Ask HN: What's your opinion on cognitive and behavioral tests?

2 points by zzgo 9y ago ↗ HN

What's your opinion on taking employment and behavioral tests for employment as a software engineer? I got fired from my last employer for refusing to take these kinds of tests, and I've lost a few opportunities to interview in the last couple of years for refusing to take tests like the Wonderlic.

I know hiring is tough, but I haven't gotten the impression that we need to filter out more candidates from the interview funnel based on intelligence or behavioral considerations. We've got FizzBuzz, inverting binary trees, and "why are manhole covers round?" Do we really need to add "if 2 feet of rope costs 20 cents, how much rope can you buy for $30?"

The Wonderlic in particular is notable for being administered to NFL players, and scoring too high on it is a negative indicator.

Should we as tech industry workers submit to these tests? It's not like the results are being interpreted by psychologists on the employer's side, right?

If we do decide as employees that we will submit to these tests, is there a range of scores that we should be targeting? And what kinds of questions and answers should be expect to see/submit on the behavioral questions?

2 comments

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mindcrime 9y ago ↗

I don't flat-out refuse to take them, but being asked to take one is a negative signal about a potential employer. I consider almost all of this stuff to be pseudo-scientific gobbledygook, roughly akin to a lie detector test. It's like reading tea leaves, or animal entrails: you can find anything you want in there.

brudgers 9y ago ↗

If nothing else, the tests can filter against a willingness to do something without understanding why. In the context of an organization with many moving parts where there is a need for people to perform tasks outside their normal scope and daily routines, such filtering might have value.

To put it another way, refusal to take the test provides data too.

Good luck.