Students have new way to network with BAT

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MSU is one of the first schools to offer students the opportunity to take a recently developed aptitude test for students interested in careers in finance.

The Bloomberg Assessment Test, or BAT, is a three-hour standardized multiple choice exam with questions in 11 subject areas designed to test the skills of students interested in finance and business, said Jesus Diaz, director of university operations for the Americas at the Bloomberg Institute. MSU is among the first group of universities the exam became available to, and more than 50 MSU students took the first exam last semester, Diaz said.

“We delivered it for the first time in October of last year, and since then we’re coming back,” he said.

After completing the BAT, participants scores are published into an online database where more than 115 employers can search through results to connect with potential employees and interns, Diaz said.

The Bloomberg Institute will be returning to MSU to administer another exam on March 16.

After launching in November 2010, the BAT has been taken by roughly 27,000 people at more than 460 universities across the globe, including six others in the Big Ten, Diaz said. The test is given once a semester to universities selected by the Bloomberg Institute with high academic standards and potential business students, he said.

To help spread the word about the test, the institute hired Nyasha Pamela Mutumwa as its MSU campus ambassador. Mutumwa, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and human resources and society senior, held sessions with student organizations on campus to spread awareness about the BAT.

“It’s a talent pool, and you can put yourself out there to be found versus recruiters coming to MSU, which is kind of rare for certain industries,” Mutumwa said.

Diaz said more than 1,300 connections between students and employers have been made so far.
“The innovation behind this test is that companies that want to meet students from many different universities can access that from the comfort of their office online,” Diaz said.

Eric Doerr, associate director of MSU’s Lear Corporation Career Services Center, said in an email the BAT could become more important to students as more employees learn about it.

“I have yet to hear an employer require the exam for students … probably because it is very new,” Doerr said.

Finance junior Sean Baddeley, who took the test last fall, said he’s not sure how valuable the experience will be in terms of networking with employers.

“I think the skills that it tests are pretty applicable to the types of individuals … that are interested in … careers within the financial services industry,” Baddeley said.

The test might be more valuable to students when more companies use the score database to screen for employees, said Baddeley, who got an internship this summer through his own networking.

“I’m not sure how it would benefit me in the future, but I think it’s an interesting prospect,”
he said.

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