I don’t know if any of you have ever been out of work for any length of time, but let me tell you, that it sucks. You have many types of people out there, and you get to meet all of them when you’re looking for work. Some of the questions I get on interviews are just downright moronic. I mean, there are the general HR violations like “How old are you?” “Are you married?” “Do you have children?” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” Yes…I had that one. My answer: “Ah…a fellow Jew…of course I believe in him!” But these really don’t bother me as much as the general employment questions.
The other day I had an interview with a guy which basically ended up being an oral SAT exam. It had nothing to do with the job. He just wanted to know if I could regurgitate meaningless information. He would also ask me rediculous questions to see if I would try to answer them. He asked me “Have you ever developed a PMI?” What he wanted to know is if I knew what PMI stood for. It stands for Project Management Institute. You don’t develop it, you belong to it. The problem with this questioning style is it only proves that when you work for this person the only thing you can expect is obfuscation. You will never get a direct answer from them. Still…I need a job. I will just keep it to myself that I think this guy is an idiot. I can deal with any moron if the pay’s right.
When I moved back to Colorado after leaving ISU, I was amazed at the idiots I met in HR, and during interviews. I had a phone interview once with a woman at a company where she prefaced every question with “I’m being intentionally vague here.” And then she would get frustrated when I couldn’t provide a direct answer. At the end of the interview she asked me what I wanted in a manager. I said, “Someone who’s direct.” Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.
I had an interview six months ago with United Health Care. This was classic. They had been trying to fill this job for six months prior to meeting me. I had never had this happen before. My first and only interview was in a room with 17 people, and another three people on a speaker phone. I will openly admit that I love an audience. However, at that time, I was one of five people they were going to be interviewing for a management job. The only thing that kept popping into my head was the amount of time being wasted interviewing just me…and they had four more to interview. My first order of business would have been to end that type of interview process. Oh…and just in case you think this process might work, they’re still interviewing for the same position after…ONE YEAR! Something tells me they need a different system.
I have always thought HR should move back to a benefits role, and leave the job interviewing to the person that needs to fill the spot. When you ask someone that doesn’t work in the field to find a right fit for you, it never works. You can ask for a list of wants from someone, but if you don’t work in the field, you can’t understand that some skills are transferable. You drive a Ford? Sorry…we can’t hire you. We only have Chevys.
This doesn’t even get into the questions that some say interviewers should ask. These are the questions like “Tell me what is your greatest weakness?’ “Have you ever had to deal with a difficult situation?” Why do I have a problem with these questions? Because your answer has little to do with the information you provide. They just want to see how you handle the question. Your response is of little weight. It’s an oral personality test which tells someone nothing.
I also hate the personality tests. I have taken so many that I can now, with pretty good accuracy, provide the outcome I want from the test. Case and point…I can take a personality test which will indicate that I would make a great cold call salesman. I can tell you that I SUCK as a cold call salesman. An accurate review of any personality profile I’ve taken shows me to be quite introverted. However, I know how to answer the questions to get the outcome I want.
A close friend of mine holds multiple degrees in Psychology, Sociology and Statistics, and had developed personality tests for over a decade, providing research for the University of Colorado, IBM, Verizon. and many other private organizations. She is UBER SMART! She will tell you that these tests really don’t provide much insight by themselves. There are too many external factors which impact the test taker to provide adequate responses. Also, as she says, “an HR generalist is in no way, what so ever, even remotely, qualified to interperet results from such a test.” She had a lot more to say about that, but you get the point.
I, myself, have interviewed people for years in my career. I have found out one thing. If you want to really see if you can work with someone, then take them to lunch. Have a meal with them. Move away from the work place. Make it casual. Finding a co-worker is like finding a date. If they’re mean to the waiter, and nice to you, they’re not a nice person. This will tell you more than anything. If you like the person, you can work with them. Everything else can be taught. You can’t teach tact. You can’t teach civility. You can’t teach kindness this late in life. If they’re an asshole, then you can’t work with them. It’s that simple. I mean there are exceptions. Many idiots are nice people, but you can weed that out in a resume, and with a reference check. Or as I like to do, through untraditional channels like former co-workers, managers, etc. It’s a small world folks…someone knows someone, who knows you.
I will admit, I can be hard headed, stuborn, and sometimes abrupt. However, anyone who has ever worked with me will tell you that I’m fun, loyal, and a blast to work with (Michaela). I also will defend, and have defended, my people to the detriment to my own career.
How do you determine that in a personality test?
Rex