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About a year and half ago I was applying for a software engineering internship at Goldman Sachs and they made me take a Pymetrics test. One of the tasks was to
by OliverGilan 6y ago
About a year and half ago I was applying for a software engineering internship at Goldman Sachs and they made me take a Pymetrics test. One of the tasks was to press the spacebar as many times as possible in 30 seconds. I didn't do the task and withdrew my application.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoCordless drill with a small paddle bit held the right distance from the space bar would have aced that test. Of course there's software tricks you could have used as well.
- nicbou 6y agoOr a software input device
- site-packages1 6y agoOr, presumably, holding the spacebar down and letting the repeat function do its thing
- bregma 6y ago`yes | tr 'y\n' ' ' >/dev/input`
- glitchc 6y agoSounds like 50% of video games in the market. Just pretend it's about how high you can jump with infinite jump enabled!
- curiousllama 6y agoTo be fair, I've been training for that task my entire life
- bogwog 6y agoThat sounds like it could be discriminatory against people with certain disabilities. Besides the fact that it's stupid and somewhat embarassing.
- OliverGilan 6y agoI literally was embarrassed. I didn't want to work for a company that selected talent like that.
- NotPavlovsDog 6y agoPerhaps you aspired to find a job that rewarded on merit. They perhaps aimed to form an orderly line of obedient sycophants. The test worked, to the benefit of both parties.
- aspaceman 6y agoYeah I wouldn’t feel proud of getting that job. We had some of those too there’d also be this webcam screen thing where you answer vague interpersonal questions as the camera looks at you.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kleiba 6y agoGood on you, mate. It would be great if you gave them feedback along the same lines, although chances are it would just get ignored.
- kleiba 6y agoFun fact: Pymetrics has hired a lot of former C64 game programmers.
- itronitron 6y agoAlso seems biased towards programmers that prefer spaces instead of tabs...
- pdonis 6y agoAre they programming in Python? https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#tabs-or-spaces https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#tabs-or-spaces
- abiogenesis 6y agoYes, hence Py-metrics.
- Radim 6y agoIs that a reference to the infamous C64 Summer / Winter Games? Where you had to twiddle your joystick as fast as you can? Fascinating that should carry over into the 21st century hiring process.
- kleiba 6y agoYeah, I might have lied when I wrote "fact"...
- jgalt212 6y agoWasn't that the game mechanics for the sprint event in Summer Games? Diving was the best in that. I did really enjoy surfing in California Games.
- kleiba 6y agoI enjoyed California Games more than the already great Summer/Winter games. For a little boy far, far away from California, somehow they managed to pack a whole lot of California Feelin' into 320x200 pixels... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSp8XHpEKzw&t=0m33s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSp8XHpEKzw&t=0m33s
- bloqs 6y agoBravo. Genuinely well done..
- wmil 6y agoThey successfully filtered out one of the applicants who won't put up with their bullshit. It's a pure win on their side.
- NotPavlovsDog 6y agoThis. People think stupid tests and ineffective recruitment stand for incompetence. They may actually signify a well-tuned process to identify compliant, mediocre individuals that don't produce results, stand out, nor are self-motivated, but rather aim to please the boss, without question, and to "fit in". As an engineer, you want to increase your value contribution to the org and the org should see you the same way. This usually means look for software product companies with at least some meritocracy. It should be about software all the way down. In any other scenario, it's about something else, usually pleasing the boss, you are a servant, and good luck with that.
- Clubber 6y ago>They may actually signify a well-tuned process to identify compliant, mediocre individuals that don't produce results, stand out, nor are self-motivated, but rather aim to please the boss, without question, and to "fit in". You might be giving them too much credit. I suspect that may have been the original intent of the question, but was mindlessly aped after appearing in an article by countless hiring managers and recruiters.
- NotPavlovsDog 6y agoIt doesn't even have to be conscious. Implementing a meaningless test still provides a valid test as far as candidate compliance and desire to fit in are concerned. Merit-driven applicant: This test is not backed by science, does not measure anything related to performance relevant to the job and is arbitrary. Oh, and did you check how do the developers of the test address the fundamental problem of lack of replicability and reproducibility in psychology? Hiring (if they can actually articulate and self-reflect, a rare occurrence): So you think you're smarter than us? Subservient applicant: I gave this test 110%, thank you for this opportunity! I look forward to learn more about how I can contribute to the continued success of [org name]! Speaking to a mediocre manager with a very stable career, tt was a revelation for me to hear them say "smart people get frustrated quickly. I've learned through the years to select those that are agreeable". Value and value creation were not on that managers radar.
- onion2k 6y agoPushing candidates who actually question the requests being made to select themselves out of the running sounds like the ideal recruitment software for a consulting firm.
- andrewem 6y agoThere was an arcade game many years ago where that was part of the game play, and this “test” could probably be manipulated in the same way: “ Because the game responded to repeatedly pressing the "run" buttons at high frequency, players of the arcade version resorted to various tricks such as rapidly swiping a coin or ping-pong ball over the buttons, or using a metal ruler which was repeated struck such that it would vibrate and press the buttons.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_&_Field_(video_game) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_&_Field_(video_game)
- mohaine 6y agoThere are MANY programable keyboards (and just plain USB device controllers). The chances that this can't be gamed are zero.
- jdmichal 6y agoIs it bad that my first reaction would be to bind autohotkey to spam out space bar events?
- 35fbe7d3d5b9 6y agoProbably, too try-hard. I think mine would be to press the spacebar once. I'd get rejected for not following instructions.
- 00deadbeef 6y agoI just timed myself. 224 times. I wonder what that says about me?
- jonnycomputer 6y agoA finger-tapping test is often used to normalize other kinds of response time, essentially to control for uninteresting between-person differences in neuro-muscular performance. Was there some kind of cognitive control task too, e.g. where they ask you to refrain from responding to certain stimuli? Typically in something like that you'd have a hard and an easy condition, and the difference in average response times between those conditions is a proxy for "cognitive control" or impulsivity. If an employer were interested in that they'd want to remove the effect of finger speed. I don't think companies should be administering psychometric tests. But it doesn't make the task you refused to do meaningless.
- Igelau 6y ago> But it doesn't make the task you refused to do meaningless Did they say it was? I'd withdraw my application too. There's no good reason for it, just bad reasons that they think are good.
- Frazmatazz 6y agoAll data is meaningless if interpreted or used incorrectly. Is there any evidence supporting the use of psychometric evaluations in the context of making hiring decisions? Just intuitively, I would think the predictive power would be low.
- jonnycomputer 6y agoagreed.