process
After the first conversation, before the interview. The candidate has said yes to the role and the pay; the recruiter has confirmed the basics by text. The assessment is the next message in the same thread: a link, a few minutes, a score. Sent earlier, it feels like a hoop; sent later, it wastes an interview. Read the result as a map of the conversation to have, not as a verdict: a 79 percent with a weak safety section is a strong candidate with one topic for the interview.
Using the score honestly
A pass mark is a floor, not a ranking. Two candidates at 85 and 95 are both hires if the interview goes well; a candidate at 55 who blames the questions probably is not. Show the competency breakdown in the interview and ask about the gap. Candidates respect a test that is fair and relevant, and they notice when it is neither. Never use a test to replace the conversation about show-up, attitude and the crew, because it cannot measure any of that.
Protect the result
A test taken with a group chat open is not a test. Time it, watch for focus leaving the page, and treat a timeout as an incomplete rather than a failure. Randomise the order. Keep the question bank private. None of this needs to be heavy-handed, and all of it should be automatic.
Constructico ships role-specific assessments for the trades, engineering and site management, sends them from the candidate's own conversation, scores them on submit and shows the competency breakdown beside the profile. See skills assessments or book a demo.