i had a very similar test at a grocery store interview in 2006. The questions were like, are you a thrill seeker? Naive 17 year old me was like....well, I like roller coasters, maybe the job interviewer wants to talk about that? 20 years later I still think about how insanely idiotic that was, and what a massive waste of my time it was to take the test, someone's time to put it together, and the financial impact to the grocery store to pay for that. I say as someone who generally can understand a lot of the nonsense that goes along with interviewing and sourcing labor, but that was really next level stupidity.
My brother applied for a job in 2006, for which he was perfect for. They invited him for the job for one day to see whether he likes it or not. What he didn't know was, that day was one big psychological test. For instance they sent him to get stuff from the storage, which don't exist, and then stopped the time how long he would search, and when he would finally ask for help.
He is rather shy and doesn't talk much, so they said he took 5 minutes too long and therefore failed, was not hired and was told to work on his personality.
Another company hired him without that bullshit, and boss said he is the best employee he has ever had. No chitchat, no smalltalk, says good morning and goodbye and in between works on his own without distraction. Except when boss took along his dog, then my brother was found sitting by his dog during his breaks and spoil the dog rotten.
Yeah they test if you fit the into the team, I however found that if you are not self-confident, you have problems in life in general. But I am like too shy to ask for help and would feel stupid to not have found the storage and think it is my brain damage (I have Cerebral palsy) and completely break down.
I am also shy and I hate talking to strangers. I would have thought asking for help signals I am incompetent and a loser, so I don't think I would have asked right away. I hate those psychological tests so much. It feels like they are only made to make those fail, who they don't want.
Asking for help in a confident way is the way out here. "Excuse me, I am new here, I was told to go there and there, would you help me." But the fact that the storage did not exist is iffy, because the coworkers might see you as strange on the first day. They should have given him a task that would require help and see if he asks (which is legit, but not a non-existent storage that would make a person think they are mad.)
Respectfully, you aren’t really thinking about this right imo. lower level jobs get all types of varying intelligence- they just want you to ask. asking for help is never weird. They don’t need some smarty pants that never needs help - sure that might be nice I guess, but they usually just want people who will ask when they’re unsure right away, get the help, and move on.
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u/Creative_Text3018 Aug 18 '26
i had a very similar test at a grocery store interview in 2006. The questions were like, are you a thrill seeker? Naive 17 year old me was like....well, I like roller coasters, maybe the job interviewer wants to talk about that? 20 years later I still think about how insanely idiotic that was, and what a massive waste of my time it was to take the test, someone's time to put it together, and the financial impact to the grocery store to pay for that. I say as someone who generally can understand a lot of the nonsense that goes along with interviewing and sourcing labor, but that was really next level stupidity.