Ace the PG&E Meter Reader Test with Accurate Practice Tests and Guides

The PG&E’s Clerical test helps managers to verify that applicants possess the necessary cognitive skills in reading comprehension, computation, visual speed, and accuracy. Testing also allows them to see whether applicants understand coding and mathematical problems.

The Clerical/Meter Test consists of five parts:

This test evaluates your knowledge of arithmetic and math. You are required to solve arithmetic problems by performing basic mathematical operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.

Your ability to calculate whole numbers, decimals, simple fractions, and percentages will also be assessed. Once you read an arithmetic expression, you will need to choose the right answer among several alternatives.

The time limit on the computational test is only five minutes.

This test evaluates your language proficiency. You are required to demonstrate your knowledge of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization rules.

You will also show how well you understand the usage and connotations of certain words. On this test, you will be given sentences, parts of which will be underlined.

You will need to decide whether the underlined part contains an error. This is a multiple-choice, timed exam. You will have only five minutes to analyze 25 sentences.

This test measures how well you solve problems narrated in short scenarios by using arithmetic operations.

Given mathematical problems will usually tell about people who spend money on a certain amount of goods or receive money for certain services.

Your task will be to calculate how much money the people would either pay or gain in specified circumstances.

In solving these problems, you will need to demonstrate your ability to work with whole numbers, decimals, fractions, and percentiles.

There are 25 problems in the test, which you are required to solve within 10 minutes.

This test ascertains your ability to code information according to a prescribed system. You will be asked to study a table containing the list of items which are usually classified into three or four categories.

Each category has a code. After you analyze new information, you will need to select the correct code from five alternatives for each item in the set.

The Coding Skills Test has a five minutes limit and comprises 72 coding problems.

This Clerical Aptitude test evaluates your visual perceptual abilities. You will need to read a pair of numerical strings containing either symbols or letters, or both.

Your task is to compare the pair of symbols and decide whether the symbols are identical or different. There is a five minutes time limit to complete this exercise.

PG&E’s Clerical/Meter Test is challenging because it is made up of five sections that require deep concentration and strong attention to detail. The time limit allotted to each section is also extremely short.

You need to be not only accurate in your calculations but also quick. Neither promptness nor accuracy is achieved without practice.

Prepare with JobTestPrep’s exclusive resources and pass your Clerical/Meter Test with flying colors, proving to PG&E’s employers that you are the best candidate for the advertised position.

The hiring process at Pacific Gas and Energy Company consists of several stages: a phone interview, the Clerical/Meter Reading Test, and a face-to-face interview in one of the company’s offices. In some cases, in addition to the Clerical/Meter Reading Test, applicants are also required to pass the Excel or FCC license test.

After you apply online by submitting your résumé and application form, you will have a phone interview with a PG&E recruiter.

This interview will center around your work experience and career goals. Another option PG&E offers to job applicants is to have an online video recording interview instead of a phone interview.

The pre-recorded interview webcam session contains five or six questions. You will be given one minute to prepare for each question and three minutes to record your answer.

Although this interview may be less personal than a phone interview, you may correct your answers and re-record your answers as many times as you want. Most of the questions will assess your behavior in specific situations.

After your first interview, you will be sent a link to the Clerical/Meter Reading Test. This test consists of five components: computation, language skills, problem-solving skills, coding, and visual speed accuracy test. Combined, these tests assess job applicants’ numerical and mathematical skills, language proficiency, visual perceptual and reasoning skills, and ability to classify.

If you succeed on your Clerical/Meter Reading Test, you will be invited to a face-to-face interview with the company’s representatives. As a rule, the personal interview at PG&E is a panel interview. You will have a conversation with a manager of Human Resources and your prospective managers.

Sometimes, the interview panel will be divided into two parts, giving you an opportunity to speak with six PG&E employees. Interviewers will describe the duties and responsibilities that you will assume if you get employed. Prepare also to answer behavioral and competency-based questions in the STAR format.

PG&E’s interviewers may also ask you to describe your behavior and reaction in specified situational scenarios. Other questions posed in the face-to-face interview are about safety rules or are technical in nature. You will be asked to give EVMS calculation data or analyze the code that you have prepared at home.

Alternatively, you may be invited to make a PowerPoint slide presentation that you submit prior to the interview. Overall, this interview may last from 90 minutes to four hours.

If you receive a job offer at PG&E, you will need to do a drug test within 72 business hours from the offer.

The interview process at PG&E is complex. Initially, you will have either a telephone conversation with PG&E’s recruiters or an interview via a webcam, where you will need to answer pre-recorded questions.

These questions are mostly behavioral. If you successfully pass the Clerical/Meter Reading Test, you will be invited for a face-to-face interview in one of the company offices. Questions asked in the personal interview are in the STAR format.

PG&E's managers believe that the STAR questions predict applicants’ future behavior at the workplace more precisely than traditional interview questions.

The STAR interview format contains behavior-based questions and is composed of the following four components:

• Situation: You will be required to talk about a challenging situation that you experienced at your previous workplace;
• Task: The interviewer will want to know what you were trying to achieve in the challenging situation. In answering questions about the tasks, emphasize your motivations to perform.
• Actions: The interviewer will want to know what exactly you did in the challenging situations and what were the alternative actions available to you. You will need to explain why you chose to act as you did.
• Results: You will need to elaborate on what you achieved through your actions and tell the recruiter how you met your objectives. Prepare also to tell what you learned from your experience.

Apart from behavioral questions, PG&E’s interviewers will ask you questions about safety because its employees’ safety is of paramount importance to the company.

Make sure to read about the company’s safety rules and prepare a story of how you observed safety rules at your previous workplace.

Some of the questions posed in the interview at PG&E are the following:

• What is a good example of a story about safety that you can share with us?
• How do you manage safety at work and your home?
• Tell me about a time when you convinced a team to make a big change.
• How do you handle a tough situation at work?
• Describe a situation in which you went above and beyond your responsibilities.
• What types of correspondence have you been responsible for?
• Which computer software have you used?
• What experience do you have with setting up meetings?
• What do you believe are the significant characteristics of an office clerk?
• How do you see your career as a meter reader?
• What interests you about a meter reader position?
• What type of work environment do you prefer? 

Familiarize yourself with the questions listed above and craft appropriate, smart answers to them. It will help you sound confident and knowledgeable if you come to the interview with winning answers prepared in advance.

Do not also forget to research the Pacific Gas and Electricity Company before you enter the interview room.

Your knowledge of PG&E’s business goals will tilt the recruiters’ hiring decision in your favor. 

You can retake the Clerical/Meter Reader Test after a certain waiting period. If you failed the test once, you would have your second attempt three months after. You can take your third attempt six months after the second. Fourth and the subsequent attempts are permitted one year after the previous attempt.  

When you receive an email with a test key, you will have five days to take the Clerical/Meter Reader Test. If you do not take it within five calendar days, the test will expire. You will not be able to take the test after its expiration date. 

If you receive duplicate invites for the same test, take it only once. 

You cannot use the calculator. You are permitted to use only a pen or pencil and a piece of scratch paper. 

Prepare for your pre-employment assessment at Pacific Gas and Electric Company with JobTestPrep’s inclusive practice resources. Our tests and drills will enhance your reading comprehension, computation, and visual speed and accuracy and will give you tips on succeeding in interviews. Study with our PrepPack™ and become PG&E’s employers’ first choice.

• PG&E Industrial Skill Test Practice.
• Other Power, Utilities & Energy Preparations.
• PG&E Pre-Employment Practice Tests.

JobTestPrep is a leading test prep company that offers accurate practice simulations for hundreds of pre-employment tests. Since 1992, it has helped 1M+ candidates. If you have any additional questions about the PG&E Clerical / Meter Reader Test, feel free to send us an email, we usually reply within 24 hours.