Why do tech companies give "assessments"...

[mjr]

Where a lot of times the answers are easily searchable?

I don't get that. And a lot of times, I don't see how the assessments apply to the "real world".

Like the classic "FizzBuzz" problem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizz_buzz

Unless they have you do the assessment there, in front of them, those answers to those questions are easily searchable.

[Gerrinson]

Because even being able to search for simple answers is also a skill?

[csquared]

It is all a sales pitch.

[mjr]

It's kind of dumb though, right?

[dalesys]

Checkboxing as a substitute for due diligence. Like HP may have done with Autonomy...

[mjr]

Checkboxing as a substitute for due diligence. Like HP may have done with Autonomy...

But "passing" the assessment doesn't mean you can do the work -- and "not passing" the assessment doesn't mean that you can't do the work.

[dalesys]

But "passing" the assessment doesn't mean you can do the work -- and "not passing" the assessment doesn't mean that you can't do the work.

As long as the eedjit "passed" HR's ass is safe. Not their problem.

[LadyofArc]

Checkboxing as a substitute for due diligence. Like HP may have done with Autonomy...

Pretty much. Also certification is a pain in the ass.
I believe that when my partner did his Red Hat certification recently (Linux stuff, that's all I know), the computers were disabled to prevent him actually doing that.

As long as the eedjit "passed" HR's ass is safe. Not their problem.

Also pretty much this.

[RealUnimportant]

Eh, it's not just tech companies; way back when I was looking at temping to keep fluid between "real" jobs, I took a couple of typing and competency tests; the typing speed test crashed halfway through, so I got to restart it already knowing a lot of what I needed to copy, so was a bit quicker. Then there was a Word-based "write this, format it this way" test, and the special test version of Word had all the help files built in, which was very handy as I had never used it before!

[Mental_Mouse]

Tests of that sort aren't meant to test for high technical competence, but for a minimum level. As I hear it, these days anyone hiring tech support has to weed out a distressing percentage of applications amounting to "I have no relevant education or experience, but my welfare manager/employment counselor/daddy insisted I put tech qualifications on my resume because those tech jobs pay big bucks, and also I have to apply for 10 jobs this month with no excuses...".

[Nunavut Pants]

I vividly remember the people that we interviewed for software engineer positions who couldn't even describe a FOR-type loop... Weeding more of them out would have helped us not to waste so much time...