Getting started with TestGorilla

The basics of what you need to know to get started — in less than 5 minutes

New platforms can be a bit overwhelming — it's hard to decide where to start. This is a good place. This article is designed a bit more as a check list rather than a guide. It points you in the direction of the guides that help you accomplish each of these tasks. This article is for any new TestGorilla account user.

Approx. read time 4 minutes

In this article

  1. Set up your account
  2. Create an assessment
  3. Invite candidates
  4. Analyze results

The below video summarizes the important parts of our platform. The text below the video is a breakdown of most of what is included in the video. 😀

Set up your account

Create your team

The best way to start is creating your team. Add as many users as you want and assign them different roles such as:
  • Hiring manager
  • Recruiter
  • Admin

Add your brand

Adding your company logo and colors will give each of your assessments your company's own look and feel — boosting brand awareness.

Create an assessment

Click the Create new assessment button to get started creating your first assessment. The assessment creation process is four steps. For this guide, we'll pretend we're hiring a technical project manager.

Step 1. Name your assessment

We'll name the assessment Tech Project Manager 1 and we'll choose the role Technical Project Manager. By doing this, the TestGorilla system will recommend tests that fit this role during step two.

Step 2. Select tests

Likely the most important step, this is where we add tests to the assessment. Looking at the recommendations, we see that the TestGorilla system suggests we add certain tests for a Technical Project Manager. Some of these include:

  • Attention to detail
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Leadership & people management
  • Business ethics & compliance

Research has taught us that multi-measure tests are the best predictors of job success, so we'll combine different kinds of tests into this one assessment. You can read more about this concept here.

Once you find tests you want, click the Add button to add them to your assessment.

We recommend adding at least four tests to every assessment.

Step 3. Add your own custom questions

Custom questions help you to get to know your candidates better by enabling you to test actual work samples. You can choose from the following question types

  1. Essay questions. To ask candidates to respond to an example of a customer email
  2. Multiple-choice questions. To test knowledge or get an opinion on a specific topic.
  3. Video questions. A great way to get to know a candidate, and can potentially replace the initial screening interview!
  4. File upload questions. Ask a candidate to upload a take home assignment, CV, or portfolio.
  5. Coding questions. In case you want to add something different than what we offer in our own library.

Every custom question is also saved in your personal custom question library, so you can reuse them again and again without needing to make them twice.

Step 4. Review & configure

Here you can see an overview of the tests and custom questions you've included, as well as the total duration of the assessment. You want your candidate to have a positive experience, so try to keep the assessment to about one hour or a bit longer if there is a coding question.

The advanced options you can include are:

  1. Qualifying questions. These help you filter out candidates before they even start the assessment, in case they don't meet your minimum requirements.
  2. Welcome video. A personal branded video helps to impress, engage, and motivate candidates.
  3. Anti-cheating measures. One of our measures is to take a snapshot of candidates every 30 seconds during the assessment process — with their awareness and permission, of course! — but you can turn this off if you'd like.
  4. Extra-time for tests. Want to give all of your candidates some extra time? You can do that here!
  5. Accommodations for candidates with extra requirements. By default, TestGorilla provides candidates with the option to receive an accommodation for a concentration disability or language fluency issues. You can turn this option off, though we recommend seeking legal advice before doing so.

Invite candidates

You can invite your candidates to your assessment through three means:

  • Email. Invite them one at a time, or in bulk through a file upload — if your plan permits.
  • Public link. Put a link to your assessment in your job post. This way, candidates can invite themselves to the assessment, cutting out the middleman and saving you time.
  • ATS. If you’re using one of the applicant tracking systems we’re integrated with, you can connect it to TestGorilla, allowing you to make your process more seamless. 

Analyze results

On the results page, your candidates will be ranked according to their average test scores. This allows you to quickly focus on your top candidates.

Candidate full results

When you click on a candidate's name you'll see their overall results, as well as a break down of scores on individual tests to help identify points where they might benefit from training.

Scoring benchmark

To get a better idea of how candidates perform on a test, you can compare their scores against other groups of candidates by changing the scoring benchmark.

Scoring benchmarks include options in:

  • Education
  • Job role
  • Job experience

Custom questions

When you look down on a candidate's results page, you'll see his or her individual answers to your custom questions. By clicking the icon in the View answer column, you'll be able to view the answer for each question, including video responses and file uploads.

You can rate each question and leave comments about your initial feelings.

Hiring stage

After reviewing results, update the hiring stage of the candidate to help you keep track of everyone. Once you've made a hire, change the stage to Hired, so we can check in with you later to see how your new hire worked out.

That's the basics. Welcome again to your new account!

If you need help at any point, check out the articles linked above, or get in touch with our customer success team.