The first was at a video rental store where my ex-wife was the store manager. There was a computer in a corner of the store that people used to fill out job applications, including having one of those personality tests.
She was short handed, and getting frustrated because everyone who came up green (hireable) on the test were people she didn’t actually feel comfortable hiring. One Saturday, just to see if I could qualify, I applied and took the test. I came up red (not hireable).
We found this simultaneously amusing and alarming. I have a good work ethic, am honest, would never steal, and have a good relationship with clients. At that time, I had been with the same company for about 15 years and was promoted many times. I started out as a delivery driver and ended up as a division manager. I was entrusted daily with millions of dollars worth of material. Basically, I was qualified to be a division manager for a world-wide company, but wasn’t qualified to work at Hollywood Video. I wonder how many good employees they have passed up.
Second experience with these tests was in my job. The company wanted me to start hiring based upon a computerized test. I refused (Partly because of my experience at my ex-wife’s video store). I said something along the lines of “Employee theft is almost non-existent, turnover is at an all time low, and performance ratings in my division are through the roof. If I start having employee problems, then you can come in and tell me how to hire.”
The pre-employment personality tests were implemented company wide, outside of my division. After about three years, high turnover, employee theft, and low production plagued the entire company except, you guessed it, my division. The entire program was shit-canned.
My conclusion: Computerized pre-employment personality tests are fucking useless!
I didn’t get a job at Taco Bell when I was a teenager because of these tests. I got an interview, but the manager didn’t think I was enough of a team player based on my answers to the test.
But I think that is the biggest rub against these tests. I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking a pencil from work. You don’t think so, my boss doesn’t think so, and almost everyone here doesn’t see anything wrong with modest personal use of business office supplies.
The poor schmuck who is honest and straightforward gets blackballed, but the guy who tells the obvious and expected lie moves forward in the process.
Same, about…well, longer than 15 years, but not much longer.
Thing is, we took it AFTER we’d already been working there; I think it was a new tactic, and they decided to make it retroactive on the current employees.
Everybody flunked. It was just so stupid, nobody cared.
My wife is looking for a new job and she filled out an online application this morning that had one of these questionnaires.
Anyway I did a little reading online about these tests and came upon a Reddit thread about them. I just had to post this comment here, which summed up perfectly how I feel one should approach these things.
The tests came about because being “qualified” for a retail job is really not as simple as having a basic grasp of math and customer service skills. Lots of people who are qualified for big jobs are poorly qualified for retail jobs. They don’t submit well to authority, they tend to think in terms of the bigger picture. The ideal retail worker is someone who concerns themselves with the minutiae of doing their job perfectly or near-perfectly, will not question authority, and will be satisfied as long as the small picture they’re assigned to is in good shape.
I personally make a terrible retail worker, as I learned in my stints at Blockbuster and Joann Fabrics a few years back. I was smarter than almost all of my managers, I cut corners for efficiency when it made logical sense to, I wouldn’t try to upsell to someone who I knew wouldn’t be receptive, and hated being subjected to suspicious shit like having my purse/pockets checked at the end of a shift. I firmly believe that a sick employee should stay home when they’re sick, and that minimum wage equates to minimum work. None of these behaviors or thoughts are present in a desirable retail employee. Thankfully I was able to get any job during that time period (by cheating on the stupid Unicru test), but there’s no way I am capable of submerging myself to the point of worker-sheep for any company.
I have serious doubts about the value of these tests. I think they are overused, cliched and FUBAR. I would be ok with a maths test or a spelling test.
I failed Walmarts test three times and haven’t been back since. Why waste the gas or bus fare?
I have no idea if i have passed any others. I feel sure that I passed some, but how many is impossible to know. I would like to know if i passed, if only for a smidgen of proof that I haven’t completely wasted my relatively valueless time.
Most Dopers can’t stand being given upselling spiels, but i doubt i’ll live long enough to see the end of that.
so far so good. finishing up my second week as a cashier! the test they had was a bit different and more store oriented, this thread did help me know to only answer stongly agree/disagree. it worked!
i also am tugging on a line for a job that doesn’t have a personality test.
It was just so stupid, nobody cared.