Triumphrat

OldTownRAT · 05-16-2007, 03:48 PM

Hello everyone,

I recently applied for a position at a new company. I passed the first phone interview yesterday. At the end of the conversation, the HR contact said she would send out some paperwork for background check, etc. and a link to an online "Pre-employment assessment".

I took the assessment last night and some of the questions were rather tough. (They were all Y/N checkbox answers, no comments were allowed.)

The first question was "if a family member was stealing from their employer, would you report them to their boss?" At first I almost checked "Y" but I know they wanted honesty, so I selected No. I would speak to the family member about it but I wouldn't even know how to get ahold of their boss!

Then there were questions like "If you own a large store and you find an employee has stolen an item under $5 from you, would you fire them?" Again, no, it depends on how much value the employee brings, why he /she stole it, etc.

Anyway, I may have shot myself in the foot for this position by being honest. But I'm wondering if anyone here has taken or administered a test like this before? If so, do you think I've killed my chances of a job with this company?

Thanks!!

LoVel · 05-16-2007, 03:57 PM

I can understand them wanting honest employees but if they don't even consider you because of those answers you probably don't want to work for them anyway.

Pauley · 05-16-2007, 04:01 PM

I know your predicament exactly?

H.R. as you know stands for "Human Resources"

In my opinion, nine times out of ten there is nothing "human" about those people. That's my opinion based on the HR people I've dealt with over the years. No offense for fellow TRN people who are in HR.

I would like to change "H.R." to "D.N.R." for the words "Dumb 'N Resourceless." No offense to our conservation folks.

As far as the pre-employment assessment, I believe what they have is a master sheet of "desired" characteristics. It really depends on what the company is looking for in an applicant. Just be as honest as you can considering they leave no room for explanation. If they reject you then they most likely are not worth your time or aggravation stimming from a possible employment opportunity.

If they send you a letter with something to the effect of: ".... we have selected another applicant whose qualifications more closely match our needs...." Then the heck with them. Wait til they have another add in the paper and send them a rejection letter first.

Good luck to you and your job search, I hope you find something that suits your desires.

doodledog · 05-16-2007, 04:03 PM

this will be studied against stock analised answers from a psychologist, dont worry they are testing your honesty they would get rid of the liars straight away.

[ This message was edited by: doodledog on 2007-05-16 14:05 ]

chisel · 05-16-2007, 04:19 PM

I think you put in the right answer. If a family member is stealing from their employer you report it to the police, not their boss. Stealing is a criminal act and we have a very complicated system to deal with it.

Seriously though, these tests are very subjective and the interviewer should know this. It gives them stuff to talk about in the follow up interview since they're too lame to think of their own questions.

Use the questions to prepare yourself for that follow up interview. If you have your answers thought out ahead of time you'll come across as much more confident and a good communicator.

[ This message was edited by: chisel on 2007-05-16 14:21 ]

OldTownRAT · 05-16-2007, 04:22 PM

Thanks all. Feeling a little better about the whole mess now.

Cheers.

- Brian

Tbirdnz · 05-16-2007, 05:19 PM

I'm with LoVel and Pauley on this one, if they are looking for a total snitch then you don't want to work for them. I like the idea sending the reject letter to them when they advertise again.

Interestingly we have two particular rival TV companies here, one with a very large HR department and one with just a couple of people. The most successful is the one with basically no HR department. The one that has just fired its boss and half the staff is the one with the HR department (none of the HR were fired, somehow they got their priorities wrong).

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Ride on !

MA0458 · 05-16-2007, 06:55 PM

I had an interview a long while back w/ a japanese banking concern. Was on the final interview w/ some big cheese, the question involved splitting expenses among executives, and there was a penny left over.

I astutely declared I would charge the extra cent to the person w/ the largest expense budget.

Wrong.

The answer: "Ask your boss".

Obviously, I ran away screaming...

OldTownRAT · 05-16-2007, 07:12 PM

Thanks everyone for the feedback and well wishes.

UPDATE: Just got a call from a recruiter from an international company I have been interested in!!! I'm even more excited about this opportunity so if my answers to the assessment are unacceptable to the first company then (to quote Pauley) 'to heck with them'!

Thanks again.

oldndumb · 05-16-2007, 07:29 PM

Employment assessments are a benefit to both the prospective employer and employee. If you just answer the questions truthfully you will be doing yourself a service. If you try to give the answers you think they are looking for, you will be doing yourself a disservice since you could end up working for a company that is not your best fit. Then you would be a bitter person and end up posting pitiful anti-HR rants. :-D