3 ms·
actually, i would look at SAT. Not as a major decision point, but just one small factor in the entire hiring process. IQ test would take another small factor. P
by keiretsu 19y ago
actually, i would look at SAT. Not as a major decision point, but just one small factor in the entire hiring process.
IQ test would take another small factor. Personality another factor, Familiarity with the domain you are hiring for another factor. Experience another factor. and so on. This way, even if you don't score well for your SAT, your other factors may make up for it.
isn't this how Google now automate their hiring process (at least in the initial stage to filter out the crap)?
Categorize their current best and worst employees based on these factors. Then get the factors of the interviewees and run them on their bayesian classifier and it will indicate whether the interviewee is likely to be a good or bad employee.
- abstractbill 19y agoI would think twice about working for anyone who gave me an IQ test. Not because I think I'd do badly on it, but because of what it says about that employer.
- keiretsu 19y agowhat does it say about the employer?
- npk 19y agoThat they don't really understand statistics.
- keiretsu 19y agoso you are inferring that there is enough statistical evidence to prove the hypothesis that a high iq person does not make for a good employee.
- npk 19y agoYou're falling into a trap. Using the vocabulary of statistics does not mean you are thinking statistically. The classic refute, "correlation does not imply causation," applies here. I bet that the top people at top companies have high IQs, this does not mean that a high IQ person makes a top employee. I'm assuming you're hiring someone at a high level for a small company. Performing an IQ test is too much effort for not enough gain. As a result, you are performing a reverse IQ test. Intelligent people, asked to take an IQ test to join a one person startup, will view it as a waste of their time, and walk away. Go ahead, ask for SAT score. The most useful aspect of SAT score is in establishing company culture. It seems to me that you want to form a company where employess are the top grads from top universities. This is a classic, and successful model for hiring people. Asking potentital employess to take an IQ test will harm you in the end.
- keiretsu 19y agosee my comment below. I'm not planning to ask them to take a full blown iq tests. Just those "iq games" that i find are empirically good in classifying the smart from the non-smart
- run4yourlives 19y agoGood luck to you. Seriously, it already appears that you have made up your mind and don't need any more of our advice. 3 separate people have pointed out why IQ test are a bad idea, yet you are still not convinced. There is not much else to say except good luck.
- keiretsu 19y agook fine. if iq tests are such a bad idea, what verifiable tests are there that can be used to classify a good employee and a bad employee? I'm sorry but gut feel just doesn't cut it.
- abstractbill 19y agoThe belief that there could be a universal test that maps a person onto some scalar value ranging from "good employee" to "bad employee" says a lot about the belief's holder. Sorry if that sounds snarky - it's just the way I feel.
- cwilbur 19y agoThere's no evidence one way or another, because there's no clear objective definition of "a good employee." For some of the jobs I've had, a willingness to think independently and critically -- far more important in a lot of cases than a high IQ -- was an active detriment.
- run4yourlives 19y agoThat they can't hire the right people. Seriously, employers that are able to "feel" out the right people don't need tests, they'll go with their gut instincts, just like smart business people. Employers that give IQ tests usually lack this skill and have been burned because of it. I wouldn't want to work at a place that I couldn't trust to find high quality colleagues for me to build with. (This from a person that naturally scores in the 130's in IQ tests)
- keiretsu 19y agohiring based on "feel" is like trading based on "feel". My back hurts. Damn, short this stock. Oh god. I feel alive whenever i see this stock. Buy! it's always good to base your hiring on something that is testable. Call me crazy but hiring is a long-term continuous process. It's best to have a program that's testable and verifiable, rather than simply be based on gut feel.
- run4yourlives 19y agoYou aren't hiring robots. You're hiring people. If you want to be analytical about it, you'll end up hiring the person that tells you what you want to hear the best. That's not usually the person you want.