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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @09:09PM
There's a few reasons for that, on the labor side, having such a program set up to certify potential employees cuts the supply significantly, but it also means that the value that you're bringing forth for a job application is somewhat less of a mystery. Sure, you get dumbass lawyers, teachers, doctors and others, but on the whole, people in these sorts of jobs tend to know what they're doing to at least the level demanded by the profession. You're much less likely to have a professionally trained doctor killing your patients than a random stranger that just shows up to a job interview, but interviews really well.