Assessing Analytic Applicants Using an Adapted Version of the Australian Schema for Candidate Competence

(Accepted for publication 26 June 2014)

The author proposes an approach to the assessment of analytic applicants that is based on a schema relating to candidate competence. The protocol relies on the central notion that knowing what competencies we would be expecting of well-functioning analysts leaves us well placed to know what capacities, and more importantly what potential capacities, we would be looking for in our aspiring applicants. The author is concerned that the traditional interview methods used have been rather individualistic, lacking in comprehensiveness and therefore not easy to teach. He makes a case for the described protocol having distinct advantages as an assessment tool over the traditional one, in that that it has clear, consistent, and comprehensive criteria, as well as a workable methodology. The author notes, as a particular advantage, the protocol's flexibility in being able to move fluidly from functioning as an instrument for selection, to an instrument for candidate evaluation. This allows, in situations of doubt, for particular competencies in a candidate to be further evaluated and tracked in an ongoing way whilst ‘in the field’.