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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

#171

Post by Beijinger »

doublebind wrote: post #101
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…

Two years ago, I had a similar experience with Chainlink. I underwent hours of interviews and completed an extensive work assignment, only to be offered the job _after a personality test_. Simultaneously, I interviewed at a startup. There, I spent about an hour discussing my experience and providing feedback on their current system with the person who would become my manager. I chose the startup, and it has been the…

This reminds me when I tried incredibly hard to get a tiny scholarship to study abroad in country X and got rejected. In fact, there were several rounds and I didn't even make the first one. My Prof. told me to go to country Y and I hesitated because of the immense administrative burden to apply again and since I was de facto not qualified for a postgraduate scholarship. But application was easy, I got it, and they stuffed me with money.

I always remember the words of my Professor: "Don't you know that everything where you have to invest a lot (I assume effort, time, money, energy) nothing ever comes out?

So if your IT job requires a letter of recommendation from the pope and even if you are able to get the letter, you are unlikely to get the job. :-)

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

#172

Post by giraffe_lady »

0x457 wrote: post #166
neon_electro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does “putting humans through the mud” achieve?

Selecting people with low self-worth that can be easily broken. You don't want a free thinker with vocal opinions and entitlement (warranted or not) working at your McDonalds - you want a drone that is just good enough to do the job. Hiring process often is a reflection of work culture. Shitty process will remove candidates that won't fit the culture.

I think most of the jobs that use this kind of filtering are also low wage / low prestige where churn and training represent a significant fraction of the labor cost. So they are probably simply selecting for a certain degree of precarity & economic desperation, trying to exclude people who are looking for a little extra money to meet personal goals or fill periods between better paid work.

I'm trying to phrase this neutrally but IMO this motive is just as bad.

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

#173

Post by drewcoo »

neilv wrote: post #112
awo34oaw4u wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In my experience, tag-team or tribunal-style interviews are themselves a red flag. Usually it's a sign that the company doesn't know how to interview or whose opinions to trust, so they're just throwing everyone into the meeting.

And any company being so openly dishonest as to set up fake arguments for candidates react to . . . if discovered, that's the mother of all red flags.

This is not the case with new interviewers shadowing a single interviewer. That's actually a positive sign, that they know some of their people have skills and are actively trying to train their staff.

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

#174

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

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…

That was the way that I interviewed. I never gave a coding test in my life.

I never made a technical error, but I think that I did hire a couple of folks, over the years, that didn't integrate into the team that well. Not sure the personality test would have made a difference.

Sometimes, the only way that you can tell how someone will do, is start working with them.

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

#175

Post by vidarh »

Not had to deal with the crap in these images, but got a personality test sent over for a position last time I applied for a job. Already was unsure if the company was for me, got two questioned in before I sent the recruiter an e-mail to point that 1) it was bullshit, not based in any science, 2) I could not possibly answer the questions honestly because the multiple-choice contained answers with more than one assertion per choice and none of the combinations applied, 3) I had no interest in the position if I had to take the test.

Got a message back telling me the tests had been "imposed" by some VP in the US and to disregard it because everyone hated them.

In the end the company kept proving me right to be skeptical because while maybe the hiring manager was trying to change thing, he was surrounded by a dystopian accretion disk of the output of worthless management self-help books and 1970's-style management doctrine.

Which made me really appreciate how lucky I am to have consistently been in a position to be picky.

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

#176

Post by rthomas6 »

NickC25 wrote: post #34
Maro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviews are for weeding out poor candidates; what you have left are the good ones. Weeding out poor candidates is not possible with 10-15 minutes informal chats.

It most certainly IS possible. That's the whole point of resumes and LinkedIn...especially in technical fields. You self-select for the hiring criteria you're looking for. You then speak to the candidate to understand a bit more about their experience as it relates to the job you're seeking a candidate for. That's why it often makes sense for such roles, for technical people to interview other technical people. "Oh,…

People lie about what they personally did as part of a larger team. They claim to have skills and expertise they don't actually have.

I'm not saying you need a gauntlet of tests. I liked the approach mentioned elsewhere of a technical discussion about what they did. But it takes, like, an hour or two to make sure they're not BSing and that they're actually as much of an expert as they claim to be.

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

#177

Post by i_am_proteus »

(1) When asked for word associations or comments about the world, give the most conventional, run-of-the-mill, pedestrian answer possible

(2) To settle on the most beneficial answer to any question, repeat to yourself:

a) I loved my father and my mother, but my father a little bit more

b) I like this pretty well the way they are

c) I never worry much about anything

d) I don't care for books or music much

e) I love my wife and children

f) I don't let them get in the way of company work

from William H. Whyte Jr.'s The Organization Man, Appendix: How To Cheat On Personality Tests

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

#178

Post by tonyarkles »

Clubber wrote: post #96
tonyarkles wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine the tens of thousands of dollars saved if you had a 15 minute technical conversation and the other engineer is like, yeah this person's worth bringing onboard. When I was interviewing for both junior and senior positions, my typical tack was to look through their resume and look for something interesting that I have some kind of background knowledge of. Or, alternatively, just ask them "what's the coolest p…

>"what's the coolest project you've worked on?" This is the first question I ask followed by, "What's the worst project you've worked on?" The answers are pretty insightful.

100% yes. The reaction to that question will tell you a ton about a candidate.

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

#180

Post by snotrockets »

Long ago, when searching for my first swe job, I was invited to this group interview things, when they put us all in a room and asked us to complete tasks like building a spaceship out of LEGOs.

After the first task, we were asked "what do you think about the task?". I raised my hand: "it's humiliating", and left the room.

I didn't had any other offer at that time, and got a call from them a day later, telling me they'd like to talk with me. Replied that I don't think it'd be a good match.

I later learned that role was for the infamous "binary options", a gray market betting website.

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