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IBM's Asshole Test

johnpublic.mataroa.blog

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Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#21

Post by antmldr »

belval wrote: post #6
bartchamdo wrote: post #2

All companies should have a test like this

In the age of "cracking the coding interview", glassdoor, levels.fyi, etc... it would only work a handful of times before everyone is in on the test and true assholes won't expose themselves.

Having been on the receiving end of this as a candidate (not at IBM), everyone was in on the test in the first 15 seconds, and it changed people's behavior instantly.

It's fairly obvious if you're on the receiving end what the purpose of the test is when you're being observed (as with most interview questions, it helps to ask yourself why the interviewer asking me / having me do this?)

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#22

Post by metadat »

neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

It's better than no filtration of assholes at all, which is the industry standard.

Do you know if a better plan which scales to companies with hundos of thousands of employees?

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#23

Post by mrmattyboy »

neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

I'm not sure it's quite the same as a psychological evaluation ;)

I mean, if you had to work in a team with someone.. this sounds like a good way to see how they'd fit in actually working in team under a pressured situation.

You're not labelling them as this or that, or necessarily checking for 'hidden indications' that they could have some condition you know nothing about, it's just finding people that fit into the culture that you're looking to fill.

I (probably awful) analogy could be, if I go to car boot (garage) sale and find things that are good value (and/or haggle).. I'm not telling the person how much the item's worth, but what price it's worth to me/what I can afford.. I'm not claiming to be a antique evaluator.

(Update: Well, I guess I don't _actually_ know they're doing/not doing, but it's my interpretation)

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#25

Post by Victerius »

neo_g wrote: post #13

This sounds so weird, people without any expertise in human psychology are in-charge of a behavior detection exercise. The worst part, those who got in were the new experts in 6-months.

Take this with a pinch of salt, but I read an anecdote on Reddit a long time ago about a corporation in New York (I think it was a bank) where an executive was looking for a new VP/Director/something. He found a potential candidate and invited him to a one-on-one lunch. When the candidate placed his order, the executive discreetly told the waiter to bring the wrong order for the candidate. The point was to see how the candidate would react to unexpected situations. Would the candidate assert himself and demand that his order be corrected? Or would he roll along and adapt to the new situation? Either choice could reveal potential qualities or defaults about the candidate.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#26

Post by philjohn »

WisNorCan wrote: post #17

I am fairly sure Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & Elon Musk would have failed this test. Are you better off having them at your company or not?

Depends what you're optimising for - reliable, collaborative workers, or a visionary CEO.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#27

Post by zenexer »

WisNorCan wrote: post #17

I am fairly sure Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos & Elon Musk would have failed this test. Are you better off having them at your company or not?

This appears to be for an engineering position. I doubt any of those people would do well in such a position--they're loners, not team players.

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#28

Post by chrisseaton »

Victerius wrote: post #11
tantalor wrote: post #7

> You see who turns into an asshole under pressure Does this work? How? Isn't that the interesting part here? The fact this test exists is uninteresting.

The post doesn't go into enough detail to be sure, but I think the "asshole" participants fighting for control of the whiteboard assumed that whoever would successfully lead the group to solve the puzzle would receive good marks and have the highest probability of receiving an offer. Furthermore, some companies, or departments/teams within companies, foster a corporate culture where "assholes" are more likely to be p…

I don't get it - in the recollection, the person leading at the front wasn't getting anywhere, so someone else stepped in to give it a go. Is that supposed to be an asshole thing to do?

Re: IBM's Asshole Test

#30

Post by jchw »

johnpublic wrote: post #20
mulmen wrote: post #10

https://web.archive.org/web/20220504204525/https://johnpubli...

Pity my blog died so quickly! Can anyone recommend a more robust host? Ideally one with low set up effort.

Fly.io can host instances of whatever (any kind of Docker container, so Ghost and Wordpress aren’t hard) and has a good free tier. You can also use Netlify or GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages for free static hosting, if you don’t need anything special. Wordpress.com is pretty low effort. I think all of these can do custom domains in their free tier.
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