I failed the interview personality test/survey!

Nurses General Nursing

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  • Specializes in EC, IMU, LTAC.

You are reading page 5 of I failed the interview personality test/survey!

BoomerRN

63 Posts

I had an interview recently for a hospice job and the director wants me to work for them. While I was giving my id's to the hr person to copy she says: "Oh, by the way can you complete an 'online assessment asap?" "It's just an assessment of your skills". I went online and completed it and it was not an assessment of my skills. It was a personality test. I have never had to take one of these tests before. I haven't heard from hr yet as to whether I passed it or not. I'll let you know. Whatever happened to just interviews and personal references?

sumoe

29 Posts

Specializes in ER, OR, ICU, PACU, POCU, QA, DC Planning.

I refused to take the job because they wanted me to take a test. Here's my personality: I'm old, cranky, and have a bad attitude. That's what makes me "me". The bad attitude is over the usual overwork and underpay, understaffing, lack of potty breaks, lack of lunch, etc. But, my patients and co-workers enjoy good care and good teamwork. I don't need to know anything else about myself, and they don't need to know, either.

NYTramaRN, RN

34 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, PACU, ICU, CCU,ED,ENDO.
Nah, the moral of this story is, "Before you pick the PC answers that will get your foot in the door, slap yourself :trout: really hard and consider whether or not you want to live with what's on the other side."

Amen to that. This big business, politically correct crap has got to stop.

Oh, and a flash for the hospital admin folks; their called patients, not customers. Nurses do pt care not customer service, and yes sometimes we are less that charming with someone to get the job done: it's the results that count.

Little Flower

22 Posts

It used to be about your qualifications but now it is foremost how you fit their team. Each personality test is geared to produce the results of the type of team player they are looking for. You have to pass the personality test before anything else.....then they consider your credentials.

Most places you apply for a job now.....even in banks I have noticed. They have the little computer there and you have to sit there and do the little test thing first.

Employers are doing a psych evaluation on you FIRST....plus, there are literally hundreds of people applying for a measely one position....and no telling how many more are applying online only to find out they still have to come to the lobby of some building and unceremoniously sit out in the middle of the room somewhere and take the little test.

In the good OLD days and I do mean OLD days. There might be a couple or several vying for a position. Today there could be hundreds or more.....even for a little pissy job, a no-account job, a meaningless job, etc.

Most all candidates get flushed down the proverbial toilet up front because they don't fit the psych profile they are looking for.

Don't you feel like a worthless, numberless ant in an ant hill or grain of sand on the beach when applying for a job? I do. Your chance of getting the job you want or any job are more and more minisicule....shrinking with every year that goes by.

Then add to that all the disqualifiying factors like your age, your age and your age.,,,,then your ethnicity, your ethnicity and your ethnicity......along with ANY TIME YOU HAVE EVER FILED A CLAIM FOR WORK COMP (no matter if you won or not) OR HAD A BACK INJURY. The disqualifying factors just keep growing.

Once you realize that you are not an individual any more looking for a job but simply a unit of production (where the most perfect, young and unspoiled units are valued - that require less money and are not fixed/rigid in their already trained mind-set) then you will realize how remote your chances are of getting not only the job you want but any job.

Employers say they don't discriminate due to age, disability, yadda, yadda, yadda but they do....they just found a way to hide it and a different way to by-pass it. It is that little personality test.

Of course there still remains one factor that will get you a job and that is:

Its not what you know but WHO you know.

Good luck in your searches.

nightnurse47

19 Posts

Ha! I'm loving this too...sex with a squirrel, what will they think of next?

I am changing jobs after 15 years because of a new manager who thinks management by threats is the new way to go....so to express my lack of amusement to be working for the gestapo, I am merrily on my way to manage another unit.

It is a good thing I didn't have to take a personality test for that! I'd have to say the customer service in this paradigm is lacking from the habits of effective people who lie on personality tests... (and I'd have to tell them about the squirrels!):wink2:

Take heart all, the pendulum will swing again, but the lunatics will most likely always be running the asylum!:jester:

Selke

543 Posts

Do NPs, APRNs, CNMs, and PAs have to take these stupid tests? Or are they reserved for us special rank and file RNs?

What answers and personality traits do you think they're looking for: submission to authority? Wilingness to take crap without question? Easily intimidated people? Those who won't want leadership positions or seek to be a change agent? Someone relatively passive who won't rock the boat? Willingness to blame oneself for mistakes instead of looking for a systems problem?

I can't wrap my head around the "sex with a squirrel" question. This says everything about whichever perv came up with that question than anything else. -- But, a SQUIRREL??? Truly the inmates are running the asylum. Inappropriate for an employment office.

I've walked out of HR depts when they pull out those idiotic tests. I'm glad I haven't seen one in a while ...

JessicRN

470 Posts

I had to do one to become a prison nurse. One question was have you ever taken office equipment home. I raised my hand and asked if pens count. The officer (person watching us) said with a smirk it should be yes but I will say no. I answered no then handed in the test and signed on a sheet of paper my name and address and proceeded to walk out of the room. As I was leaving the officer smirked and said "are you planning on giving back my pen". :uhoh21: I turned deep red and was mortified. I just turned to him and said "yep that's me cleptomaniac Jess thank god I asked". :smackingf I got the job anyway

erichRN

68 Posts

Specializes in geriatrics, telemetry, ICU, admin.

Should be in the humor category. It is absolutely correct that they did you a favor by not hiring you. There are plenty of places to work where they actually want you to take care of patients more than they want you to jump through hoops.

Specializes in Tele, ICU, ER.

What answers and personality traits do you think they're looking for: submission to authority? Wilingness to take crap without question? Easily intimidated people? Those who won't want leadership positions or seek to be a change agent? Someone relatively passive who won't rock the boat? Willingness to blame oneself for mistakes instead of looking for a systems problem?

How bout a Glasgow of 4,6,1 (eyes open, obeys all commands, NO verbal response)?

tencat

1,350 Posts

[quote

How bout a Glasgow of 4,6,1 (eyes open, obeys all commands, NO verbal response)?

:rotfl:

Hey, we have a new 'personality test'. The Glascow! Cheap and easy to use....management should love it.....

aggieamy5

34 Posts

Hi. I have a MA in Clinical Psyc. and have been trained in administering personality tests such as the MMPI-2, etc. There are usually questions built into these types of tests to determine reliability and validilty of responses. For example, these tests usually contain questions like "I have never stolen anything" or "I never lie." These are to determine social desirability, etc. Even if one had never stolen anything (which I haven't) they are looking for you to put "false" because supposedly almost everyone has stolen something in their lives before (i.e. a pack of gum at age 6). Some of these kinds of questions are very obvious (like the lying one, but others are much more subtle). When people endorse too many of these types of items (or answer similar items in an inconsitent manner), this is supposed to raise a "red flag" that the person is not responding honestly or is trying to endorse their responses in a particular way. Often times personality tests do not really seem to work for hiring/interviewing purposes, but they can be very helpful for those with mental illnesses or those trying to malinger a psychiatric disorder.

oldshoes

21 Posts

Gawd, I hate those things. I don't think the test is really about the sated questions at all, but rather about your ability to figure out what answer the employer wants you to give. And anyone can figure out what answer would be considered "right" and just go ahead and give that answer, rather than the truth. I don't think they're a very good indicator of how a person would handle anything.

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