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from the boss-wants-to-see-how-you-handle-pressure? dept.
I recently applied for a job in Silicon Valley.
The recruiter had me take a battery of tests that measured my verbal, mathematical and visual aptitude. I'd guess it was a mini-IQ test; it wasn't a mini-MMPI. As a result of the tests I was invited to interview onsite.
At the end of the interview the manager declared that he wanted me to take some tests.
His tests were brain teasers he had downloaded from a random website. The brain teasers had nothing to do with the work I was interviewing for. He seemed to ignore the battery of sophisticated tests I had been subjected to, and to believe that he could do better.
What is the REAL purpose of using brain teasers during an employment interview?
Is it just to make the candidate feel stupid? Are any of these people qualified to interpret the results? Are any of them industrial psychologists? Or is this all about power and control?
Please advise.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 05 2018, @04:47PM (2 children)
When interviewing candidates, I have never used those sorts of tests. I talk to them about the work they have done. If they know what they're talking about, it quickly becomes clear. If they don't, that becomes clear also. I am upfront about what the needs of the job are, and focus on gaps that I see between the information on their resumes and what the job is asking for, and those areas that seem relevant. I like to see if the candidate is somebody that can figure out what they don't know and get the job done, not if they've done 100% of what I need by rote. People who can only do the latter are dull and I don't like to work with them. When requirements change, and they always change, they can't roll with the punches and become a drag on the team.
So I find tests and game playing like that insulting and counter-productive.
As an interviewee, I always endeavor to get the hiring agent to talk about what they need in the job instead of rapid firing stupid games and gotcha questions at me. It works most of the time, because anybody who takes their job seriously wants to know if you can help them solve a problem, not how well you can tap-dance through stupid gotcha questions. On the few occasions when side-stepping that BS doesn't work, I answer a few of the questions and then bring things to a close: "Hey, thanks for inviting me in, but I think you're looking for a different fit; I know some guys who might be better for you--I'll forward their info to you." I figure I don't want to work at a place that goes in for that kind of bullshit, and I get to go out a hero.
It's an artifice, I know, but when you're in the job search process it is critical to maintain the conviction that you're in control of what happens. That is a key take-away I got from What Color is Your Parachute, and it has served me well for several decades. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @05:09PM
Yes, I think that's the reason people get upset about this topic; these kinds of puzzlers can gaslight people into feeling like they're incompetent, thereby undermining years of hard-won skill.
It's important to remember who you are, that you have worth, and that other people are probably not better than you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @10:46AM
Ok, I hear you. But I hire fresh students and co-ops. They don't have training or experience to talk about or even hard projects in school most of the time. So for them, yeah, brain teasers it is. If you can figure some out, maybe you can dicern requirements, and encypher them into code.