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Comment by bartchamdo | Hacker News Reader

All companies should have a test like this

In the age of "cracking the coding interview", glassdoor, levels.fyi, etc... it would only work a handful of times before everyone is in on the test and true assholes won't expose themselves.

Assholes who actually can learn to hide the fact that they are assholes are probably a lot less annoying.

Except that they'll only hide it when it helps them. In general this is far more dangerous.

Agreed, the most successful assholes have always been the ones that understood that you can't be a asshole all the time, you need to deploy it at a opportune moment.

If you've got an asshole being strategic about when to be an asshole, you actually have a sociopath, because most folks at the point where they know they're being an asshole would just stop.

Except that such people typically only hide it during the interview phase. You’ll still find out soon enough after they’ve been hired.

Having been on the receiving end of this as a candidate (not at IBM), everyone was in on the test in the first 15 seconds, and it changed people's behavior instantly.

It's fairly obvious if you're on the receiving end what the purpose of the test is when you're being observed (as with most interview questions, it helps to ask yourself why the interviewer asking me / having me do this?)

Like with those "personality tests" where anyone with decent perception and reading comprehension can easily tell which outcomes each answer's going to push them toward, and so obtain any result they like.

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