I Hate Dumb Pre Assessment Tests When Applying For Jobs
This is my rant about dumb pre screening tests which test everything other than the required job skills.
Who am I
I am Junior Software Developer with close to 4 years of work experience. This information is relevant because I am not an undergrad looking for entry level jobs.
Background
I am sure a number of you have come across really stupid assessment tests which are meant to “filter out” weak candidates.
One such assessment test comes in the form of Wonderlic and I have been noticing its rise in small to mid size companies since last year.
The trend of automated pre-assessment tests started sometime ago, after the increase in popularity of platforms like HackerRank.
It made sense to solve pre-determined coding problems in a programming language of your choice (or not) and within a given time limit.
The problems were meant to test a combination of your logic and speed, which is pretty helpful in filtering out the candidates who apply with an exaggerated resume.
I have personally failed tons of HackerRank tests because I was either too slow or I got too stuck up on one question and ignored the others. While I personally hate HackerRank tests,
I believe they do what they are suppose to do, test your skills and logic!
If I was hiring, I would use them too. After all an organization will be spending hard earned money on you, and they have every right to first test you thoroughly.
The Problem
Some HR geniuses have came up with an idea to automate all aspects of pre screening, and have started using very annoying set of pre employment assessments in the form of Wonderlic! (and others that I am not aware of. If you know any then post in comments below)
Example Of The Problem
I received two Wonderlics in the last two weeks and decided to solve one of them today. I was advised by the HR to set aside 2 hours.
There were 4 sections in the test and 3 out of 4 sections claimed to be 30 minutes each while 1 claimed to be only 12 minutes.
The first section just asked for my Name, Gender and Ethnicity and was completed in less than 1 min. Fair enough.
The second section contained a bunch of questions to test my logic.
Just when I thought I would be coding and testing my Computer Science skills , I was presented with idiotic Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) related to BASIC Math and English
There were 50 questions and I had to complete them in 12 minutes.
I could only complete 30 because I spent the first 5 minutes admiring the dim-wittedness of the test, and questioning my choice to interview with the company which presented this test to me.
Sample Math Question
Q. If 20 items cost you $600 and you sell them for $900, what is your profit on each item?
Sample English Question
Q. Select 3 choices which are similar to the word Compete
The Third section had 30 MCQs about my preferences. One of the question was if I like sunshine or not. No kidding. I completed the section within 2 minutes.
The Fourth section was the lengthiest where I had to answer 120 Behavioral questions! Each question had five choices from Agree to Disagree. It had questions like Do People find me Trustable?
I took about 10 minutes to complete it but I believe I cursed the most in this section because it was EXTREMELY annoying!
Open Ended Conclusion
I am going to end my rant here but please answer this question for me in the comments.
How is this “spectacular” test useful for a small size company which is trying to hire me as a Software Developer?
