Pre-Employment Psych Tests

Originally Posted by johnapril

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My 3-year-old underwent a psych eval as a part of the application process for his school. As you might guess, it is difficult to assess a child that young. Worse, the person evaluating our son was not very qualified to do so. She is a psychologist and fancies herself as bilingual, but when asked to give an example of how she spoke to our son, she used incorrect French, which he would not have understood. Likewise, if you have an untrained person administering a psych evaluation, reliability of that assessment goes out the window.

But that isn't your beef, is it? I'd be hesitant to undergo such an evaluation as well.

What are people in Indianapolis doing speaking French?

Originally Posted by Huntsman

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I am going for a second interview for an entry-level job with a firm that offers me some unique advantages. Today, a colleague told me that they will give an aptitude test and a 300- question psych test. I am actually insulted at the idea, and feel that it is unprofessional in the extreme -- not only of being tested as if I was in the third form, but of having to answer questions that may be personal in nature.

Huntsman, I have very little experience with this, but I do have a current student who had to go through the same thing for a job he was just offered at a big banking-type firm. So I think it is more and more common. I am sure if the Today Show or another American news/entertainment show has an archive on-line you will find many many stories about it.

I have no idea why they do it other than to see what makes you crack--if you will be in a high-stress job or if you are out going enough for sales as someone else said. But I do find it terribly insulting.

Tokyo, if someone asked me those questions I would walk out of the interview. What rubbish. "I like green because it makes me feel fuzzy--does that answer your dumb-ass question?"

bob

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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Sure, what one posts on the internet is public but googling someone up and then asking about them about it for a job interview seems excessively nosy.

Get used to it. If it isn't standard practice now, it will be very soon. I've been the googler on several occassions in a non-employment context, and it never ceases to amaze me what people will post on the internet under their own name.

sorry, Hunt, these tests are getting more and more common. I have done a number of them in the past 6 months. When I was younger, I did a great deal of them. They are really big in Israel, the last company that I worked for in Israel sent everybody, from janitors to VP's, to a two day evaluation with physchologist, phychiastrist, and team social interaction.

one company I interviewed with recently did a IQ test as well as psych.

the idea is, unfortunatly, sound. the only trouble is that often the company inncorrectly identifies the profile of the person that they want.

good luck

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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the only trouble is that often the company inncorrectly identifies the profile of the person that they want.
F***ers

How goes the hunt?

I wouldn't worry too much about it until you see it. 'Psych' test can mean a lot of things -- often, they're just trying to get a very general sense of your cognitive skills and interpersonal, management and problem-solving style.

Years ago, I worked for a company that issued pre-employment tests that included such questions as "if you were in a position to embezzle money from your employer and could be absolutely sure no one would find out about it, would you?" You would not BELIEVE the number of people who would admit to such a thing. I didn't know whether to be more depressed about how dishonest people were, or amazed at how stupid they were.

Originally Posted by j

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Is this testing whether I'm a replicant, or a lesbian, Mr Deckard?

So, do you dream of electric sheep?

Originally Posted by Kai

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So, do you dream of electric sheep?

Actually, the Google thing doesn't really bother me, though general information availability does -- did you know you can often go to a county website and get the plans for someone's house? Nice for a robber, eh? I tend to be somewhat jealous of my privacy so I never, ever use my name openly on the Web. Googling me gets a bunch of hits on things that are on my resume, so that's grand.

rd, globe, quirk, thanks for the comments. The more common it is, the less annoyed I am, though I probably should consider that a defect of character. Madison held liberty of conscience to be the most dear of all. Well, I'll wait and see it. If it exceeds my tolerance, I have a Sharpe in my brief for the eradication of responses.

j, does your gecko do speed?

Regards,
Huntsman

Originally Posted by tiger02

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F***ers

How goes the hunt?

its killing me, thank you for asking

I once worked for a guy who, in retrospect, was a sociopath. He got an offer to purchase his company from a pretty big outfit, for some serious money, but the guy thought so highly of himself that he countered back to the suitor that he'd sell for less, if they hired him to run the company for five years and put some big performance-based incentives into his contract. They said, sure, just come down to Minneapolis to meet with out board.

So he flies to the meeting, and they meet and make nice for the morning, and then they say, "all of our managers have to take this series of tests". So this guy, figuring he's the smartest dude in the world, goes in for a battery of tests for the rest of the afternoon. He is smart, but he is deeply, deeply flawed.

He takes the tests and goes back to the board meeting. The board says, "hey, remember that offer we made you? Well, forget it." The guy's psych test results totally freaked out the baord, and they not only didn't hire him, they passed on buying the company at all.

My company requires applicants for manager-type positions to take an aptitude test that takes about 2 hours online. It measures some psych issues, i.e. ability to work with others, sociability, managability along with stuff like verbal and mathematical abilities.

It's interesting to look at the results when you're interviewing someone.

I had a job several years ago that required this. There was a type of "IQ" test, which they use as the first weed-out tool. It was an implementation consulting firm. They didn't seem as interested in my knowledge of the subject matter (HCM software) as in my ability to quickly learn it - hence the IQ test. Legitimate, I suppose. Fortunately my ability to take such tests greatly belies reality!!

So it was onto the next test, a "psych" eval. The purpose of this was not to determine whether I was a "psycho", per se. It was instead to determine whether or not I fit the profile of whatever template they had established to be the "ideal consultant". As someone else pointed out, the results are rarely viewed by the company or its employees. Rather, they farm that out to an "industrial psychologist" whose job is to review and analyze the data, then interview you to fill in the gaps of what he already suspects.

In my case, he said, "I am going to go ahead and give you a recommendation. But I do so with reservations. I honestly don't think you'll still be a consultant in 5 years. You just aren't cut out for it, according to what I see/hear. I think you would do great owning your own business or possibly in sales... just not consulting." Of course I argued. I got the job.

Long story short (if that's still possible): I knew he had hit the nail on the head, even when he said it, since I've always been entrepreneurial by nature. I just didn't want to pass up the major coin I would make over the next few years. But he was right. I was miserable for the next 7 years, actually. I now own my own business.

similar story to Jill - about 15 years ago, I took a battery of tests like this. The woman who did a summary of the tests told me that, even though she was going to recomend me as a good fit for the position, she thought that I should know that my tests indicated that I put to much effort into my work and I should try to balance out my personal life. she mentioned some details that pretty much blew my away that they came up from the tests. She was right, and it gave me a push to work more on my personal life.

after hearing you dudes' stories, i kinda want someone to psychoanalyze me

any takers?