Essay questions on a Job app? (1 Viewer)

[Rayderr]

As I look around for something more stable, I applied for a tech job at a company this week, and they responded by sending me back 7 essay questions to fill out. Seriously companies do this? And it's not like they're questions specifically for the job. It's generic questions that sounds like were taken off some website. (Holy crap! Just decided to do a google search on one of the questions, and yup, from a website, Questions 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 14 and "Why did you apply for this job?")

Really, what is the function of these things? To see how well you can lie? I'm too bunt an honest for these types of things. Probably why I don't do well on interviews. "Why did you apply?" Because I need a job. "A year from now, what did we achieve together?" Beats the hell out of me. I don't know what job contracts you have or anything. "What things do you not like to do?" Answer stupid questions.

I could maybe see if this was for some sort of mid-high level management job. But it's a freaking tech job. My job would be to make sure stuff works and fix it when it doesn't. How does finding out when I'm most satisfied help you decide if I'm familiar with which ports need to be open?

[/rant]

 

[Cjw_55106]

Simply put, it helps determine your character and thought process. I think after the first question, they would root out the MC Gas types and not have to bother with them.

FWIW, yeah, I can see you having trouble with interviews.

 

[parasaurolophus]

I recently had to hand write an essay answer at an interview. Had to be one page at least. I was literally cramping up by the end of it. I asked them afterwards why they asked for it to be handwritten. I figured they were trying to determine how well people could spell, punctuate, use vocabulary, etc. 

She said it actually takes people much less time since there is less editing and that you get a more instinctual answer. She told me that they don't even care about the grammar unless it is god awful.  

 

[Cliff Clavin]

You can read 5-10 posts here and get a pretty good idea of someone's intelligence/thought process. Great way to weed out the fools.

Had an interview where they gave me a sheet of 30 brain teasers and 30 minutes to do them. Later found out that each position had a minimum benchmark.