Job-hunting… something is rigged…
I recently quit my job to find new greener pastures… and guess what… I’m not having much luck at the moment. It’s funny how things work out – I have killer-experience in my field, I’m well-educated – and the things I’m missing is drive and initiative according to a test I took when I got an interview for a job? Sometimes I think personality tests are wrong – other times I know they are.
Let’s examine what they do – they take a person and make him/her take a test, where he/she fills out a bunch of multiple-choice questions – from that they make a profile of him… Problem is that the person taking the test is eager to show off what he/she thinks is his/her best sides… They say that you cannot cheat these tests… “Bah, humbug” I say – if you want the test to reflect that you are outgoing and forward in your approach – which word would you then choose to reflect your ‘personality’: “Carefull”, “Guarded”, “Outgoing”, “Insecure”? This isn’t rocket-science you know…
Next problem – if the person is actually honest about his/her questionaire – then you have one more problem… he/she fills out the form as how he/she sees himself, not how he/she actually is – there is a huge gap between how you view yourself and how you are in the eyes of others. Even I can figure this out.
You end up with a navel-essay written by a person you know is eager to get a job.
Next thing you will mention, is that I’m probably bitter from not getting the job – and of course, I’m dissappointed that they cannot use me – but I regret that they discarded me for the wrong reasons. My point in relation to exactly this job was that they discarded me for lack of initiative and drive. If they looked at my resume they would see someone that decided to try out a career in the national firefighter brigade and succeeded after starting as an accountant, someone that at the age of 24 was head of economics in a company with 50 employees with 2 persons under him. But I guess that isn’t drive and initiative…
No, the reason that they should discard me was that this particular company functions from the principle that everyone is in sales. And if they want a salesperson – I am not the guy (a fact I mentioned about 15 minutes into the first interview). I would grow hungry soon, if I had to sell something.
Of course there might be other reasons that they didn’t want to hire me – but then they should tell me those reasons instead of giving me a load of crap.
My point would be that they have to look at things in context and not base too much on something the applicant has fabricated him-/herself. It isn’t factual – it isn’t truth – at best it’s a representation of who you are dealing with from their own perspective.