AEP Pre-Employment Test: HireVue and EEI

Which test you get depends on the job

AEP’s Pre-Employment Test Prep page opens with “Depending on the job you apply for, you may be asked to complete an employment test or assessment”, and then describes two quite different ones.

• HireVue assessment for, as examples, Building Maintenance Technician, Dispatcher, Equipment Operator, Instrument and Controls Technician, Lineworker, Meter Servicer, Plant Technician and System Operator.
• EEI testsfor Instrument & Controls Technician, Radiation Protection Technician and Utility Operator at the Cook Nuclear plant.

Instrument and controls technicians appear on both lists, so the location matters: the EEI route is the one AEP ties to Cook Nuclear. If your invitation does not make it clear, ask the recruiter which test you are taking before you start preparing.

The HireVue assessment

AEP describes it as a test that “evaluates how well a person is likely to perform in a particular job”. The process it sets out is short and strict:

1. You get an email invitation with a link to the assessment.
2. The link “expires 72 hours after it is sent”. If you have not finished by then, AEP says you will not be considered for the position.
3. After you submit, AEP’s talent acquisition team contacts you about next steps, and your status shows on your Workday candidate profile.

AEP asks for a device with a good internet connection, a quiet, well-lit space, and the device set down on a stable surface.

The EEI tests at Cook Nuclear

For the three Cook Nuclear roles, AEP offers preparation tools “developed in partnership with Edison Electric Institute (EEI)”, including tips, practice tests and EEI’s Skillbuilders resource, with the login for EEI’s practice site printed on its page. AEP does not say which EEI battery each role takes. What every EEI battery contains, and how EEI marks it, is on our EEI practice page and in our EEI test guide.

Journey-level line workers: an extra assessment

AEP’s page adds: “Upon advancement to the next interview phase, journey-level distribution line workers must complete an additional assessment.” This one is a trade knowledge check rather than an aptitude test, and AEP publishes a Journey Level Assessment Study Guide for it. The guide lists:

• Safety as a system: protective equipment, job briefings and stopping work when plans change
• Grounding principles and methods
• Ohm’s Law and the distribution system from its origin to the meter base
• Transformer polarity, additive versus subtractive transformers, load calculations and voltage regulation
• Troubleshooting overhead and underground primary and secondary voltage problems
• Regulators, capacitors, reclosers, switches and fuses
• Primary and secondary tools, rigging and lifting equipment, and pole setting

Its advice is to sketch circuits, grounding setups and transformer banks, to ask why each rule exists, and to think through what happens if a step is skipped. It recommends Ugly’s Electrical References, the GE Distribution Transformer Manual, The Lineman’s and Cableman’s Handbook and the XFMR Lab app. We do not simulate this assessment.

Practice

Because AEP names neither the HireVue product nor the EEI battery, this list covers the formats that match what AEP does say: a HireVue job simulation, and the mechanical, reading and math skills its tips name.

• Virtual Job Tryout (36 questions · 25-35 minutes) - HireVue’s multi-section job simulation, the product Dominion Energy names for its line workers.
• Numerosity (Adaptive · 3 minutes · free) - One of HireVue’s short numerical games. Free to try here.
• EEI Mechanical Concepts (44 questions · 20 minutes · free) - Levers, gears, pulleys and forces, the topics AEP’s own tips point to. Free to try here.
• EEI Reading Comprehension (26-36 · 22-30 minutes) - Passages like plant training and safety manuals, answered strictly from the text.
• EEI Mathematical Usage (18-46 · 7-17 minutes) - Conversions, formulas, algebra and word problems in the EEI format.

For the skills underneath, see our pages on mechanical reasoning, numerical reasoning and verbal reasoning. If you are not sure whether you face a HireVue assessment or a video interview, read HireVue games or HireVue interview.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to complete the AEP HireVue assessment?

72 hours from when the invitation is sent, not from when you open it. AEP says you cannot access it after the link expires.

Do AEP lineworkers take the EEI CAST?

Not according to AEP’s own page, which lists Lineworker under the HireVue assessment and keeps EEI for three Cook Nuclear roles. Journey-level distribution line workers also take AEP’s additional assessment later in the process.

Does AEP publish a pass mark or retake rule?

No. Its test prep page gives neither, so ask the recruiter if you need them.

Applying to other utilities too?

Our Dominion Energy guide covers a utility that splits its roles between HireVue and EEI in a similar way.