Arrggg! Another worthless employer personality test. Rembrandt.

[speedracing944]

After suffering through the last personality test, I need to take another for a different company. This is for a company I really don't have much interest in working for as it has nothing to do with my area of study or interest. I may just do something fun with this one. A couple ideas I have are...

Email the HR person and refuse to take the test
Do the test in a knee-jerk reaction sort of way and make it through as quickly as possible
Do the test using a well thought out pattern selection of A B C D E's
Try to make the profile that of a serial killer

Any other thoughts?

Speedy

[IROC]

It doesn't seem right to waste their time (or yours) with any of the above options if you really have no interest in the job.

What kind of company requires one to take a personality test prior to employment?

[speedracing944]

This is even before an interview!

The last company I took one for was right after the phone interview. What ever happened to face to face time between people instead of some computer generated profile assembled by people selling profile products?

Speedy

[Jim Richards]

This is nuts. Ask the HR person if you can have the personality test results for your prospective boss and for the HR staff so you can decide if they are acceptable to you.

[speedracing944]

I might do that.

Any other suggestions?

Should I outsource the answering of the test to my 5 year old daughter? She could do it for cheaper than I can.

Speedy

[bivenator]

I had to take one recently for a job that I had applied for. I applied online and in the reply was a link requiring me to take a personality test. I never heard back after taking the test. I'm guessing those are good indicators that I failed a personality test.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

This is nuts. Ask the HR person if you can have the personality test results for your prospective boss and for the HR staff so you can decide if they are acceptable to you.

I like it!

It's high time people started standing up to this kind of worthless B.S.

When in doubt, just pick "C" for everything.

[legion]

Unfortunately, it's an employers market right now, and if they asked you to eat a steaming pile of dog $h!t in the interview, I'd bet half the applicants would because they need the work.

I work in an industry (IT) that has seen wild swings in the past ten years. When I was hired in 1999, I think the chief qualification was the ability to turn on a computer. My company was losing 400 IT people a year at the time (height of the dot-com boom) to greener pastures in Silicon Valley. For the past two years, we've had a hiring freeze and even internal movement within the department has been tight. Heck, we've also been overstaffed as we hired people anticipating some retirements, and people just stopped retiring. I've got a long list of friends looking for an "in" and I can't do a thing for them.

Companies that can be expected to even exist in a year are able to hire top talent for bottom dollar right now.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by IROC

It doesn't seem right to waste their time (or yours) with any of the above options if you really have no interest in the job.

What kind of company requires one to take a personality test prior to employment?

When I was 18, I once applied to work in a dollar store in a mall. I took a multipage personality test. I think that's the only place that I've ever had to take one. It was obvious that it was primarily geared towards determining how likely it was that you'd steal their crap. Really!? At a dollar store?

I've also had to do pee tests for some weird jobs and then at other jobs where I was working with expensive, sensitive stuff, nothing. I guess maybe they figure by the time you've gotten to that point, it's unlikely that you're doing drugs?

Doesn't really matter, I can pass pretty much any test they throw at me.

[vwbobd]

I took one for a job at a automotive service center after leaving a large dealership I was service manager at for over 15 years. They emailed me back a few days later and said they were going to persue candidates with more experience. I went by there a week or so later and they had some kid in there doing the job who told me he didnt really know that much abour cars or service work. He had worked at 5 different fast food joints in less than a year. My wife told me I had no personality and they proved it with that test . I think they really knew they could not afford me. At least it made me feel better at the time.

[sammyg2]

My company told us today that there will be no raises or bonuses this year for anyone, no promotions or hiring and they suspended the quarterly dividend along with a few other employee perks.

Fist time in 30 years I haven't got a raise or a bonus. Things are getting tight out there.

[IROC]

There are over 1200 PhDs where I work (out of a total of about 4300 employees). Needless to say, if a passing score on a personality test was a prerequisite to work here, the halls would be empty.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I like it!

It's high time people started standing up to this kind of worthless B.S.

When in doubt, just pick "C" for everything.

Had a prospective employer in Sarasota ready to hire me. I had worked for them for 6 weeks and had turned the flight ops around in this time. Written manuals and everything.

They then said "well, we already paid for the testing so we would like you to go there and sit down with the shrink and do the testing." I know the operation they were talking about and its a sham, trying to say that they filter people for the top operations by making everyone go through their testing. Cost per person was $10,000...

At the same time another start up ops that I really wanted to work with called me and said "come on down to Scottsdale Arizona" so I went to the first company and asked if they really wanted me to do this testing after 6 weeks working with them. Answer was yes, we spent the money so you have to do this.

I handed them my keys and uniform and said "sorry but I have another ops who wants to hire me without going to a shrink for an interview. If you do not know what type of person I am after spending 6 weeks working with me, then we do not need to work together in the first place" and went home.

Sorry but as an official old fart in the last throes of my career I do not need to put up with this chit. Am not a chainsaw killer and do not chase little boys or girls like Dot. You want to run me through loads of tests you will see me walk out the door on the way elsewhere...

[Dave L]

post the questions up here and I think we should all answer one each. With any luck you will be identified as having multiple personality disorders and could be on the fast track to upper management!

[speedracing944]

Maybe I should post a poll of how PPOT would like me to handle the situation and perform the top pick.

Speedy

[Laneco]

Ask them for the credentials of the person who will be interpreting the results...

Other than that, I would go for the serial killer/sociopath/ax-murder profile just for the fun of it.

angela

[masraum]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

My company told us today that there will be no raises or bonuses this year for anyone, no promotions or hiring and they suspended the quarterly dividend along with a few other employee perks.

Fist time in 30 years I haven't got a raise or a bonus. Things are getting tight out there.

Ouch, but beats the crap out of getting laid off. Back between 2001 and 2004, I worked for a place where raises etc... we on hold. Yeah, 3 years. Lots of folks griped. Even after they started laying people off they were still *****ing about getting raises.

Not that you were complaining, just a related story about idiots.

[Rick Lee]

I've never once gotten a bonus beyond a $50 Amex gift card. Last raise I got was about five years ago. In the commissioned sales world, your review is your W2. And I'm pretty sure 2010 is gonna be my best ever year.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I'm convinced that most of this kind of nonsense is just intended to legitimize the H.R. "process" rather than yielding any kind of substantial benefit. I find it patently offensive (and Joe, you da' man - I definitely have to buy you a beer sometime!) Especially in this day/age when so many people are desperate for work, I find these "head games" that they play with people just to show foot traffic coming in the door (that they have no intention of actually hiring) just to look busy to be really annoying. Toying with people and giving them false hopes when they're vulnerable like that is just plain wrong and unethical.

I'm not convinced these "tests" do anything. Hell, psychology is a pseudo-science anyway. Psychiatry is legit. Psychology is a lot of quackery wrapped up with just enough science to make it convincing to a dumb public. As an employer, I wouldn't waste my time (or anyone else's) on stuff like this.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Dave L

post the questions up here and I think we should all answer one each. With any luck you will be identified as having multiple personality disorders and could be on the fast track to upper management!

Beat me to it...