Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 448 posts

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

#341

Post by justinclift »

starttoaster wrote: post #329
justinclift wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Good point about that phrase for doctors . :)

Hi Justin, the phrase "bedside manner" is very common, and was taken out of its original context for all kinds of uses because of medical drama TV shows. It basically means, "general human politeness for people you're caring for that are currently not in a confident position." This can apply to a medical professional that takes care of their patients, or a teacher watching over their students, or the person at Best B…

Thanks for taking time to explain things from your point of view.

I've seen the phrase used with medical professionals before.

Never with teachers or other situations though. The results and definition from the duckduckgo search (above) also only show it in use by medical professionals, not with others, and doesn't support your stated meaning.

Sounds like the phrase is used more widely in your part of the world. Good for you I guess. :)

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

#342

Post by dmix »

usrusr wrote: post #261
dmix wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the second was going to be a 5-hour remote codeshare/whiteboard interview with the team. I've never understood why large companies do such long gruelling interviews. I always assumed it's because big companies get lots of low quality applicants at high volume but thats just a huge investment for both sides. From my limited experience hiring you can spot the talented ones pretty quickly and the real test comes a…

Bad experience with too much undetected nepotism might be a reason they decided to start looking for slightly more objective procedures. When those then still get gamed, perhaps even harder, that turns into a slippery slope and in the end you get those systems where only those who memorize the entire secret dance routine ever get a position.

Or maybe it's like OP said, the HR guy read a book on hiring and now has a 2hr test because he thinks it will help. While the dev team is struggling to hire good people.

The thing I dislike, but not surprised about, is how so many dev teams will engage in this circus. The dev management guy is definitely okaying the 5th toy test thing. Which can probably be summarized by the stereotype of which devs seek management, if they are devs at all.

Anyway, I doubt FedEx is doing interesting programming work anyway. They'll get the quality and output they deserve.

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

#343

Post by recursive »

rvnx wrote: post #113
recursive wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do ask questions like this. You might be surprised to learn that there are a fair number of candidates who can answer stuff like this, but really struggle to write any code at all. I'm not totally sure how to account for it.

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

#344

Post by js2 »

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.

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?

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

#345

Post by klardotsh »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #50
foofie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I passed the first interview, but the second was going to be a 5-hour remote codeshare/whiteboard interview with the team. I declined the second interview. Last year I interviewed for MongoDB. They proudly boasted that their hiring process consisted of a 7 interview marathon. I asked if that wasn't too many interviews, and the interviewer boasted that they already managed to streamline their process down from 12 in…

Ha, I had a phone interview with MDB for a (contract!) technical writing gig, and they told me the next steps include (1) a one-hour critical thinking test, whatever that means, and (2) a one-hour writing interview. Not a take-home writing assignment, which would be pretty standard, but a live writing interview via Zoom screen share. Very unusual, but I don't have too many other things on the horizon right now, so I'…

I interviewed for a Sr Software Engineer gig there in 2022 and had a laughably negative live-leetcode experience where the interviewer was visibly zoned out almost the entire time and mostly just awkwardly stared at the camera while I found a solution - whether or not the most optimal, I guess - to whatever pointless never-going-to-actually-write-stuff-like-this-on-the-job thing they'd asked me.

I asked for feedback on the blurb or ways to improve it and got told, basically, "well you took so long" (~30 minutes?) "to implement this that we don't really have time for that", or something to that rough effect.

I got a relatively generic rejection email shortly thereafter, and frankly, only minded because I was unemployed at the time. I have no idea what whoever designed their hiring process thinks they're getting out of being overcomplex and generally cold, but I can't imagine it's anything good.

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

#346

Post by kuerbel »

zahllos wrote: post #244
UncleOxidant wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, while it might not work in all cases you'd probably save enough time/money to make up for those cases where it didn't work out. I've often seen jobs posted that stay open for 6 months or more because some hiring manager and their team can't make up their minds on who to hire. Meanwhile, the project they want to bring someone in to work on languishes, or people who are already stretched thin burn out and go el…

This is very common where I am (Switzerland) and I agree entirely with your conclusion. It's not uncommon to see posts open for over 6 months and it often seems like this is because no candidate is good enough. In the intervening time, a candidate not quite ticking all the boxes but with motivation and energy could have learned what they needed to and moved whatever the project is forward.

Do you think it might be because of the higher salaries? I live in Germany and they hire more easily, even though after usually 6 months it is harder for them to get rid of you than in Switzerland.

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

#347

Post by Brananarchy »

kube-system wrote: post #327
Brananarchy wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't address my assertion that "unprofessional" is used as a cudgel to abuse minorities.

Yes, but the topic above was social filtering -- things people say and do -- not identity or minority status. When I say 'professionalism' in the context of social filtering, I am talking about the things people say and do to each other in the workplace.

I started the topic, and you chose to respond to it. The topic and contest is "the concept of professionalism is used as a tool to oppress people" (although I phrased it gentler). I said nothing about social filtering.

You chose to respond with something that just didn't address the issues I raised.

For you now to claim that I'm going "off topic" when you just ignored the original prompt, is absurd.

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

#348

Post by kube-system »

Brananarchy wrote: post #347
kube-system wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the topic above was social filtering -- things people say and do -- not identity or minority status. When I say 'professionalism' in the context of social filtering, I am talking about the things people say and do to each other in the workplace.

I started the topic, and you chose to respond to it. The topic and contest is "the concept of professionalism is used as a tool to oppress people" (although I phrased it gentler). I said nothing about social filtering. You chose to respond with something that just didn't address the issues I raised. For you now to claim that I'm going "off topic" when you just ignored the original prompt, is absurd.

The first comment in this thread is about selecting images in FedEx's personality test, the second is surmising about what they are really testing for, the third is about whether dishonestly selecting those images constitutes lying, and the fourth is my question:

"Does social filtering constitute dishonesty or professionalism?"

Your highest comment is the fifth in depth, and everyone seemed to be confused about what you were getting at, because we were all talking about selecting images in a personality test during an interview, not talking about people's personal identity.

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

#349

Post by CableNinja »

ooterness wrote: post #120
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?

Because I too am a tortoise. - Vala, Stargate SG1

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

#350

Post by lmm »

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,…

Aside from the fact that you'll eliminate a lot of good people, how does that let you screen out people who can't do anything but are decent bullshitters? In a 10-15 minute chat you might catch them contradicting themselves or say something you're lucky enough to remember is wrong (if you're lucky enough to know one of the things they claim experience with in detail), but that's not going to be reliable (and if you eliminate people who get product trivia wrong, that will also have a pretty high false positive rate).
Post reply on HN