Personality Testing For Employment 581
Thelasko writes "While I was in college, I had the opportunity to take an elective course in Industrial Psychology. One section of the course covered hiring practices and the validity of 'personality testing' to screen applicants (Google link for non-subscribers). The Wall Street Journal has a long article discoursing on how such tests are used in today's economy. While personality tests may be designed to uncover underlying personality traits such as honesty, critics claim that the tests instead reward cheaters." The article talks mostly about the tests' use in winnowing candidates for retail positions — deciding whom to interview. Anybody encountered them in an IT or more technical context?
google does (Score:4, Funny)
Google makes you take a looooooong and in depth personality test just to apply for an IT position. It's really insulting.
P.S. Fuck you, Google. Didn't want to work for you anyway. Put that in your personality test.
HR's recruitment process in a nutshell... (Score:5, Funny)
1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.
3. Leave them alone and come back after six hours.
4. Then analyze the situation.
a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.
b. If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.
c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.
d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.
e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.
f. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.
g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.
h. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.
i. If they say they have tried different combinations and they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.
j. If they have already left for the day, put them in Management.
k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.
l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.
m. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.
Re:One question I still remember (Score:3, Funny)
As an ISTJ... (Score:1, Funny)
That sounds like a perfectly logical application of personality testing.
They're usually boring (Score:4, Funny)
The one I really liked was the one in the movie "The Game"...
You just can't beat the Consumer Recreation Services' true/false test with items like "I frequently hurt small animals." and "I feel guilty when I masturbate."
Re:One question I still remember (Score:4, Funny)
They didn't ask you what you would do you you were out in the desert and you found a turtle on its back roasting in the sun?
it's a hackneyed question.
Everyone knows you're hot helping because you're also a turtle on its back.
Re:Not technical (Score:4, Funny)
Re:One question I still remember (Score:3, Funny)
Obligatory Classic Hacker/Admin Personality Test (Score:5, Funny)
I first saw this in the early 90's or so. Text included, to avoid melting the server (which I don't believe is canonical anyway)
http://kuoi.com/~kamikaze/Hacker/interview.php [kuoi.com]
* "How do you work in a team situation when all the other team members are fools and idiots?" /var/spool/mail only) can a Sun 600MP server serve simultaneously, and what relation does this have to angels and pinheads?"
* "How well do you program under the influence of hard drugs?"
* "Have you ever beaten or killed a co-worker?"
* "Give me a rough estimate of the maximum dollar amount that you've stolen from each of your previous employers."
* "Do you object to bullwhips in the workplace?"
* "Emacs or vi?"
* "You have a large network of Suns being used by secretaries for word processing in FrameMaker. Which GNU packages would you install for your own entertainment, and how would you justify them later?"
* "You see a wounded puppy bleeding and whimpering on the side of the road while you're running to work to fix a downed computer that tens of users are waiting for. Do you let the puppy die?" "Why not?"
* "How much of your workday would you waste by reading news?"
* "Recite the GNU Manifesto."
* "How many clients (30% diskless, 60% dataless, 10%
Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score:5, Funny)
So, judging from your post, you are for the personality tests, because they saved you from Geek Squad.
Re:If it were free-form, and not multiple choice, (Score:3, Funny)
When I was in a hiring position... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:google does (Score:5, Funny)
Why is the parent modded funny?
Oh you don't know? Moderation is secretly an indirect personality test for the /. readership. Someone just failed.
No true pessemist would write that (Score:4, Funny)
I'm a pessimist and an introvert. This does NOT interfere with my ability to put on a professional face and be friendly to clients,
The real pessimist's version
....
I'm a pessimist and an introvert. This will probably interfere with my ability to put on a professional face and be friendly to those intimidating clients, meaning I'll lose my job, my house and then probably be mistaken for a terrorist and sent to Gitmo. I can then immagine a huge Hurricane
Re:google does (Score:4, Funny)
Erroneous. Google does not make you take a personality test.
I'm sure that's why you opted to apply and interview with them.
Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score:5, Funny)
Congratulations, you passed the test and have a great personality.
Disregard that, you failed, you irredeemable sociopath. A shame, you got so close :(. A little bit of extra effort and you can ace it the next time !
Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score:3, Funny)
I glean more information about you from your response to my comment than I ever would from a Personality test ;)
Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score:4, Funny)
His mistake was answering "No" to the question "Would you ever steal data (private pictures, bank statements, etc.) from a customer?" It's practically Geek Squad corporate policy.
Re:That reminds me... (Score:2, Funny)
So you were in a different time-zone?
Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score:3, Funny)
That's not true. Many people don't lie at all. I don't lie at all. I have lied in the past, but now I have a strict policy of honesty. I may not always be willing to open my mouth and blather the truth, but I won't lie to cover it up. Technically, that may make me dishonest, because I don't always share the truth, but the statement "I always tell the truth" is the truth.
Of course, you can still weed me out for answering yes to that question, because business wants you to lie in some circumstances, like when dealing with customers. However, I am also pretty tactful, so when a customer approaches me with a lie that management has told them, I have so far always been able to find a truthful way to make the situation right.
Nope (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty sure if you have a personality, you can't be hired to work in IT.