I think every job hunter has run across these stupid little exams. Let me paint the picture. You wake up bright and early in the morning. You have a pep in your step that today is going to be the day. You prepare your coffee, fix your hair, and act like you’re actually going somewhere except for the fact that you are spending the day at home… job searching. But you want to feel like you’re doing something.
You hit your job sites (Monster, Careerbuilder, Craigslist… ya know, reliable sources) and you start reading the latest posts. You finally find something that looks like you can do (that’s not an appointment setter or selling door to door) … and do fairly well…and lo and behold they are paying decent with full time hours! So you click the link, submit the resume and then….
the infamous pop up screen shows…
THE JOB ASSESSMENT TEST… powered by Taleo
That’s right… you thought you were done just submitting your resume and nice cover letter? Nope… if you want to proceed you have to pass their little personality test. It’ll ask you little things like
- Do you lose your temper
- Do you like to lead vs follow
- Were you absent any time in school?
- Can people tell if you’re emotional?
- Can you sit still for long hours?
- Do you want one thing to do or many things to do?
- Do people listen to you when you talk yada ..yada.. yada…
So you think, “Eh, I can pass this easy.” But it’s not easy… it’s long, AS HELL.. and after a while you feel like you’re being interrogated about every little detail of your childhood upbringing and all you’re applying for is a retail job at the mall. After a while the thought of, “Why do they need all this info for this job” start coming up. They ask you trick questions of true and false and MOST LIKELY vs NOT LIKELY questions that border between personal ethics or just random shit that you feel like you should answer because it’s what they want to hear–or is it?
Should I tell a company that I need a break or that I enjoy working long hours non-stop…I mean isn’t it the LAW that employees get two breaks and a lunch during an eight hour work day? Would I be forfeiting my rights in some type of cyber-contract if I said I didn’t want that? Confusion just fills my mind.
Whatever the right answers are, I’m definitely not giving them. Usually after spending over two hours to fill out the job application and assessment test… 30 minutes later I receive the email that I’m not qualified for the position.
REALLY? I graduated college and I can’t get a retail job at the mall?
What happened to proving yourself and talking to real humans to get a job, now I’m assessed by an automatic system that has decided that my personality type is not “marketable” or conducive to the workplace (whatever that may be) . I took one personality test that told me that I was very much the right brain thinker. I do realize that the majority of people are left brain and I wonder if the simple way I’m chemically wired is what is being assessed.
Well EMPLOYERS here’s my assessment of MYSELF!
YES I need a break, I’m human (even computer need to reboot) . Yes I get upset but I deal with it on my own (mostly by blogging ). Yes I’m a leader but I can follow. Yes I wan’t a good paying job. Yes I want a career! Yes, if people take the time to know me they can tell that I can do whatever I set my mind to.
But when I keep getting rejected by a computer that’s programmed to pick people by “types” this is what irks me.
Everybody is different and job diversity is not just picking people who are diverse ethnically but also in personality. Every one makes decisions differently.
But if this is the only factor keeping me out of jobs then I will just stop wasting my time on taleo moderated jobs. There’s a company that I know will embrace me as much as I will embrace it and that company will involve a human element. In our need to be more efficient in society, I believe we have lost what it means to be human and to relate to each other. If a company can’t relate to aspiring employees on a human level, then I doubt it can relate to it’s employees and that trickles down to how employees relate to customers and clients.
Okay I’m done venting. Tell me what you think and what’s your experience in the job market.