What Is Aptitude And Why Do You Need To Know About It?

Sometimes one task can seem easier to do than another to the point where it’s almost natural. This is why some people are better than others at certain skills.

Skills are obviously developed through effort and practice. However, you may find that it’s easier or harder to develop a skill, depending on your natural inclinations.

This inner nature is your aptitude. It is important to understand where your aptitudes lie because it will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses.

Such knowledge about yourself is the first step to professional growth. It also allows you to focus your efforts on jobs that complement your aptitudes or look for ways to improve in areas where you struggle.

What Is Aptitude?

Aptitude is your natural ability or capacity to learn and it manifests in tendencies and inclinations. Your aptitudes are the ease you develop your strengths that are either innate or quickly learned.

When we say you have a high aptitude for some skill, it means you excel at learning and performing that skill.

Think of a professional athlete. Almost all professional athletes have aptitudes for hand-eye coordination and endurance. This is because hand-eye coordination and endurance are important skills in many activities of athletic development. Though almost anyone can learn these skills, those who have a natural ability succeed earlier.

A child with excellent hand-eye coordination and endurance will do better at sports. This athletic child most likely will play and enjoy sports because the skills come to them naturally.

This sets off a feedback loop where the child will be exposed to more athletic rigor. Those that are both persistent and lucky enough become the professional athletes we see today.

Now, of course, other factors, such as opportunity and coaching, are necessary to become a professional athlete. Just because someone is born with high levels of hand-eye coordination and endurance doesn’t mean they are destined to become a professional athlete.

Conversely, a professional athlete may have struggled with those skills earlier on but developed them through training.

Aptitude is just what comes naturally or easily, and like professional athletes, there are all sorts of professions where certain aptitudes will make for a more successful experience. When you look for a new job or consider a career change, you should know your aptitudes because it will help give you direction. Jobs that play to your strengths will be more enjoyable and rewarding.

Synonyms for Aptitude

Aptitude gets discussed a lot in the workplace, though you may not know it because people can use different words to describe aptitude. Regardless of word choice, you will see people bring up aptitude discussions for job descriptions, interview questions, assessments, marketing, and more.

There are many scenarios where aptitude helps employers and recruiters seek out specific candidates and clients.

Some other words for aptitude you may see in these situations are:

• affection

• affinity

• inclination

• predilection

• propensity

• bent

• disposition

• drift

• leaning

• proneness

• tendency

• knack

Just imagine a job description that says, “looking for someone with an affinity for project management.” What they are saying is they want someone with the aptitudes of organization and delegation that are critical to project management.

Choose the Right Synonym for Aptitude

Sometimes you will want to change your word choice. However, repetition is helpful to drive home important topics in a discussion or writing. When you want to discuss your aptitudes, it can be helpful to choose a synonym that better fits the context.

You may need a more appropriate tone and definition or one that is similar to aptitude but provides diversity in your vocabulary.

So, to consider a synonym follow these steps:

• Context. Why do you need to bring up aptitude? What is the format or situation? A cover letter may need something more professional such as “propensity,” whereas, in a conversation with a recruiter, you could say “drift” or “lean.”

• Tone. Some synonyms sound more natural than others. This can depend both on your own personal vocabulary and the cultural expectations of your environment. Like the context, you must consider your surroundings and yourself.

  A word like “tendency” is fairly common, but a word like “disposition” can sound academic and out of place if you’re not careful.

• Definition. Synonyms are similar but not the same in the definition. Ensure you know the definition of the word you choose because if it does not entirely fit the context and tone, you will sound awkward.

• Effectiveness. The combination of context, tone, and definition will help determine the effectiveness of your word choice. If you plan to use a synonym, use the one that is most effective.

Examples of Aptitude in a Sentence

Sometimes, it can help to understand a word by using it in a sentence. Here are some examples of aptitude used correctly.

• Mary has an aptitude for puzzles, which explains why she decided to become a computer programmer.

• Leonard took an aptitude test and discovered he scored very highly in spatial thinking after he easily described the layout of his office.

• My manager told me I have an aptitude for diplomacy after I peacefully settled an argument between two coworkers.

Why Employers and Recruiters Want to Know Your Aptitude

In your professional career, you might be asked by your employer to discuss your aptitudes. A new supervisor may want to understand their team better and ask them to take aptitude tests.

We will discuss these further, but for now, understand that an aptitude test is a way to detect innate traits based on the type of test and aptitude it focuses on.

Further along in your career, you may find the discussion of your aptitudes come up during a performance review. Your supervisor may list what they think your natural talents are based on in their observation and outcomes.

It is possible you may be asked to list your own aptitudes to see if you can honestly self-reflect, which makes it crucial that you understand your own aptitudes.

During a job search, recruiters and prospective employers also want to know your aptitudes to be more efficient and effective with their time.

Again, you may be asked to take an aptitude test or else self-evaluate your predispositions. Recruiters will want to know this information so they can provide you with the best fitting opportunities.

Types Of Aptitude

Since aptitude is your innate ability with a skill or to learn a skill, there are different types that people have. Some of the most popular you will find in a professional discussion include:

• Fluid Intelligence. This is a significant branch of intelligence, and it is a type of reasoning based on your ability to think abstractly to solve a problem with little to no prior experience with that problem. Basically, it is your skill to problem solve on the first try.

• Crystallized Intelligence. This is the other major branch of intelligence, and it is your ability to accumulate knowledge from experience and use that knowledge for problem-solving. Generally, as you age, you acquire more crystallized intelligence.

• Spatial Awareness. This is your cognitive ability to contextualize the relationship of different bodies, particularly your own, within an environment.

• Verbalization. Your ability to talk to another person, perhaps to vocally explain problems and solutions, is an important aptitude related to communication.

• Logic. This is your ability to reason by using strict principles of validity. Those with high levels of logic use a step-by-step process where each truth leads to other truths, which in turn reach a sound conclusion.

• Mechanical. This is an aptitude for those who are able to understand the nature of mechanical processes. In some sense, this is a combination of logical and spatial aptitudes that allow you to break down a system into different parts.

• Creative. Those with a creative aptitude, such as visual artists, are able to come up with new and unique expressions of thoughts and feelings.

Understand Your Aptitude

Clearly, you should want to know what your innate abilities are when it comes to your professional development.

Knowledge of your aptitude will help you search for jobs that fit your natural strengths and prepare you for possible discussions with recruiters and employers. There are several options for figuring out your aptitudes.

Tests are one way to understand your strengths and weaknesses that gauge how easy or difficult it is for you to handle problems related to specific traits.

Recruiters and companies may ask you to perform an aptitude test to understand you as a candidate or employee. You can also take aptitude tests on your own to improve your self-knowledge.

Some tests include:

• Numerical reasoning. A numerical reasoning test demonstrates your ability to work with numbers in a quick and accurate fashion.

• Verbal reasoning. A verbal reasoning assessment will test your comprehensive skills by asking you to read and then explain the particular problem or situation.

• Diagrammatic reasoning. This test uses diagrams and logic problems to assess your ability to make rational judgments.

• Situational judgment. This test will give you hypothetical situations and ask you to navigate to a solution.

• Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Test. This is an aptitude test used by many law firms to gauge your critical thinking.

Another way to understand your aptitude is through self-evaluation. Although it may not be as focused or direct, a self-evaluation allows you to consider moments in your past and present that highlight your natural strengths or weaknesses.

You know yourself better than anyone else, so as long as you can be honest, self-evaluation can be effective.

Before you perform a self-evaluation, one tip is to keep a log or journal for a period of time that tracks your daily successes and challenges. After some time, you will begin to see patterns in your daily life that reflect your aptitudes.

Another helpful tip is to list past experiences in work and school where you exceeded or fell behind in projects and events.

Final Thoughts

Your aptitudes do not define who you are. However, they give you a pretty good starting point. Once you understand your aptitudes, you are empowered with knowledge that can help you make decisions. For your professional development, this is especially important.

Use your aptitudes to look for occupations that suit your innate abilities.

For example, those with a high aptitude for logic and critical thinking may want to consider computer science-related professions. Not only are your chances to be hired better, but you will feel less stress if you work with your abilities instead of against them.

That being said, do not discount a job if it does not match your aptitude. In this case, understand that the challenges will be greater as you must work harder to master the necessary skills and environment.

However, skills can always be developed as long as you give yourself realistic expectations and time.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.