Here at The Constant Complainer, in addition to my own posts, readers can submit Guest Posts on topics they’d like to complaint about. Leo Nevoli submitted the below-Guest Post. His complaint surrounds companies that administer personality tests as a part of their hiring process. Enjoy and without further adieu, here’s Leo…
I have been talking to friends who have been unemployed for a while. They are telling me horror stories about how they can’t find a job, and if they get in for an interview, they are not being called back. One even told me that he was waiting on a call back for a personality test from one company, but has not received a call. I had to admit to him that four years ago while I was job hunting, I failed a personality test. He thought I was joking, but I was not. I have always been described as “the nicest guy you would ever met” by people. I had several girlfriends start off a conversation with “you are a really nice guy” followed by “that is why I can’t date you” or “we need to break up.” I don’t mind being a nice guy; it is a tag I am sure my mom is glad I have. However, in thinking about it, being a nice guy may have prevented me from getting a job.
Like most people, I obtained the services of a “headhunter” to help find a new job. Heidi was great; she reviewed my resume, went over what I liked to do and then presented me with possible openings at various companies. After a phone interview, a basic accounting test and then a face-to-face first interview with the HR Director of one company, Heidi was told by the HR Director that she liked me and wanted to immediately bring me in for another interview with the main finance guys of the company. After that second interview, I had a good feeling about getting the position. After the third interview, Heidi was told that I was the only candidate left being interviewed for the position, and they were set to provide me with an offer after I took the company’s standard personality test. It was something I had to do online at home. The test reminded me of the SAT. Some questions consisted of simple math problems; what colored box comes next in the sequence, what is the pattern, employee schedule set up and questions pertaining to how I would handle different situations. I answered those situational questions honestly. Two days after I completed the test, Heidi called me to tell me that they pulled their offer because I failed the personality test. I thought she was joking, but she was not. As she was told, my personality did not fit what they were looking for.
Heidi talked to other colleagues about the position, because she wanted to see if anyone else was contacted by that company. A few weeks later, a colleague got in touch with her and informed her that he had a candidate interview for the position. The colleague was told more about the position then Heidi was, and they picked up that the company wanted to bring in someone young to revamp the accounting department which was made up of people who had been there on average for 15 years, and did not have degrees. They both believed that I would have been used to come in and fire employees. A few months after I had gotten a new job, Heidi was contacted by Company ABC, because the position was still open, and they wanted to meet with me again, because I was being reconsidered for the position. Heidi told them nicely that I was happy where I was and I would pass on the offer.
In all the jobs I interviewed for, I have only had to take one personality test, and as you know I failed it. I don’t know how a company can gage someone’s personality and if they are a fit for their company based on answers given on a test, not from several face to face interviews. Just how long have companies been using personality tests to find the “best employee” and do a majority of companies use them today? Do you think these personality tests are fair and should be used to determine if someone gets a job? I’m Leo Nevoli, and that’s my ponderings.
I am not a fan of “testing” as part of the hiring process. It seems to be an easy way to discriminate against someone or an easy way to say “someone important didn’t like you”.
Personality tests are a growing trend among employers. You can look good on paper and interview well, but not fit in to the culture.
Poor Leo, I am not an HR expert but my company used to give these “tests” to prospective new hires about: how you feel you are perceived by other people and how you perceive others but there was no pass or fail, the results were graphed into job classifications such as: this person would be better suited for sales or that person might be more valuable to the company in accounting, ect. For those who were so out there that a graph couldnt be made for them I guess you could term that failing. But if a manager is any good they know what they are looking for in an employee and multiple face to face interviews and verifiable experience should tell them enough. These tests just seem to be an excuse to keep the HR dept busy!
Some people just aren’t good at taking tests…
I thought this was a fascinating post, to say the least.
I’m sure there will be a lot of different opinions on this matter, but I can certainly justify Leo’s test from one perspective.
Many times companies are dealing with several different candidates, who, like Jane said, all look good on paper. Then the situation becomes that they know they have people who can do the job, but they have to determine who is the best “fit.” And yes, a “fit” can be defended in court, believe it or not.
Plus, with the job market as it is, there are resumes with a lot of fluff floating around. So it doesn’t hurt to have another step in the recruitment process.
To be honest, I was never a believer in personality tests until a few years ago. I was recruiting for a project and we really liked this one candidate. So we had this guy take the test and it flagged that he had an issue with “anger management.” I had interviewed this guy, others had interviewed him, we all liked him, his resume looked good and we felt her could do the job. So we hired him and ignored the test result.
On the day that this first paycheck arrived, it was wrong. And this guy stormed down to my office, came in yelling, flipped over a chair and needed to be restrained and calmed down over a minor error. Yup, personality testing at its finest.
Normally those tests are used on thousands of people first (to establish a base) before being formally used in a hiring setting.
So to be honest, Leo, I think you were saved some time. The job may have interested you, but it may not have worked out. I mean, there’s always an extenuating circumstance, but my guess is that you not passing the test saved you from either not being happy or not fitting in to their culture (which may not have been a bad thing for your career in the long run).
CC,
In your “expert” opinion, would it be best to have people take the test first, instead of having them do interviews first? It saves a company time from interviewing candidates, and it also seems to not waste someone who is looking for a job’s time for the interviews? Figure at the time I was interviewing I was employed, and I had to use some “sick” and vacation days to go in interviews for this position. If I did the personality test first, it would have saved me time, where I could have used the “sick” days for maybe another interview that I had in an evening or on the weekend.
I think personality tests are mostly used to weed out the psychopathic bunch. I don’t think they use it to choose the right person, rather to avoid choosing the one who sits at home with their mother in the freezer.
As a former headhunter, it seems that the one that sent you out for the interview didn’t do her job on the front end. It sounds like they were looking for someone that has a cut throat attitude and can go in and fire long term employees. If you were never told that was part of the original duties, the head hunter didn’t prep you correctly. There is no reason at all that another HH in the office would come up with a more qualified job order than the original HH. Head hunters are paid based on a percentage of the first year’s income. If your first year income would have been $75,000, the HH would have been paid around 25% of that, or $18,750 for that placement. They usually don’t care if the fit is perfect, but if you will stay at the job for 90 days.
Leo, ask yourself this: If you knew that the job was to go in and slash the payroll of the dept by firing and demoting employees, would you have gone on the interview? Would you have answered all of the questions honestly on the personality test?
She probably had the job order with the HR dept…no offense to the HR people, but most HH won’t even work with HR because they don’t usually give the real deal on the job…they focus on skill set, and not on the real aspects of what the company needs in order to be profitable. The best job orders are the ones where the HH is setting up interviews directly with the hiring manager. If you’re using a HH and your first interview is with HR, you’re likely wasting your time. When using a HH, the HR dept should be the last person you talk to.
Leo, when I graduated university and began my job hunting I posted my resume on Monster.ca and was immediately contacted by various job placement agencies/head hunters etc. They liked the fact that I had only had 3 jobs in my life and all 3 of them were long term and I only left to advance in another company that more suited what my education was for.
I got a call to be at Office X at a certain time to interview for a job. The job had something to do with medical magazines but I would be doing advertising along with other reception like work. It was fine with me. I was looking for a job so that I could begin moving forward in my life. I was engaged and wanted a full time job before getting married. I went to the interview and met the owner of the company. We hit it off, I explained to him my schedule (still had to resign from the company I was working for) and he informed me that they were closing for two weeks for their summer holidays. He basically offered me the job right there without saying it. I left the office and went back to my other job. I got a call from my head hunter who told me they were offering me the job and I should start in 4 weeks. I said that was perfect because I could leave the company I was at, take a small vacation and begin the job!
I show up to work on the first day where the boss makes me sit with other employees to see how they work and to find out how each person’s job function would relate to mine. I had no problem and thats exactly what I did. We all went to lunch together as an office and after lunch my boss called me into his office and told me to leave early for the day. It was a great start and tomorrow would begin my first full day of work.
By the time I got to my house and I checked my voicemail, it was a message from the boss, UNHIRING ME. No not firing, but un-hiring. Because we have a 3 month grace period he was allowed to un-hire me. I was floored, shocked, appalled, and any other words you can think of. Do you know WHY I was un-hired? Because I had TOO much personality instead of a lack of it. Everyone in the office worked like robots, they would use MSN and email to transfer files to each other instead of saying “Hey Bob, can you come see if you like this” an apparently it was too much for them. I started to cry when I heard the voice mail and then I became angry and livid. Excuse me, no one told me I was hired to work at a funeral home where everyone had to be deathly quiet. I called the head hunter and informed her of the situation and she said there was no recourse. I asked her how that could be. Because of this job offer I quit my other job and was now jobless. She said she couldn’t help.
I then contacted the government and I did get help from them. They got Office X to pay me 3 months salary while I looked for another job because they had all the time in the world to make sure I was a good fit for the company. They hired me after an IN PERSON interview where I showed my real personality. I’m not a shy person and I don’t pretend to be more quiet then I really am for an interview.
About 3 months later, I got a call from another head hunter (the first one I’d met) who said she had a great company who was looking for someone just like me. Bubbly, personable, great telephone and typing skills, and creative! After 2 interviews I was offered the job. More money, more benefits, and better hours.
Sometimes things happen for a reason, and if the other guy thinks I have too much personality they can go fuck themselves!
Leo, to answer your question, some companies that administer personality tests do them as the final step of the process. But the better companies do them earlier. Here’s why… The best way to utilize a personality test is to have the candidate take it, get the results and then use them (i.e. at one employer I worked at, when candidates took the personality test, depending on how they did, a report would spit out at the end with additional questions that should be asked of the candidate to truly determine the flags that came up). And you’d ask those questions at a final interview, for example.
Like NCD said though, I wonder if you would have even interviewed if you knew what the true role was.
I do disagree with NCD though about his headhunter belief though. Headhunters always try to bypass HR and go straight to operations, but it almost always gets kicked back to HR. At most companies, HR will do the initial interview to determine if an applicant is even qualified for the job. Then the candidate will interview with the department manager to determine if they can actually do the job. After this, further testing or peer interviews are involved. But nine times out of 10, the initial interview will be with HR. Having HR involved last is contrary to the competency-based interviewing process.
You’re right CC on the process for the typical interview…but, companies don’t pay $20,000 placement fees for the typical position (at least not today. They did in the run-up to Y2K) Head hunters do the things that HR professionals simply can’t do…they sneak their way into a competitor’s company and find a candidate that can do the job. Most of the candidates I placed were not only NOT looking for a job when I placed them, but they didn’t have a current resume. I made ONE placement in 4 years while having the job order with an HR professional. That’s one placement out of 1200 job orders. Head hunters work on the jobs where the HR dept has exhausted all of their resources, and the manager of the department has taken over the process. That’s why head hunters are able to demand such high fees. It is a very cut throat high stress sale position, but if it’s done correctly, it is an excellent service to the employer and the candidate.
Well, knowing the type of person I am, knowing what the starting salary was, I would not have interviewed with them. If I was hired, and then told what I would need to do, I would have felt like the company was hiding things from me during the interview process, and I would be wondering if I could trust my supervisor.
Now, if the money was right, and I was hired for the position, then they told me that either the employees had to go, or I had to go, well, I am sure they would have landed on their feet. Sad to say this, but the bottom line is I would have had a job.
I do believe fit is important for the company and the employee. I have not had many jobs in my life, only 3 (I’m still young), but I have not fit into any of the environments. But, I believe that my “lack of fit” comes from the fact that I am entrepreneurial at heart. Although I have never been given a personality test as part of an interview, when I think about it, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job if test results reveal that I really desire to be an entrepreneur.