I recently applied for an email marketing job (sidenote: wow it sucks to be super anti-work and anti-capitalism and have to job hunt at the same time because I still have bills and rent to pay).
The recruiter emailed me back a few days later asking me to complete a cognitive and personality assessment, which is an immediate red flag in my books but the company had great reviews on Glassdoor and the salary was amazing so I thought I'd give it a shot. How bad could it be?
On page 2 of 28 (!!!) I noped out entirely and emailed the recruiter back to inform them that I would not be completing this asinine assessment because I don't believe my response to prompts like “I am afraid of failure” or “I worry about what people think about me” can tell them anything about my ability to do email marketing. The response I sent was very long and outlined my skills and accomplishments, and the fact that I have ADHD, and other conditions that may impact my honest response to those questions – but evidently do not impact my ability to do my job. I also included multiple links to studies showing that tests like those are almost always discriminatory by design because they ask questions that could be impacted by your cognitive abilities, race, economic status, gender, sexuality and more.
I was going to leave it there, but curiosity got the best of me and I had to know what was on the other 26 pages and holy shit, I did not think it could get so bad.
Here's a list of statements I was expected to disclose how much or how little I agreed with:
- I am able to stand up for myself
- I am easily intimidated
- I catch on to things quickly
- I carry the conversation to a higher level
- I panic easily
- I often feel discouraged
- I find it difficult to approach others
- I believe in the importance of art
- I am comfortable in unfamiliar situations
- I am quick to understand things
- I have difficulty imagining things
- I am lazy
- I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas
- I believe I am intelligent
- I have a rich vocabulary
- I worry about things
- I get stressed out easily
- Others perceive me as being competent
- I pay my bills on time
- My grades in school reflected my abilities
- I have many friends
- I am lonely
- I am satisfied with who I am
- I learned quickly in school
- I do not hurt people I love
- I've “got my act together”
- I feel like I'm just “going through the motions”
- People talk about me behind my back
- I am self-conscious
- I have confidence in myself
- I get what I want
- I am afraid of failing
- I am uncertain of my worth
- Throughout my life I have kept up with my peers academically
- I can concentrate well
- I achieved in school
- I worry about what I am going to do with the rest of my life
There were many more questions, those are just a bunch that really caught my attention. And sure, I could have just lied on all 28 pages of that assessment and I'm sure people do – but I don't even want to work for an organization that thinks my response to those questions matters, and won't even conduct a phone screening to get to know me before asking me to disclose whether I pay my bills on time or if am satisfied with my life.