Hiring glossary
What is a job simulation?
A job simulation is a hiring assessment in which candidates do a realistic version of the work the role involves, in a setting built to resemble the job, so the employer can judge performance directly.
A work sample test usually isolates one task. A job simulation recreates a slice of the job: the information a new hire would have, the tools they would use and the decisions they would face, often across several connected steps. A customer support simulation might hand a candidate a queue of tickets and a product help page; a finance one might give them an untidy spreadsheet and a question from a manager.
Every candidate faces the same scenario and is scored against the same criteria, so results can be compared directly. That makes simulations useful early, to decide who gets interview time. Cohesyve, which publishes this glossary, builds AI job simulations from a job description and returns a ranked shortlist of the applicants who performed best.
Also called: work simulation, job simulation assessment.
Example
A hiring team for a sales development role asks each applicant to research a fictional prospect, write a first outreach email and handle an objection in a short role-play. The hiring manager reviews the scores and the work itself, then interviews the top five.
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