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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

#381
post #36

You can take it here: https://fedexdataworksprod.traitify.com/assessment/31449c4a-... Each one has a title like "Starter Not a Finisher", "Frequently Change My Mind", "Always Wonder Why", "Easily Offended", "Art Isn't My Thing", "Unstoppable", "Make Friends Everywhere", "Good Enough", "Not My Job", "Tend to Feel Sad", "Volunteering", "Believe the Best of People", "Hard to Start a New Task", "Loves the Social Scene",…

Don't all of these have obvious right answers? What's the point of these if 99% of the people would choose the same?

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

#382
SAP had a weird personality tests which they made everyone take a day or two after applying. got one when applying for an internship of all the roles there. the system was very quick to send an automated reply rejecting my application (an evening during the weekend in local time).

meanwhile IBM asked for a coding test for a data scientist role, while they got dedicated IT/data engineering roles in the same team.

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

#383
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took one once (at iZod, I think), which included some tripwire questions. The manager said afterwards that e.g. if you saw "a customer left $0.02 in change on the counter when they left the store, what do you do?" and you picked "I chase them down the block to give it back", that's a sign that you're bullshitting the questions too hard.

Or, someone might also have a sense of karmic justice, whereby $0.02 is the same as $200 in the ethical context of returning a lost object to its owner. The manager sounds like they'd be happy to steal your wages, as long as it was "only a small amount". You dodged a bullet there.

If that's your take you are not smart enough for the job. The workplace dodged a bullet.

No one cares about a persons 'sense of karmic justice' or things people make up in their heads to be clever, they are answering questions on a test.

If their IQ can't adapt to a simple question, how could they flip a burger? Their 'sense of karmic justice' or being clever might get in the way, and since they have no idea of reality they won't know what the job requires.

The pride people take in getting IQ tests wrong is quite perplexing.

Off Topic since answering basic questions is too hard for HN, but the "tripwire questions" are also/only? to open the employee to the idea of taking money, the next question might be taking $1 from the till.

Have you "thought about suicide" is to desensitize you to the real questions. If you think it's a dumb question then they have fooled you.

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

#384
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…

You're conflating honesty with humility.

Would you say the absence of humility always equates with dishonesty

If I can't see my mistakes and failures, I would say I have zero ability to be honest; maybe I'm not 'lying' as such; I'm so far gone I don't even know I'm lying

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

#385
post #36

You can take it here: https://fedexdataworksprod.traitify.com/assessment/31449c4a-... Each one has a title like "Starter Not a Finisher", "Frequently Change My Mind", "Always Wonder Why", "Easily Offended", "Art Isn't My Thing", "Unstoppable", "Make Friends Everywhere", "Good Enough", "Not My Job", "Tend to Feel Sad", "Volunteering", "Believe the Best of People", "Hard to Start a New Task", "Loves the Social Scene",…

Needs a login at the moment though?

Too many HN requests.. :-)

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

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personality tests can disclose a lot of personal information In my experience the only thing personality tests disclose is how good the testee is at guessing which answers will be viewed most favorably

I assumed that's the point - can you see things like a "normal" person does?

So the goal is to avoid anyone on spectrum?

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

#387
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Personality tests are screening principally if you are Conscientious and Agreeable. The hack is: Suggest you answer every question to imply you are orderly, hardworking, calm, stable and cooperative with others.

Weren't disagreeable people more successful though?

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

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not clever honest people are taken advantage of Not clever dishonest people can do ok sometimes Clever honest people can be moderately successful, but can always be out-maneuvered by the clever dishonest people, thereby limiting how high they can climb, Clever dishonest people rule the world.

So true. How does one become dishonest?

I like how that is already impossible, and that in only two sentences

> So true.... Become dishonest

Win the second, will loose the first

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

#389

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.

I had a high school literature teacher that asked me what I thought about the assigned reading, and then told I was wrong. After arguing that the question was not "what did it mean" vs what I thought. I think think whatever the hell I want to think. This was pretty much the death knell of my desire to participate in literature, and freed me up to spend my time in math/sciences. yes, it was just an excuse for somethin…

I always had this issue with assigned reading. I got much worse results when I actually read the book compared to reading just summaries and conclusions on the Internet. If I read myself I came to wrong or irrelevant conclusions and ideas.

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

#390
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the tens of thousands of dollars saved if you had a 15 minute (okay 15 is a bit short unless someone vouches for you or you're a well known open source contributor etc, maybe 1 hour or 1.5 hour, hell even 2 hour) technical conversation and the other engineer is like, yeah this person's worth bringing onboard. Might not work in all cases, but really, if you're trying to sniff out a pretender vs someone who can…

> I had a interview in 2021 where I had to do a 1.5 hour timed exercise, that apparently isn't sufficient, so their interview pipeline has 3x1hour additional live coding sessions with engineers. Over 4 hours of coding just to prove I can write code up to their standards. Then another 3+ hours of behavioral interviews, meeting the team. Multiply that by the ~5 candidates you interview per position multiplied by each p…

Hmm. 4x1 hour live coding sounds silly. I'd rather have one 4 hour session where I can think before I write the code.
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