Yeh I'm with OP on this one too. I really fucking dislike the whole premise of tests.. tests which usually comprise multiple layers of bullshit.. in essence to make up for the fact that a lot of people (in HR and companies) these days simply can't read other people correctly. A face to face interview and discussion will tell you infinitely more than a battery of lame ass tests which can be conducted in isolation.
I say this having recently done two of those tests for big multinational companies. One even had videos of workplace scenarios, and at the end a HR boss talked about how great the company was.. yet all the people in the videos were borderline socially retarded. I couldn't stop laughing as I was doing the test. One of the biggest most prestigious companies, staffed by social idiots. No wonder they have to rely on stupid tests.. none of those people could ever conduct an interview.. probably couldn't even conduct a genuine social interaction to save their lives. In the final stage interview for one of them I really thought I was talking to a young social idiot who was on the leash of the older boomer aged manager who was up himself. About halfway through I realized I didn't want to work there, even though money and CV material would have been fantastic! The smaller companies I interviewed with we spent 2 hours talking, really liked who I was and resonated well.. they knew how to actually interview and, well, talk!
The tests are there to also screen based on two criteria:
1. How far are you prepared to bend over for this job? We're a big company.. we're packin' it.. can you accommodate to the needs of the company *Big Business smile grin*
2. Do you have a basic level of intelligence?
Those are ranked in terms of importance. All this bullshit about "our tests are based on psychological bla bla..". It's fucking nonsense. Some company or psychologist has sold their bullshit to the big companies, and now they all use it thinking it works wonders (and saves time/money on interviews). The fact is you can learn how to do those tests, even as you do them you can figure it out, but it doesn't actually tell you what the person is like or how well they will do the job. You can not judge that from tests where a person is hiding behind a screen. Face to face interview tells you everything..
Bottom line is, the big companies are all about the bottom line. They don't give a fuck about you. No real loyalty, no real culture. That's why those with sense leave after a short while.. get the pay and CV material, then leave. I found this during my interviews.. people who had worked at big companies, then moved to smaller ones once they got more senior because the big companies were just devoid of soul.
Alaisdairm: Consistency - Yeh it said that on one of the tests I did too. But I noticed as I was doing the test that the same style of question, sometimes even the same one, would come up 2 or 3 times.. to test for consistency. At the third time of asking my patience was wearing thin and I was thinking "Is this a joke? Are you OK, or are you a fucking retard.. oh wait, you're a computer/test. Ugh". My mood is going to change and I won't be consistent if you consistency ask the same fucking thing over and over again and treat me like the retard when it's you who's the retard!
