After I got out of college, I couldnt find a job in my field. Desperate for cash, I reapplied to the store I worked at when I was in High School. They had gone from paper applications to electronic but I believe their old paper application had just been transfered(in other words, it was the same thing). It included a 100 question personality test. Being older and more straightforward then I was 6 years earlier when I had first applied for the job, I figured I had a better hold on what to do in some certain situations.
After taking it, I went and talked to the floor manager who I had worked with previously and she told me, in private, that I had failed the test and they could hire me(even though I had worked for them before and they were fine with my personality) but I should go retake it. She also told me the test wasn't there to test what I would do, but rather if I knew what the right thing to do was. It seemed they used it more as a liability thing so if their employee did somethign wrong they could prove that, on a signed document, the employee had said they would not react in the way they did. Taking it again, I was able to pass, but I thought it was kind of rediculous. The best scores came from being passive, reporting every infraction witnessed no matter how minor, and being a good semariton(sp?). They ended up refusing to hire me based upon the fact that if I found a job in my field, I would leave at a moments notice but I was hurt because they needed no training time to get me started so I would basically be instantly efficient so no money lost for training. Anyway, thats not my point, my point is the fact that I was told that they(specifically) used the test not to see what you would do, but rather to find out if you knew what you were supposed to do.
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After I got out of college, I couldnt find a job in my field. Desperate for cash, I reapplied to the store I worked at when I was in High School. They had gone from paper applications to electronic but I believe their old paper application had just been transfered(in other words, it was the same thing). It included a 100 question personality test. Being older and more straightforward then I was 6 years earlier when I had first applied for the job, I figured I had a better hold on what to do in some certain situations. After taking it, I went and talked to the floor manager who I had worked with previously and she told me, in private, that I had failed the test and they could hire me(even though I had worked for them before and they were fine with my personality) but I should go retake it. She also told me the test wasn't there to test what I would do, but rather if I knew what the right thing to do was. It seemed they used it more as a liability thing so if their employee did somethign wrong they could prove that, on a signed document, the employee had said they would not react in the way they did. Taking it again, I was able to pass, but I thought it was kind of rediculous. The best scores came from being passive, reporting every infraction witnessed no matter how minor, and being a good semariton(sp?). They ended up refusing to hire me based upon the fact that if I found a job in my field, I would leave at a moments notice but I was hurt because they needed no training time to get me started so I would basically be instantly efficient so no money lost for training. Anyway, thats not my point, my point is the fact that I was told that they(specifically) used the test not to see what you would do, but rather to find out if you knew what you were supposed to do.