Thoughts regarding Auticon experience?

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Hi

I'm curious what thoughts of other members are on this, if anybody has tried working for auticon.

I contacted Auticon to see if they had any work available for me.. They are a company that offer employment in the IT field, to people with Autistic Spectrum Condition.

I am quite well skilled in IT, I have completed two years of a computer science BSc degree at one of the top 15 universities in the UK.. I didn't complete the final year because of complications related to the residence I was staying at closing down and disagreements with my parents... I was good at programming on the degree. I also did Computing at A level and got an A grade. And at University I was one of the people that could program that people would go to for help with their programming assignments. I also got a B in Mathematics at A level.

They said that for the first part of their process I should complete a task on Codility.

Codility for those that don't know, is an online facility designed for testing programming abilities.. It has received some criticism for being too technical like expecting programmers to solve a problem with a stack or implement some algorithm.. The kind of thing that programmers over the past decades would do by accessing an external library.. But the kind of thing that one would look at in programming modules of a computer science course.

I had some time to do the Codility test and was told it doesn't matter that much the main thing they're interested in is me doing skills assessment. And I don't have to do the Codility thing, anyhow, I did the Codility thing. There's nothing weird about Codility, it's very much a known quantity(unlike the Auticon skills assessment!)..

The Codility test that I was given involved 4 subtests- Test1 was SQL and just involved one line! I scored 100% on that. Test2 was SQL, also just one line, I scored 100% on that. Test3 was fixing an algorithm, I didn't do so well on that particular test, I got 25% I should've made better use of the facility of codility where you can pass parameters in to see if it matches their criteria. And Test4 was a really technical question asking for a solution to a problem of parsing an arithmetic expression that was written in polish notation.. like 26+4/ to parse it with a stack, and I managed that in the time, and got 65%.

I went on to the Auticon Skills Assessment, (which it seems I'd have gone onto even if I hadn't done the Codility thing).

I mentioned the Codility test and that i'd have done better in Test3 and Test4 if i'd have made better use of that facility where you pass parameters in. And I was told did well in the Codility test.

There Skills assessment was completely different.

It consisted of two parts.

Part 1, was one kind of cognitive test. Part of it involved a classic thing with a Grid of patterns and a box missing and you have to pick the one that fits. Another part of it involved something along the lines of circling certain numbers or an odd one out. Suffice it to say it was that kind of non-verbal reasoning test.

Part 2, involved being shown a website filled with a huge number of intentional errors and being asked to list and categorise errors on it.. and we had two hours to list as many as we could and document them. It was a very mundane tiring task..though I went through it non stop without going to the toilet! I listed about 55 errors I spotted with the site.

I got an email back from them telling me that I conducted myself professionally but I didn't meet their threshold(presumably in either of the two parts). And it said that for the website errors "You found an adequate number of errors and your documentation was thorough and easy to work with. Applicable screenshots and detailed descriptions were included in most cases. Your focus was on content errors. You documented no sequencing and 3 technical errors. No back-end use was shown in the documentation.". (Note- there was nothing server based, so by back end the most technical thing they could possibly mean is not looking at the HTML. There were a lot of categories of errors that could be found and I was trying to do as many as I could in the time and I guess I focussed too much on one or two categories)

And it had a suggestion to contact other organisations that might be able to help me with getting employment..

I enquired about the possibility of retaking it in future and they said "It is also difficult for us to allow candidates to re-do the tests as we do not have the capacities to offer this to everyone who asks for it. I hope you can understand."

The staff were nice friendly and fair, though it seems like a strange system to me, as the most technical thing was prior to the skills assessment.. And programming ability tests logic and reasoning I can also build and fix computers which shows logic and reasoning..

I think I probably do have some cognitive deficiencies.. in relation to non-verbal reasoning.. It took me much longer than the average person to learn to drive for example.. Though they weren't too much of an obstacle to complete A levels and 2 years of a computer science BSc degree. And after the email that I failed I showed them a list of some programming projects i'd done as a hobby. So I don't believe that Auticon would have no IT jobs I could do well. It does seem a little bit strange to me, particularly the no retake policy. The few others taking the test were varied, eg one had some computer science background, another seemed to only know word processing and hadn't done any programming or anything technical with computers at all.

Some may ask why I am not working at the moment.. I don't want to go into too much personal detail, that's not the purpose of this thread. I'm just curious if anybody else has had any experience with Auticon or any insights, that's the purpose of this thread.

Thanks

I did the the Auticon Assessment, last week. I have a BSc(Hons) in Maths & Computer Science, PGDip Actuarial Science, Professional qualification in Statistics.

I have some IT experience. I am in my late 30s.

My main condition is dyspraxia (I suffer from dyspraxia quite badly), I have borderline aspergers.

The people were friendly.

I did not do well in the time practical tests in HTML, PHP, JavaScript, I needed more time.

I did the number recognition, reasonably well, the character recognition not so well, the tests with the dots and shapes I was slow, the test to spot to fill the missing shapes (I did badly because I have dyspraxia).

I found 32 errors.

I need a miracle to get to the next stage.

Other people, especially those with no computing experience, found it tough.

I think Auticon, ideally with years of commercial (company) experience, which helps with the coding, and not having dyspraxia, I think having dyslexia might make it harder as well.

They claim they take 10% of applicants, I think it is more like 5%, the 2nd stage is an interview (they will ask about experience) and an assessment centre(I think peopler have to do presentations.

It is very tough, the vast majority of applicants will not stand a chance in getting a job with Auticon.

Interesting. They never told me anything about what percentage of applicants they accept.

Also it sounds a bit like your one had more technical elements somewhere 'cos you're talking about php and javascript.

My one the only programming related thing was at home, beforehand, with codility, and optional.

I still don't know what they're talking re backend in the context of reviewing a webpage. I don't think we were meant to right click and go to page source (curious) ?!

If you didn't view the page source then how do you know that javascript and php weren't used on your test? Obviously, checking js code would be straight forward as, even if it were contained in a separate file it should still be fetch-able from a browser. The php, as long as they had locked down the file permissions as is standard, wouldn't be accessible from a web browser. But, you could still have checked any calls to php scripts and possibly any noticed flaws contained in the query strings.

Personally, I would have checked HTML validity (according to the doctype presented), accessibility, js and finally content. Most of this is testable using web-based tools as well as by eye and experience. If the page was interactive rather than static, this would have opened up a whole new wave of testing.

As far as Auticon goes. I'm afraid I know very little about them but I have worked in programming (including many years with web technologies) for over 20 years and am currently a software tester for server-side, video streaming and recording software. Never did get to uni though

It's a shame that they don't allow re-tests as I'm sure you'd pass with flying colours. What they really needed to do was give you a little more information before you started the test. Most employers, at least when you're new, give some indication as to what is expected of you.

If it makes you feel better, back when I started in the industry and was fruitlessly searching for my first job, I went for an interview for a trainee programmer's position (no experience required) in Gloucester. I drove 4 hours to the interview only to discover it was not an interview but a test! All 14 of us taking the test failed and that included London-based programmers with several years worth of experience. No experience required, indeed!

See,
https://auticon.co.uk/faq/

How many people who apply are offered an employment contract ?

Auticon currently employs approximately 10% of everyone who applies as IT consultant. Even though a degree or formal training isn’t essential, successful applicants are required to have relevant technical expertise, a willingness to learn, as well as an interest and enthusiasm to work as an IT consultant.

We realise that the soaring unemployment rates of people on the autism spectrum are a most pressing societal issue and we are well aware that we can only play a small part in solving it – we won’t be able to employ everyone who applies. However: we do think it’s better to tackle the issue in small steps rather than to merely talk about it.

In the future we’re aiming to tap into further business segments (other than ICT) in order to create employment opportunities for even more jobseekers on the autism spectrum.

IT is very competitive - https://www.independent.co.uk/student/c ... 14056.html

The highest unemployment rate was among computer science graduates, one in 10 of whom were out of work. However, this has fallen steadily since 2011-12, when it was 14 per cent.

I applied because I thought I would get a data analyst role involves IT.

A girl was a Maths graduate, no IT experience, 5 years not worked, 2 years diagnosed with aspergers, did not any of the coding ! !! ! The coding tasks were home based timed.

Excluding the optional codility thing they tell you you can do if you want beforehand, I think it's fairly obvious from the nature of the tests they give (as per my description of the tests given), that it's "IT" that a graduate in IT would not normally want.

I think if it was testing knowledge in IT in a particular field like IT consultancy, or Programming, or any area, then they'd test knowledge in that area.

An absolutely huge emphasis of the test was on critiquing the presentation of a website, literally two hours of that! That is the only part of the test that was about IT (and one could argue that isn't even about IT it is so shallow on IT).

Other than that, there was IT in the codility test that was the only legitimate IT knowledge being tested for, but that was optional, you could go there without having done that codility test, and even if doing well in the codility test the decider isn't based on the codility test, the decider is based on the tests they give you at the centre, which have nothing to do with IT other than the critiquing presentation issues on a website.

I didn't say the website did or didn't involve javascript or didn't involve php. I said to the other guy that went to auticon's assessment "it sounds a bit like your one had more technical elements somewhere 'cos you're talking about php and javascript" and I said "I don't think we were meant to right click and go to page source (curious) ?!"

So perhaps you mean to ask, how do you know you weren't meant to view the page source.

It was obvious from the nature of the instructions.

The test was not checking programming skills at all, it was extremely non-technical.

There were only particular screens/pages you are meant to be looking at. And they had classifications of things to look for like 'report if links don't go to the correct page e.g. a contact us link goes to a faq'. 'report if an image is oriented wrongly e.g. an image is upside down'. 'report if one of the pages of the website has no content', that kind of thing. Nothing involving even checking any HTML.

All the auticon tests done at the auticon assessment centre were designed for non-programmers.

We also discussed the tests at lunch and after, there was no programming.

One woman there taking the test had only done word processing. That did not cause her any issue at all in the tests.

I'm able to pass job interviews for normal technical jobs, though I have issues with working 9-5.. and some other autism issues that affect me during a job. I do much better in normal job interviews than the auticon thing. The auticon thing was definitely a very weird thing.

I apologise. I didn't realise that you had been given specific instructions.


It does seem quite strange and wouldn't at all be what I would be expecting from a company primarily involved in QA and testing consultancy.

Funnily enough, I'm very good in interviews as well. I think it comes from having to consciously having to study body language and sub-text compared to regular people to whom it comes naturally. The downside is the extreme effort that it takes. I'm completely exhausted for several days after an interview.

My big problem in interviews is knowing when to shut up especially when they ask about outside interests but I've learnt to curb my enthusiasm

As for 9-5. I'm lucky enough to work flexitime and start at 6:45 and finish at 15:30 but can work pretty much any hours I want as long as I do 8 hours a day.

I really am sorry that they didn't give you a job offer but I'm sure you'll find something.