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I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

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Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#111

Post by kube-system »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #54
vundercind wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m convinced most use of these is actually testing for: 1) bright enough to answer to achieve just about any desired outcome (usually not a high bar), 2) socially/politically aware enough to realize which outcomes will be good, and which will be bad; and, 3) agreeable/compliant enough to go ahead and game the quiz to achieve a good outcome without raising a fuss.

It seems to me that what you are getting is people who are both decently clever and fairly dishonest. Which is an awful combination to select for, imo

Does social filtering constitute dishonesty or professionalism?

This question itself might be a good interview question.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#112

Post by neilv »

awo34oaw4u wrote: post #41
billy99k wrote: post #2

I once had a SW interview with a job that had a 2-hour long personality test. No tech questions. Just random questions to test my personality. It started out simple, like 'what was the last book you read' to more in-depth situations that had nothing to do with the job. The manager interviewing me (who admit he basically just started managing a month prior) told me he just read a 'great book on management' and wanted…

I got asked "what was the last book you read" in a SW startup interview once. I told them and then the interviewers started arguing amongst themselves about whether or not they liked the book, based on what I had told them about it, instead of asking me what I thought about it and what I learned from it. That was one of about thirty red flags. I left without completing the interview.

In imagination-land, it could've been a higher echelon of test.

Despite the dynamic in which you were the one being tag-teamed in an interview, would your catalyst presence bring the interview back on track, with subtle grace?

At the end of a series of "bad interview loop" tests, you learn that they secretly weren't interviewing you to be a coder, and now you are the next chosen-one CEO of Lego.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#113

Post by rvnx »

recursive wrote: post #109
Clubber wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't figure out someone is a dud in 60 minutes you are doing it wrong. If you can't figure out someone is a dud in 60 minutes, 360 minutes isn't going to make a difference. Why waste the extra 300 minutes?

Merely knowing I'm doing it wrong isn't actionable. In addition, I need to know what to change to do it right.

You can ask for precise details about the implementation or the weirdest bug they had encountered.

Great tech guys are able to explain to you complex systems quite easily; not by making them overly complex, but quite the opposite, to keep them simple, and regarding the bug you can understand the depth of troubleshooting the person went through.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#114

Post by bluefirebrand »

Clubber wrote: post #99
bluefirebrand wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately companies have found a loophole: They just say "we couldn't find anyone who is acceptable for the role locally so instead we'll hire overseas for a fraction of the cost, darn" Almost like the unnecessarily complex hiring processes are built that way on purpose.

"we'll hire overseas for a fraction of the cost, darn" The ones at a fraction of the cost aren't very good. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Maybe, maybe not.

I've worked with great offshore teams and terrible ones, I think the great ones were more expensive but still less than a local salary.

But the theoretical hiring manager here doesn't care anyways. All they want is to come under budget so they can max their bonus for being so cleverly frugal.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#115

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

awo34oaw4u wrote: post #41
billy99k wrote: post #2

I once had a SW interview with a job that had a 2-hour long personality test. No tech questions. Just random questions to test my personality. It started out simple, like 'what was the last book you read' to more in-depth situations that had nothing to do with the job. The manager interviewing me (who admit he basically just started managing a month prior) told me he just read a 'great book on management' and wanted…

I got asked "what was the last book you read" in a SW startup interview once. I told them and then the interviewers started arguing amongst themselves about whether or not they liked the book, based on what I had told them about it, instead of asking me what I thought about it and what I learned from it. That was one of about thirty red flags. I left without completing the interview.

> That was one of about thirty red flags. I left without completing the interview.

It sounds like an extremely effective question;)

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#116

Post by bluefirebrand »

Vegenoid wrote: post #84
ipaddr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realizing the desired outcome a company may desire isn't dishonest. Being agreeable enough to play the game by the rules isn't dishonest. You'd rather clever enough but defiant employees? Or not clever and some other combo? Being honest is realizing your situation and making tradeoffs to prioritize what's important. Pretending that your ability to call out weaknesses in the interview process makes you the best candid…

> Realizing the desired outcome a company may desire isn't dishonest. Being agreeable enough to play the game by the rules isn't dishonest. Answering in a way that is not consistent with what you truly feel or believe is dishonest. I don't think it's an amoral dishonesty, as you say, you've been forced to play this dumb game. There are many cases where being untruthful is not morally wrong. > Being honest is realizin…

> Answering in a way that is not consistent with what you truly feel or believe is dishonest. I don't think it's an amoral dishonesty, as you say, you've been forced to play this dumb game. There are many cases where being untruthful is not morally wrong

Thank you for this reply, I couldn't have said it better. It's important that people realize

1) Representing yourself falsely is dishonest

2) Dishonesty isn't an especially bad thing in many cases. In fact it's socially expected in many cases, such as in interviews.

That doesn't make it less dishonest. It means that a lot of our society is an engine that basically runs on dishonesty.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#117

Post by gorkempacaci »

syntaxing wrote: post #56

I once took an IQ test(?), I think it was called Wonderlic or something. I was desperate and it was my first engineering (unpaid) internship. Somehow I was a “genius” and they kept my test record as an example for the next couple years after my internship. I would probably walk out of an interview if someone handed me one today.

I took one of those (Alva labs) multiple times for different companies. My “intelligence” (or whatever they call it) score was 7/10 first, then 8/10, and then 9/10 I think in the last one. Just got better each time I took it. And the results for the personality test kept changing dramatically for each take too. Total pseudoscience.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#118

Post by zen928 »

dookahku wrote: post #81
billy99k wrote: post #2

I once had a SW interview with a job that had a 2-hour long personality test. No tech questions. Just random questions to test my personality. It started out simple, like 'what was the last book you read' to more in-depth situations that had nothing to do with the job. The manager interviewing me (who admit he basically just started managing a month prior) told me he just read a 'great book on management' and wanted…

Canonical made me do a personality test. From what I understand, Canonical culture isn't great, either. The whole process sounds a lot like what you are talking about -- just hoops to winnow out people for the sake of winnowing.

After that personality test, they ask you to complete a timed IQ test. After that, you'll reach a behavioral interview after which you get assigned a "take home" technical assessment, which then after submitting you can schedule to have technical interviews (potentially multiple). You can fail at any step along the way.

It was one of the more laughably ridiculous interviewing processes I've seen, and thankfully the only one I've seen recently that was so egregious.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#119

Post by bluefirebrand »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #76
bluefirebrand wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that what you are getting is people who are both decently clever and fairly dishonest. Which is an awful combination to select for, imo

maybe I'm cynical but I think it's selecting for moderately or reasonably dishonest, the dishonesty of the median. I think you'd have to be extremely honest to think huh, this is an absolutely bullshit test that if I answer honestly on just this part here means I won't get the job I want (assuming that you are only bad on a single metric) but I am going to answer honestly no matter what. Hmm, but maybe they have that…

> maybe I'm cynical but I think it's selecting for moderately or reasonably dishonest, the dishonesty of the median

I feel like that's accurate. After all, I did describe it as "fairly" dishonest, not "very" or "extremely" dishonest.

Lying on personality tests is definitely an average, socially expected amount of dishonesty.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#120

Post by ooterness »

madeofpalk wrote: post #30

Bizarre really don't capture how other-worldly (other than the lets-not-be-racist purple people) this test is. Take the fourth image, of the person (or two people) with two emotions on the couch. How are you supposed to identify if that image as a whole is "me" or not? I would be baffled at how to respond to that. Some of the images I can kind of understand (watching TV while you have laundry to fold? LAZY!), but how…

You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?
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