Career Development and Employment Guidance Session

ATA (American Testing Authority, Inc.)

The Department of Educational Psychology, East China Normal University, held a successful Career Development and Employment Guidance Session at Room 128, Tian Jiabing Building, at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 15. The session invited Mr. Lu Fei, General Manager of the Professional Competence Assessment Institute, ATA Online (All-America Online) Technology Co., Ltd., as the keynote speaker, who shared abundant valuable information and practical suggestions. Teachers Gu Xin, Zhang Jing, Ma Shufeng and Xiao Yue from the student affairs team of the Department attended the session.

Background Introduction

At the session, Mr. Lu Fei first introduced his professional background and research focus. He is in charge of the vocational education division under a Beijing-based technology company, with research concentrating on the assessment and measurement of professional talents’ competence, skills and personality. He has participated in research projects of the National Occupational Skill Testing Authority and led research teams to develop the certification examinations for the New Gene Network. With extensive experience in talent assessment, he has long been engaged in providing career skills guidance for students.

Practical Sharing

Mr. Lu then introduced the business and service scope of ATA. As a professional company specializing in talent assessment, ATA mainly provides assessment services for enterprises and public institutions. It undertakes the operation of campus recruitment and the development of assessment content, including data statistics and analysis. ATA adopts computer-based testing systems and has gradually promoted online examination models. Its assessment forms are no longer limited to multiple-choice questions, but increasingly use interactive and operational question types. The company has developed AI-powered intelligent invigilation and online examination systems, which ensure examination fairness through technologies such as face recognition and behavior recognition. It also provides students with personal competence evaluation and development suggestions via assessment reports and mobile applications.

When addressing the trends and demands of vocational education and recruitment, Mr. Lu pointed out that vocational education and recruitment are attaching growing importance to individual competence and future development. Public institutions and state-owned enterprises have raised demand for talents with bachelor’s, master’s or higher degrees. Enterprises prioritize candidates’ competence and personality traits over academic majors. Administrative professional ability tests and general employment competence have become key evaluation indicators in corporate recruitment. In addition, enterprises’ demand for English and computer skills is rising, and the assessment industry is trending toward AI-assisted scoring and PPT-based question design.

Overall, the session covered cognitive ability testing methods, the importance of English in an internationalized workplace, professional knowledge encountered in job hunting, interview formats and skills, assessment reports, enterprise talent selection, and the role of ATA as an assessment service provider.

Q&A Summary

Q: What is the general recruitment process adopted by banks at present?

A: Banks currently conduct general screening, i.e., an initial round of basic screening on education background, major and other criteria, followed by a written assessment. The written test generally consists of four modules: general competence test, professional competence test, English proficiency test and personality assessment. Many intelligent recruitment service providers in the market follow the ATA model, as it represents the mainstream practice. After the written test, banks carry out differentiated interviews for applicants according to specific job requirements.

Q: What are the different focuses of assessment between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises? Does your company offer campus recruitment positions?

A: The difference between private enterprises and state-owned enterprises is not significant. Applicants interested in private enterprise recruitment may refer to knowledge related to operations research. Private enterprises also attach great importance to personality assessment; for instance, Huawei places personality testing as the first step in candidate screening. Information on various positions available can be found on the official recruitment websites of relevant enterprises.

The participants continued to raise questions concerning their personal needs, and General Manager Lu gave detailed responses. The session concluded with practical and insightful content. Through this event, teachers and students of the Department of Educational Psychology gained a deeper understanding of career development and employment, which offered valuable guidance for future job hunting. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Professional Competence Assessment Institute of ATA Online Technology Co., Ltd. for delivering such a wonderful guidance session.