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posted by martyb on Friday October 05 2018, @03:21PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 06 2018, @12:39AM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 06 2018, @12:39AM (#744870) Journal

    Zero. I'm not a coder. But, you knew that.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:03AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:03AM (#744881) Journal

    And yet you are sure thinking outside the box is critical for software engineering.
    As in any branch of engineering, if you deal with emergencies that's a clear sign that somebody is doing the hell of a bad job. Imagine you are at a parent-teacher conference and the teacher reassures you that he always wears a condom while teaching [xkcd.com]

    If the interpretation you gave is true, the correct reaction for the candidate would be to apply your nick as fast as possible.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:30AM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:30AM (#744888) Journal

      And, of course, no one does the hell of a bad job in coding - ever. That's why sometimes updates crash computers.

      But, my response was more general, rather than specific to writing code. A manager - any manager - decides to pick the mind of an applicant. Why would he do that? He wants to know more about the applicant. If you're applying for the job of reading water meters, and the manager asks you questions not related to reading meters, obviously, he thinks that you should have some knowledge and skills aside from reading those water meters.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 06 2018, @02:03AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 06 2018, @02:03AM (#744912) Journal

        And, of course, no one does the hell of a bad job in coding - ever. That's why sometimes updates crash computers.

        But of course too many do a bad job in software engineering, no matter how brilliant coders they are.

        But, my response was more general, rather than specific to writing code. But, my response was more general, rather than specific to writing code. A manager - any manager - decides to pick the mind of an applicant.

        Don't delude yourself in thinking that management is a discipline that can exist in no relation with the things which needs managed.
        A construction manager and a software dev manager need to think and act differently because the things they need to manage are different.
        Expecting the "mind picking" to be the same for the two is naive.

        If you're applying for the job of reading water meters, and the manager asks you questions not related to reading meters, obviously, he thinks that you should have some knowledge and skills aside from reading those water meters.

        And this comes with the big assumption that the manager is always "clueful" and can't ask wrong questions.
        Which, in my experience**, is more often than not a failing assumption.

        ** I worked in this industry for quite a long time, both as contributor and manager - I've seen heaps of clueless managers and, on occasions, I even been one myself. In the latter position, I have had the common sense to notify those better positioned to solve the problem that I'm doing it only until they find one more suitable and I expect that they solve it soon or else I'm gone.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford