Aptitude Tests Blog

I have been a professional in my field for 20 years yet I have flunked several tests with recruitment agencies. So either I am not a professional or the tests are wrong.

I know what I can do and my resume is there to prove my track record - so I would claim that the tests are wrong. They set the bar so high that all they can demonstrate is how someone in their twenties can cram their head with useless information that will be obsolete in two years time because technology would have moved on from where it is today.

So why do recruiters use stupid tests in the first place? Two reasons: lack of trust and discrimination.

People fudge their job application to get an advantage. Recruiters can't believe anything and everything their read in resumes. Integrity is gone out the window. They could use a lie detector during the interview or they can connect across databases of candidates to check if two versions of your resume contradict each other.

Today any claim you make in a job application has to be proven or demonstrated. Recruiters have so much choice they are not going to take any chances. To minimise their risk of hiring the wrong person they always like to award the position to someone who is already in the workforce employed by a competitor rather than someone who needs a job because there is a family to support.

Senior workers are being discriminated against. There is this fad of the forever young and attractive person spread throughout advertising and the media. The only time you will see actors or models clearly well over their fifties is when they try to sell you a pension fund or a retirement home... Get real. Maybe the reason the country is going to the dogs is that we have forgone the collective wisdom of our elders. Try to tell that to an employer who is 15 years younger than you. Age discrimination has at its roots in the rebellion of the current generation. Because things change so fast people believe the lie that experience counts for nothing. Yes technology moves on at a breath taking pace but certain things in life also remain the same. It takes maturity to know which is which.

Job fulfilment is at an all time low because workers feel constrained in a straight jacket - unable to release their true potential because there are not being trusted. An unspoken corporate culture promotes best practice but it's all public relations spin applied within. Those who succeed in business are those who break the rules and don't fit into any mould. Bill Gates would never be hired by today's Microsoft because he didn't finish his course at Harvard College.