A company boss has revealed a test that every interviewee must pass in order to get the job.
While most candidates will take the time to prepare answers for the questions that will make or break their interview, one boss has shared another method she uses to assess hopefuls.
Calling it the ‘alphabet test’, this manager uses it to weed out which applicants are up to the challenge.
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In a post on Reddit, one user asked: “Managers, do you have special ‘tests’ for interviewees that you put them through without their knowing?”
In response, one boss decided to reveal a secret method she uses to test potential employees.
She said: “I invented a little test that got some positive interest from HR and some more dubious attention from the legal department. I call it the ‘alphabet test’.
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“At some point during the interview, I would request that the interviewee 'please do me a favour and take a pen and paper and write the alphabet for me'." She says this taught her two things.
“This taught me two very important things. One, if they knew the alphabet, which was actually relevant to a most basic function of the job and surprisingly (or not) an occasional problem. Two, whether or not they could follow instructions and perform a very simple although seemingly stupid task as requested without asking me ‘why?’.”
Explaining the logic behind it, the manager shared how her firm uses an alphabetizing system.
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If things are logged incorrectly, this could create serious delays.
Others took to the comment section to share their own thoughts on the test.
One user wrote: “This would be good in finding the mindless drones. As a manager, I would want people to understand why they are doing what they’re doing and how it is relevant to the job, the department or the company. Sure, you get a lot of ‘personalities’ that way, but I find it preferable to working with sheep.”
Another person added: “People need to be able to carry out mindless tasks as well. I suffer from colleagues who feel they are too good for some extremely basic things, such as loading the printer with paper, or cleaning their dirty plates away from the rest area after they have finished lunch, or are unable to take a parcel down to post to have it shipped.
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“These a**holes will do what they can to claim to be too busy for these demeaning and menial tasks, and try to get them shifted to someone else, or just ignore a problem until someone else has to take care of it. Too many primadonnas like this, at a workplace, and you'll suddenly find yourself spending money on consultants in order to save what remains of teamwork ability at a workplace.”