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Post by hydrophilic on Apr 18, 2015 10:16:57 GMT
Recently I applied for a job at AT&T, and then they had me complete an online survey... one of those psychological profiles. After completing the survey I was told I failed.
Now this survey consisted of many debatable questions... a few of them were...
Do you think an employee who stole less than $1 should be given a second chance? (I said yes) Do you think an employee who stole less than $5 should be given a second chance? (I said yes) Do you think an employee who stole less than $25 should be given a second chance? (I said no)
In other words, if by casual circumstance, an employee "got away" with $5 of money/product, I (as a supervisor) would be considerate.... but if you REALLY look at those questions, I probably should have answered YES to the $25 question? Technically, $1 and $5 are both less than $25! Can you say LOADED QUESTION? Good, I knew you could!
Another iffy question was,
If a family member was stealing from the company, would you report them? (I said no)
They way I see it, I am not applying for FRAUD PREVENTION... and anybody who would says they would rat out a family member is a liar or has no loyalty!
Ask everybody who knows me, I am very honest (many would say I am *too* honest), yet I failed their psych profile? It seems to me they are looking for people willing to lie about their beliefs? What is the world coming to?
I'm really sad and depressed now... think I will keep drinking...
[Edit] Oh yeah, another question I may have failed was this:
Have you ever THOUGHT about taking money/products from your employer? (I said yes)
Sure I think about running away with $2000 cash, but I would never actually do it... why would I want to live my life "on the run" for a mere 2K ? No I wouldn't do it... but I did think about it... so I answered honestly and said yes.
In retrospect, it seems I should be liar and claim "NO"... It seems you have to be a liar to pass these psych tests... But I'm not a liar... I'm haplessly honest... Is there no place in the modern world for somebody like me? Sorry, I'm really sad right now... please forgive me.
[/Edit]
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Post by C128Man on Apr 18, 2015 12:00:13 GMT
Hi hydrophilic,
The modern world are like this now. This is just a way for selecting peoples!
You are sad, I understand very well, but, if the question for the selection are just this type, may be the ambiance is just the same. Would you be happy to work every day in such job?
Courage!
Ben
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Post by VDC 8x2 on Apr 18, 2015 17:46:15 GMT
I have been there. I hate those tests. I think they are pure BS.
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Post by hydrophilic on Apr 19, 2015 6:17:42 GMT
Hi bendevil, thanks for your feedback... yeah, I probably don't want to work at company that expects me to value my job over family! Maybe I should get a job in the mafia? Well, the way mobsters talk, they are habitual liars (so not for me) and more important you need to be born into that life... of well.
Thanks VDC, I tend to agree, but I think they are a lot of BS (not pure BS). I think the problem is many of the question (not only in this test, but other psych tests) use the "reflection" trick to try to get honest answers. For example, many (most?) of the questions were not "what do you think/feel", but instead were indirect: "what do you think the average person/company would say/do in this situation..."
This psychological trick relies on the fact that many (most?) people feel that other people are similar to them. And so your opinion on other people is assumed to be your own opinion ('reflection')... and because you are talking about other people instead of yourself, it is assumed you will answer more honest.
The problem is I do not feel like other people are similar to me... ask people who know me and they will say I'm "different"... not necessarily mean, or dishonest, or stupid, or careless... just different. So if I answer honestly about what I think other people think, it has little or no significance. In other words, half their test was irrelevant.
I guess it is my fault when I read the instructions which said "Please answer each question HONESTLY" and assumed they were serious! In retrospect, I should have interpreted it to mean "Lie you ass off if you want this job."
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Post by pinacolada on Apr 20, 2015 23:43:52 GMT
UGH. Yes, I feel your pain, Hydro! In a recent job application, I too ran across those blasted psychological questions. IMHO they're only logical to a psycho!
Some questions I copied down:
Let's guess the word I'm thinking of, given only the first letter:
Grassland with scattered trees D R S T
RATION is most similar in meaning to Irregular Regulate Munition Percentage
I proudly display my awards and trophies. SD (strongly disagree) D (disagree) N (neutral) A (agree) SA (strongly agree)
Non-traditional approaches to problems tend to be successful. SD D N A SA
Which of the following words is different from the others? Traduce Defame Libel Praise
There were about 200 questions. And this was for a minimum wage job!
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Post by hydrophilic on Apr 21, 2015 6:05:12 GMT
Yeah, I think employers are eliminating good candidates based on these stupid tests... and then HR complains "why can't we find good employees?" ... duh...
The test I took *seemed* to have about 100 questions... not sure, maybe only 50... all I know is I spent an hour taking the test and they sent me a 5-second message "you failed". No explanation. So now I have to use my imagination! Why did I fail? Maybe I did not burn down enough AT&T stores? Maybe I did not cut enough AT&T fiber-optic cables? Maybe I did not topple enough AT&T cell towers? Maybe I did not remove enough AT&T lug nuts from their vehicles? All I can do is imagine... and I have a vivid imagination.
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Post by VDC 8x2 on Apr 21, 2015 15:54:20 GMT
Amen brother!
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Post by KHKairi on Apr 5, 2016 3:48:31 GMT
Hydro honestly your forum made me rethink why the fuck do they ask us these stupid psych questions then expect us to lie so we can get the job, honestly you have amazing humor though.. you were cracking me up
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Post by gsteemso on Apr 8, 2016 6:34:04 GMT
Do you think an employee who stole less than $1 should be given a second chance? (I said yes)
Do you think an employee who stole less than $5 should be given a second chance? (I said yes) Do you think an employee who stole less than $25 should be given a second chance? (I said no)
In other words, if by casual circumstance, an employee "got away" with $5 of money/product, I (as a supervisor) would be considerate.... but if you REALLY look at those questions, I probably should have answered YES to the $25 question? Technically, $1 and $5 are both less than $25! Can you say LOADED QUESTION? Good, I knew you could!
Uh, what? How the heck do you reach a conclusion like that? What those three questions are testing for is the exact opposite of what you concluded with that whole "loaded question" thing. From the company's point of view, this is not rocket science—it's impossible to catch every incident of bad behaviour on the part of a dishonest employee, so if he's found stealing once, there were almost certainly numerous other occasions where he got away with it. The amount that was stolen is irrelevant. There's stuff that is yours and there's stuff that is not, and an employee unable or unwilling to tell them apart is eventually going to rob you blind. A prospective hire who explicitly admits he doesn't consider that a problem worth reporting is essentially admitting he doesn't give a shit about the company he's asking for a job. Would you hire someone with a mindset like that? I can guarantee that you failed this test with that "yes" answer to the first of those three questions, not the "no" to the third. The "no" was the only one of them you got right. That said, I agree with you about the ineptly applied reverse psychology. A correctly designed test would not make the ridiculously amateur mistake of assuming that everyone thinks in a similar way, or suffers from the same mental blind spots. Most of the rest of those, had they been phrased correctly, would not have excluded you from consideration for employment. Look on the bright side… would you really want to suffer working for a bunch of bozos who happily rely upon a barely literate human resources department? I shudder to imagine the dog's breakfast they would make of anything the least bit unusual concerning your pay or benefits (vacation and sick days are a perennial source of such hiccups). The entrance screening to be hired by the day labour agency I used to get jobs through was in this same vein, but much more direct. It asked questions like "When is it OK to smoke pot on a workday?" with four multiple choice answers. In addition to the incredibly obvious answer they were looking for ("never"), the other three were self-evidently silly options such as "only during breaks" and "whenever you feel like it." Astoundingly, people actually managed to fail this question, and others that were just as obvious!
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Post by hydrophilic on Apr 9, 2016 6:42:02 GMT
Thanks, gsteemso , for your thoughtful reply! I reached my conclusion based on honesty. Yes, I realize/agree that the company would like to see an answer like "never took more than $1"... but when I *honestly* / *scientifically* think about it, the "desired" answer seems very unlikely to me. Even if I am not trying to steal (and I am truly not), there are many times when I ended up with some piece(s) of equipment in my possession (a pen, a coil of cable, a DSL-filter, etc...) worth $5 or more (accumulatively), by the end of a year... I'm guessing I should revise my answer by pure bull-spit... instead of giving an accurate/honest answer, I should make-up an answer that "sounds good". BUT... many of these PSYCHO-TESTS are designed to filter-out answers that are "too-good-to-be-true". A classic example is a question like "I have never lied...". If you answer TRUE, then you will flagged as a liar, because most people/companies assume that EVERYBODY has lied at least once... So I don't even attempt to second-guess (hyper-logic) their questions... I just answer honestly. If they don't like it, FORK THEM! I really don't want to work for a company that is so FUBAR... But on the other hand, it really bothers me that good candidates are being rejected based on an applicant's (in)ability to lie! (Hire the good liars, reject the blatantly honest) ... I only wish the questionnaire from AT&T asked if "it is okay to smoke pot on a workday"! I can honestly answer NO... unless you mean at the END of a workday (when you are not scheduled to work the next day!) But yeah, my particular questionnaire was a LOT more ambiguous! There's something wrong with the world today, and I don't know what it is... (I do know what is wrong, but don't know how to fix it!)
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