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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

#411

Post by alephxyz »

cebert wrote: post #86
niceice wrote: 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",…

I thought this was ridiculous as an interview screening process. However, since you shared the test, I took it and I’m not sure it’s too unreasonable. I felt like it’s determination of me as a mentor was quite accurate.

Giving a personality test in a competitive context where it's expected that some traits are valued more than others makes the results void. It's a good example of goodhart's law. Why would you let a potential employer know you're neurotic or disagreeable?

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

#412

Post by tonyarkles »

thechao wrote: post #400
tonyarkles wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Ok, so the schema control tool we were using generated XML that SVN had a hard time merging correctly. We ended up with so many broken commits that we invented the Lock Rock. It was a rock that I picked up in the parking lot and you were only allowed to commit schema changes if you were in possession of the rock.”

I'm trying to install a webhook in TeamCity to send a notification to Slack whenever anyone across 16 time zones commits to specific paths in a Perforce depot. I'll happily trade for your rock.

My new product idea: ~LockRock~ Mutex As A Service! Only $3/month/user subscription!

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

#415

Post by navjack27 »

justinclift wrote: post #313
dylan604 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Again with the unwarranted personal attacks. :(

Here's a tip: if you encounter this behavior in real life or online again you could simply not respond. It cancels the whole negative chain of communication.

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

#416

Post by hnburnsy »

Here is the third party that implements the assessments...

https://www.traitify.com/animated-assessments

>The most science backed way to measure personality. The Big 5 assessment measures a person’s Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism in 60 questions. Normally taking nearly 10 minutes, our visual-based assessment takes less than 2 minutes.

>Improve and standardize interviews across your organization. Gain a deep understanding of your candidate’s personality and strengths before the scheduled interview. Leverage the candidate’s Big 5 score to shape questions specific to their results to make more informed hiring decisions.

>Meet candidates where they are — on their mobile devices. Decrease candidate drop-off and drive conversions with an intuitive, visual-based assessment. By selecting ‘me’ or ‘not me’, candidates quickly navigate through the assessment, and receive a copy of their results.

>Research backed, rigorously tested. Over a dozen studies were conducted with 5,000+ participants over 24 month. Convergent Validity and Test Retest Reliability studies conducted and showed significant improvement over Stock Photo assessment.

>The characters used throughout the assessment are constructed to be race, age, and gender neutral. More than 71% of test participants saw Ash, the main character throughout, as their own race.

>Customize assessment images with brand-specific color and texture changes as well as logo and product inclusion. Paradox will conduct a brief A/B test with candidates to ensure customizations have no impact on expected responses.

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

#417

Post by zie »

kemayo wrote: post #224
squeaky-clean wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed at Burger King in college, the manager told me I was the only applicant in their system to get above 80% on the personality test. It was incredibly easy things like, "How many minutes are acceptable to show up late for your shift? 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, being late is unacceptable". Or "If you knew there were no cameras able to see you, and no other employees around, how much money is okay to…

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.

Except some people would literally do that. Probably the ones where $.02 is noticeable amounts of money.

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

#418

Post by kemayo »

rendaw wrote: post #354
kemayo wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, from the perspective of the manager, you really don't want an employee who's going to run out of the store to return an amount of money that won't matter to the customer. One can understand a peculiar value system, and also think that the conclusions it reaches are bad for your situation. (See also: "it's okay to take money from the cash register if I need it".) I also think that going from that question to t…

I'm guessing the only choices were "run after them" and "steal it"

It's been quite a long time (like, 20 years), but I think the choices were something like "take it for yourself", "put it in the register", "leave it on the counter", and "chase the customer down".

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

#419

Post by doubled112 »

jldugger wrote: post #228
doubled112 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems insane to me. Making somebody else pregnant doesn't affect my health, so it doesn't make sense that way either. I would be tempted to look for a wedding ring, and answer with "your mother/wife one time, you should ask her about it" accordingly. I probably wouldn't take the job anyway.

> Making somebody else pregnant doesn't affect my health, so it doesn't make sense that way either But it might affect health insurance claims, and I'm guessing cheaper underwriting is the reason HR went along with it.

Is it phrased that way because they can't ask if I have children? I don't completely understand what they intend to find out asking it that way.

Impregnating somebody doesn't mean I have a kid, or even that somebody else. Even being pregnant doesn't result in children 100% of the time.

Perhaps a history of fertility problems would jack up your insurance plan.

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

#420

Post by siddle »

strken wrote: post #307
Brananarchy wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a coworker can't handle a woman wearing pants instead of a skirt, can't handle a black person wearing their hair in a way that's comfortable, or can't handle a queer coworker dressing in queer ways... They're the problem. Not the person who's "unconventional". All of those things have been called "unprofessional" as a way to oppress minorities.

Covertly flirting with your female colleague in ambiguous ways after she asked you not to and then pretending you didn't do anything, asking your black colleague if he "knows any rappers", and wearing a dress to a company dress-up party when you are in no way trans then claiming to be "trans until tomorrow" and laughing loudly are also all unprofessional.

That last one may well be professional enough to win you business awards, if you do it boldly enough - as in the case of Credit Suisse director Pips Bunce:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/outrage-male-bank-dire...

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