I often get asked the following 2 questions around Nova’s assessment of talent:
- How do you assess talent at Nova?
- How do you define talent?
With this brief post, I am starting a series on our assessments to bring light and transparency to them. Thus, I will showcase the level of sophistication, meritocracy, and accuracy of our assessments. Hopefully, they will answer those 2 questions I often get asked.
How do you assess talent at Nova? Introducing Radar
At Nova, we have developed a proprietary technology called Radar, which enables us to assess candidates at scale while maintaining a high-tech, high-touch approach.
Radar enables:
- Nova members to easily nominate potential candidates
- Candidates to complete the Nova assessment digitally in less than 20 minutes
- Our Talent Assessment Team to evaluate candidates efficiently, supported by an algorithm that scores over 200 data points — while decisions remain human-driven
All accepted candidates receive a customized onboarding experience, personally crafted by a trained Talent Scout. Rejected candidates receive personalized written feedback and may reapply after a period of time depending on seniority and performance in the process.
Technology supports the process — but people make the decisions.
The Radar selection process
The Radar process that nominated candidates must take before getting into Nova includes 4 key parts:
- A background section which helps us understand the candidate’s professional and educational experience, international exposure, and language skills. Candidates also submit a short motivational text explaining why they want to join Nova. This section takes less than 5 minutes.
- A references section (optional), where candidates may provide external validation of their profile. For example, a senior professional vouching for a candidate may strengthen their application.
- A video interview, which assesses candidates based on 6 of the most demanded competencies: drive, leadership, problem-solving, adaptability, self-awareness, and communication. This section takes less than 10 minutes.
Assessing candidates with Radar
The 4-step assessment process I just described enables us to get over 200 data points which we then utilize through a proprietary scoring algorithm to give candidates a final score. Based on that score, Talent Scouts will determine whether or not the person is ready to join Nova:
- If the score is above a certain threshold, they will get accepted. The Talent Scout will manually craft their onboarding process with specific Nova members we suggest they connect with, specific events, or opportunities that we believe might be relevant for them based on their profile and interests.
- If the score is below a certain threshold, the candidate will get rejected. The Talent Scout will write a personalized feedback message, stressing the points that we liked about their profile and, most importantly, the areas for improvement we see.
- Should the score be in between those 2 thresholds, a more senior Nova team member will re-assess the candidate and will make a final decision, considering diversity and equality of opportunities.
As you can see, once Radar enables us to get the right data on the candidate in an efficient way, the scoring algorithm becomes really the “secret sauce” to determine who qualifies to become a Nova member and who doesn’t.
How does Nova define talent? The Radar algorithm
This is probably the most “controversial”, yet the most important thing about Radar. First of all, I would like to clarify that there are as many definitions of talent as people on this planet, so we do not mean to be the sole owners of such a complex definition. Moreover, there are many types of talent, or intelligence, that with the data we capture we are not even close to being able to assess. For example sportive, artistic, culinary, or medical talents are completely out of scope for us in the sense that we cannot (and do not know how to) assess them. We do have some professional athletes and artists in the network, but who have entered for other reasons.
Our definition of talent is actually simple: the set of skills, behaviors, and experiences that will make the future leaders successful in most public and private jobs, including but not limited to business managers, consultants, bankers, lawyers, engineers, sales representatives, marketers, product managers, data scientists, entrepreneurs, and public servants, amongst others.
Our experience and research have enabled us to assess the following 9 parameters that we include in our algorithm:
1. Professional Experience, based on their LinkedIn and Resume
Not all roles or organizations are equally demanding. For example, joining McKinsey or BCG as a Consulting Manager is not equivalent in complexity to joining a large corporation in an entry-level support function.
We assess both the role and the company behind each professional experience. Each experience is scored individually, and a consolidated professional experience score is generated.
2. International Experience, based on LinkedIn and Resume
We live in a world with fewer barriers. The ability to work across countries and cultures is increasingly critical.
Our algorithm favors candidates with meaningful international exposure, as it often correlates with adaptability, tolerance, and global mindset.
3. Education, based on LinkedIn, Resume, and Grades
Not all educational experiences are equally demanding.
Grades, while not mandatory, have shown correlation with professional success and often reflect perseverance and cognitive discipline.
The more senior the candidate, the less weight this parameter carries.
4. Extracurricular activities, based on LinkedIn and Resume
Future leaders are curious and multidimensional. We value candidates who expand beyond traditional paths and engage in diverse experiences.
5. Sports and Music, based on LinkedIn and Resume
Professional careers in music and sports build perseverance and help with time management, which both then correlate with professional success.
6. Social Impact, based on LinkedIn and Resume
While long-term data is still evolving, we believe caring about society and contributing beyond oneself is a defining trait of strong leaders.
Social impact activities are therefore positively valued as a deliberate choice reflecting the values of our community.
7. Entrepreneurial Experience, based on LinkedIn and Resume
Entrepreneurship demonstrates initiative, resilience, and the ability to create value in uncertain environments — qualities essential in a world disrupted by technology.
8. Cognitive Ability, based on the IQ test
Research shows that cognitive ability is one of the better predictors of job success. Critical thinking, inference, and problem-solving tests are the best ways to test the candidate’s cognitive ability.
9. Video Interview Competencies
The six competencies evaluated in the video interview are central to our definition of talent:
- Drive – Healthy ambition and the desire to create impact.
- Leadership – Understanding what good leadership looks like and the potential to become a role model.
- Problem-solving – Structured thinking and the ability to break complex challenges into manageable parts.
- Adaptability – The ability to learn fast and thrive in changing environments.
- Self-awareness – Humility to learn from mistakes combined with clarity about strengths.
- Communication – The ability to convey complex ideas clearly and mobilize others.
The way we compute these parameters, and the weights we apply depending on the type and seniority of profile, is the “secret sauce” that allows us to distinguish the exceptional from the merely strong.
In future posts, I will continue bringing transparency to other FAQs around our selection process, including:
- How many people pass the selection process?
- What happens when Nova grows too large?
Stay tuned and feel free to share if you found this helpful.
