# Pre-Employment Screening



## Thesemindz (Apr 20, 2009)

So my wife is interviewing companies to work for when she finishes school, and the company that she's most interested in sent her a survey to fill out before they schedule a face to face. I thought the questions were interesting, so I'm reposting them here.

1. Whose opinion do you listen to? 
2. Whose opinion do you value? 
3. Have you ever translated a hobby into income? 
4. What constitutes happiness to you? 
5. Do you play to win or play to keep from losing? 
6. Can you explain the difference between influence and control? 
7. Where do you find magic? 
8. Where do you find hope? 
9. Where do you find beauty? 
10. Do you like things that are &#8220;different&#8221; every time? For example, do you have multiple recordings of the same thing? 
11. Is your memory as good as you think it should be? And what do you remember most often? 
12. Have you ever witnessed theft? If so, what did you do about it? 
13. Can you give us an example of something you believe that is phony or inauthentic? 
14. How do you define service? 
15. What separates good service from bad service? 
16. How do you define the &#8220;moment of value&#8221; for a product or service; i.e. when does something have its greatest value for you? 
17. Where do you find excitement? 
18. Where do you find passion? Where do you find satisfaction? 
19. What is your most common source of frustrations? 
20. Whom do you respect? 
21. What do you respect? 
22. What magazines do you subscribe to or read? 
23. What television shows do you regularly watch? 
24. How would you describe the kind of music you most frequently listen to at home, at work, and in the car? 
25. What is your favorite movie? 
26. In which room of your home are you the most comfortable? 
27. Are you more or less comfortable with people your own age? 
28. What one possession of yours do you believe best defines you? 
29. If you were going to learn or do something you&#8217;ve never done, what would it be? 
30. If you were a time traveler would you rather live in the future or past? Or would you stay in the present? 
31. If you had to describe your lifestyle in one word, what would that word be?

Now, what I found interesting about this is that a place of employment thought that these 31 questions were necessary to determine whether or not someone would be a good fit for their company.

Most of the pre-employment surveys I've taken had questions like -

1. Do you consider taking home company property one of the "perks" of your job?
2. Do you think you'd get along better with others if you didn't start so many fights?
3. Do people often refer to you as violent or aggressive?
4. If you knew a coworker was stealing money from the company, would you tell your employer or would you blackmail your coworker into splitting the take?
5. If you were asked to sweep the floor would you beat your boss to death with the broomstick?

For the most part, the questions I'm used to don't tell the employer if you're smart enough for the job, they just tell him if you're too stupid to hire.

On the other hand, the questions she recieved from this employer don't generally adress those issues, with the exception of question 12. Instead, they seek a deeper understanding of the applicant. Interesting.


-Rob


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## shesulsa (Apr 21, 2009)

That's curious.  Is she applying for a job in education? a religious organization?


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## Thesemindz (Apr 21, 2009)

Nope. She's interviewing some of the top salons in the country for a position as a stylist.


-Rob


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## Carol (Apr 21, 2009)

The times I've seen questions like that have been for opportunities that had a heavy sales component to the work.  Stylists have to do more than just a nice cut and color, they have to do it in a way that is profitable for the salon.  Chances are they are using these questions to get a feel for how easily she will adapt an environment where she will be expected to frequently upsell her clients.


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## Drac (Apr 21, 2009)

WOW!!! That's some survey...


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## terryl965 (Apr 21, 2009)

All of that to be a hair stylist


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## Drac (Apr 21, 2009)

terryl965 said:


> All of that to be a hair stylist


 
Really.. I ran one of the biggest clubs in Ft Laud and had access to thousands of dollars and coporate credit cards and my pre-employment screening was NOTHING like that...


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## shesulsa (Apr 21, 2009)

Cosmetology is only partly about the talent ... personability and sales are the larger part of the job because without that you can't keep your clients.

I worked part of my way through community college by doing nails and it is *all* about interacting with people.  I can understand the purpose of the questions better now.

Good luck to her!


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## LuckyKBoxer (Apr 21, 2009)

interesting, I can understand what they are looking for with several of those questions, a few though I would have to see answers before I could even begin to guess what they are looking for.

I know one of my favorite questions is asking if they have a personal library at home, and what is included in it. I have mde the decision to hire and not hire many people  based on the answers to this question.


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## Nomad (Apr 21, 2009)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> I know one of my favorite questions is asking if they have a personal library at home, and what is included in it. I have mde the decision to hire and not hire many people based on the answers to this question.


 
These (the question above and the OP) questions are very interesting, and a little bit scary.  I'd hate to think that I lost a job because of a disagreement with my employers' personal taste.  I enjoy reading Science Fiction while he prefers Historical Non-fiction, or my preference for Heavy Metal music vs his love of Country-Western.  

I think these actually say very little about a person's capacity to do a job, and tend to come off more as someone wanting to surround themselves with people with compatible hobbies.  I think it could easily lead to misconceptions and stereotyping based on the employer's view of some of the preferences (which may be quite different from the reality).

Some questions on the list look to me like they could easily lead to perceptions and even accusations of discrimination, while others may give insight into someone's personality, but should, IMHO, be interpreted with great care.

I suspect that the main practical purpose this would serve would be to weed out those who don't spend sufficient time and thought on their answers.


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## arnisador (Apr 21, 2009)

They can correlate the answers to these things with good work habits. It's a screening tool for who'll be nice to customers and pliable as an employee. Lots of places are now giving personality inventories to screen for that sort of thing surreptitiously. If you decline to take the test or answer frivolously, what kind of smart-aleck employee would you be? If you take it seriously and with no fuss, won't you be a good follower on the job?


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## celtic_crippler (Apr 21, 2009)

Looks like they're looking for someone with an "entrepreneural spirit." She wouldn't be interviewing for a Sales or Marketing position would she?


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## Thesemindz (Apr 21, 2009)

terryl965 said:


> All of that to be a hair stylist


 
All of that to be a high paid professional at one of the most prestigious salons in the country.

Hair stylists pay many thousands of dollars for their education and many enter the work force with a starting pay of between 30 and 45 _thousand_ a year. Starting.

Some of the stylists associated with this salon make a thousand dollars _a day._

Many people have this idea that being a professional stylist is a joe job for drop outs. That couldn't be further from the truth. While there are those who do the industry a disservice, just as in every industry, most stylists are service professionals who have studied a very difficult skill.

Feel free to try cutting your own hair sometime if you doubt the practice and skill necessary to produce a professional product.


-Rob


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## Thesemindz (Apr 21, 2009)

Drac said:


> Really.. I ran one of the biggest clubs in Ft Laud and had access to thousands of dollars and coporate credit cards and my pre-employment screening was NOTHING like that...


 
Perhaps that's because you were applying for a _completely different job._ 

I have held many jobs and never seen a pre employment screening like this either, that's why I found it interesting.


-Rob


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## Thesemindz (Apr 21, 2009)

Nomad said:


> These (the question above and the OP) questions are very interesting, and a little bit scary. I'd hate to think that I lost a job because of a disagreement with my employers' personal taste. I enjoy reading Science Fiction while he prefers Historical Non-fiction, or my preference for Heavy Metal music vs his love of Country-Western.
> 
> I think these actually say very little about a person's capacity to do a job, and tend to come off more as someone wanting to surround themselves with people with compatible hobbies. I think it could easily lead to misconceptions and stereotyping based on the employer's view of some of the preferences (which may be quite different from the reality).
> 
> ...


 
I understand your position here, and don't even disagree with some of your conclusions.

But is hiring people with similar hobbies necessarily a bad thing for an employer to do? While any employer would certainly want competent employees, the work place may be more conducive to a team enviroment if the employees share similar interests or backgrounds.

Of course, there is something to be said for introducing widely varied viewpoints as well. And I know from personal experience that just because someone shares all of your hobbies doesn't _necessarily_ make them a good coworker, or roommate.


-Rob


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## Thesemindz (Apr 21, 2009)

celtic_crippler said:


> Looks like they're looking for someone with an "entrepreneural spirit." She wouldn't be interviewing for a Sales or Marketing position would she?


 
Well, yes and no.

She's applying to be a stylist at a high end salon. But that position includes service and product sales, and marketing, as well as the actual skilled labor of coloring, styling, and cutting hair.

In many ways, hair stylists are local business owners. In fact, many of them are _exactly _that. Some rent booth space from a salon, but work as an individual business, and are taxed as such. Others are employees of a salon, but are still required to create their own leads and bring in and keep their own clients.

There's actually a lot of depth to the industry that I had no idea about until we looked into it.

Tip your stylist.


-Rob


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## rainahudson44 (Dec 5, 2012)

Ohh yeah! some questions are weird though. really not interesting. hope she pass the interview.


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## WC_lun (Dec 6, 2012)

I could be mistaken, but I think it might be more about how she answers the questions rather than what she answers to the questions.  The salon might be looking for adaptive, thoughtful people and an odd survey like this might give you a clue to those traits in a person.  It could also be a device to weed out those that either can't fill out the questons or won't fill them out.


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## granfire (Dec 6, 2012)

Thesemindz said:


> All of that to be a high paid professional at one of the most prestigious salons in the country.
> 
> Hair stylists pay many thousands of dollars for their education and many enter the work force with a starting pay of between 30 and 45 _thousand_ a year. Starting.
> 
> ...



well, the ones that work at Walmart are...

Still, the questionair is a humdinger!

But considering the position, I can see it: A stylist has to be a good conversationalist and when you look at the top salon clients, you gotta be open to a whole lot of BS to earn your tip, stuff that the rest of us with real probalems hardly have the time to think about.


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## Steve (Dec 6, 2012)

Nomad said:


> Some questions on the list look to me like they could easily lead to perceptions and even accusations of discrimination, while others may give insight into someone's personality, but should, IMHO, be interpreted with great care.


Perceptions, maybe.  Accusations, possibly.  But actual discrimination?  Very, very unlikely.  Musical preference or taste in books are not protected bases.  The only way this could even possibly be considered illegal discrimination would be if the end result of the questionnaire is a homogeneous group of employees which specifically excludes people who fall under a protected base.  In other words,  if you ask these questions and then by some fluke consistently opt against hiring well qualified applicants within a protected base, whether race, age, religion, gender or what have you.

But, Thesmindz, good luck to your wife!  I agree with the others that this survey is a little outside the norm, but hopefully it's nothing nefarious and with honest answers, she can get the job.  sounds like a great opportunity.


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## Bill Mattocks (Dec 6, 2012)

Necro-thread, just FYI.


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## Steve (Dec 6, 2012)

Gah...  I looked at the dates of the last few.

So... did she get the job???


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## Big Don (Dec 6, 2012)

> 7. Where do you find magic?
> 8. Where do you find hope?
> 9. Where do you find beauty?


There are only three answers to these questions:
7. Over there
8. Thattaway
9. The corner of Olive and Parkway (Fresno thing, try Google street view...)


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