What are your thoughts on assessments for online job applications?

An example of one such difficult question would be “How many times have you reported someone for cheating, stealing, or breaking rules?” Obviously the employer is looking for someone who would report such people, but I’ve never actually been in a situation where I needed to do this. So I have to say none, but it leaves the impression that I don’t report people for such behavior.

I would answer something along the lines of I’ve been fortunate never to have been placed in this position but I believe honesty is always the best policy. Personally I believe these assessments are garbage. I want to look the person in the eye while I ask these kind of questions. I managed a lending department for almost 10 years and I always interacted one on one. I hate canned assessments.

I ran into a few of them when I was job hunting and honestly got so aggravated about the questions that I would just stop answering them and delete the application. I felt it wasn’t going to be a company I would want to work for because I felt some of the questions were trick questions.

Wow…interesting. The one question shared makes no sense. Is there a correct answer? At what point would an applicant be cut from the interview list?

What I found is that online applications have become the norm in order to reduce the number of personal interviews scheduled by the hiring manager. It’s a cost-effective way, but only if the online screening process is accurate and legal. For example, the question “How many times have you reported someone for cheating, stealing, or breaking rules?” would have to be proven to not only have a set answer, but to be pertinent to the job.

If you were to not get the position and file a lawsuit, the burden of proof as to why you weren’t selected would fall on the hiring company. “Required” and “Preferred” are essential key words when it comes to filtering applicants. If a company cannot prove a certain skill is required for a job, then they are in jeopardy of a lawsuit.

@Adirondackwannabe The options are multiple choice, there is no room for explanation- that’s what’s so frustrating! I just don’t feel that they even serve the intended purpose, so why do they waste a significant amount of applicants’ time with this? I just don’t get it.

@chyna Agreed! I was certainly tempted to do so several times, but at least half of the places I was applying to required them, and I can’t really afford to rule any place out. I have actually stopped applying, though, with applications that are way too complicated and not user-friendly, another one of my pet-peeves about online applications.

@Fly The example question is indeed ambiguous if they don’t allow for the applicant never having been in that position. It may be that they don’t do any actual assessment of the questionnaire – perhaps they just use your answers to the questions as topics for discussion in the interview, if there is one.

To get his latest job, Mr. Augustlan (@Fly‘s stepfather, for those who don’t know) had to complete two online assessments and take a drug test, and the job is at Walmart for heaven’s sake!

Basically, it’s a weeding out process, and I think there are at least two things at work:

1) Many people simply won’t take the time to fill them out, so the number of applicants will be reduced. That saves the company time and money.

2) They’re looking for a basic level of intelligence. We noticed that they asked some of the same questions twice several times, wording them in slightly different ways. Each was worded in such a way that the ‘correct’ answer is basically the opposite of the ‘correct’ answer you gave the first time. If one wasn’t a careful reader with decent comprehension, it would be fairly easy to screw up the answers in at least half of those questions.

It’s a major pain in the ass, but it’s just something we’ve got to deal with right now. And that question you cited is ridiculous! Not everyone has had such a situation arise. Hmph.