Comment by simonsaidit | Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonsaidit | Hacker News Reader

I’m a consultant and somewhat happy about my job. The boss where I’m currently at wants to hire me permanently and I told him that perhaps if the offer is good enough and without going into details he says his sure we will work that out... he has a big budget and only answers to the ceo and are there to build up everything from scratch and I’m his technical advisor/architect/developer while we establish platforms and team... so it feels pretty attractive and usally I ignore recruiting but then HR starts their process as if it’s me trying to get them and not the other way around... giving references, wants me to do logic and personality tests and now I kinda regret and already said I’m opposed that kind of thing and won’t really do testing for a lot of reasons. They settled with personality test and I said ok I guess I can do that but as I opened it today it really fustrated me and closed it again and now I’m pretty much feeling like saying No thanks as this really drains me. Am I being too difficult?

Edit: thanks for the feedback

You need to lean on the hiring manager and tell him to make them stop. He wants you, but HR is HR and they have their own processes. They are also used to being in control and having the upper hand in any negotiations. It's possible he has no control, but every place I've worked, the hiring manager can absolutely put the brakes on the BS and go directly to an offer. It's his call.

If the HR department is really that powerful and obnoxious, maybe you don't actually want to work there after all. A crap HR department can be an ongoing headache.

No, you're not being too difficult. If you feel the hassle of going permanent outweighs the benefits of going permanent then that's your choice.

Tell your boss, and get him to either get the nonsense waived (which can be done - do you think a new CEO would be doing logic tests?), or put another hundred grand on your salary!

No. If they are the ones that want you, you hold all the power in the process

Am I being too difficult?

Nothing of the sort. Hopefully you'll stick to your guns.

I did and it wasn’t a problem after all. I also asked for better salary, free phone and be allowed to use Linux in their windows only environment and they accepted.

Any place that does a personality test is a place that has poor hiring practices. They are worthless and are easily gamed. I will have an idea of what they are looking for and will get that result.

It's amazing anyone uses them in the hiring process.

What is their real purpose is to filter out candidates who are not agreeable enough to just shut up and take the test?

Not necessarily. Myers-Brigg's has done a great job of convincing corporate America that their test results mean something (and any personality test you may be given by your employer is probably Myers-Brigg's or some close facsimile thereof).

They are barely-better-than-horoscopes-junk-science... but people genuinely believe in the stuff.

More of a side note, but I've noticed a very recent trend on a dating app of profiles including their Meyers-brigg info.

Meyers Briggs is complete trash, I could easily get any result I wanted to. And at the end of the day it doesn't give any useful insight.

Then that company has an incredibly broken interview process and is going to miss out on quality talent. And if that is a filtering tactic it's probably a shitty company to work for.

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