How the Harver SJT works
Each situation comes from the job you applied for and is often set up with a short video or an image. Below it are the possible responses. You give one a thumbs up as the best and one a thumbs down as the worst; the rest stay neutral. Next only works once both are chosen, and you can change your picks until you submit. Some applications call it the Work Simulation Game.
Harver sells ready-made SJTs for contact-centre, retail and team-lead roles, typically with 5 to 8 situations and 3 to 5 responses each. Employers can also have one written for their own jobs from interviews with people who do them, and the situations can follow on from one another to tell the story of the job.
Each pick is scored against a key: +1 when your best or worst matches it, 0 when you mark a neutral option, and -1 when you reverse it, calling the keyed worst the best or the keyed best the worst. Your result is the percentage of correct answers.
How to choose the best and worst response
Work through each situation in this order:
- Find the worst first. It usually breaks a rule, hides a problem, promises what you cannot deliver or leaves the customer stuck.
- For the best, look for the response that owns the problem, solves it within the rules and keeps the person informed.
- Read the situation for constraints, such as a policy, a manager’s instruction or a queue of customers. The keyed answer respects them.
- Avoid reversals above all. Calling the keyed best the worst costs a point, where a neutral pick costs nothing.
- Answer as the employer would want someone in the role to act, not as you might on a bad day.
Worked example
A customer brings back a kettle bought last week but has no receipt. The store refunds only with proof of purchase, and staff can look up card payments. The responses: (A) Explain that you cannot refund without a receipt and suggest they look for it. (B) Offer to find the purchase from their card and, if it shows up, process the return under the policy. (C) Refund it in cash anyway, because it is only a kettle. (D) Call the manager over and go back to your own work.
B is the best: it solves the problem within the policy. C is the worst: it breaks the rule. A follows the policy but does not help, and D hands the problem on without owning it, so both stay neutral. On this key, B as best and C as worst scores +2. C as best and B as worst scores -2, and A as best with D as worst scores 0.
Tips for the real Harver SJT
- Watch any video to the end before you choose.
- Read the job advert first. The situations come from that job, so what the employer says it values is a good guide to the key.
- Check both picks before you submit. Once the application is submitted, answers cannot be changed.
- Keep the role’s level in mind. A team-lead SJT expects you to act as the lead, not to pass the problem upwards.
Practise the Harver SJT on CogniPrep
Our version has 8 situations from contact-centre, retail and team-lead jobs, either mixed or all from the setting you choose. Tap Best under one response and Worst under another, then Next. It is untimed and text only, without video. We score your picks as Harver does, +1, 0 or -1 each, and show the total as a percentage of the 16 points available, never below zero.