Listening to The Cure and thinking about the Bomb.

Among them was someone she knows personally, who has a spot-on CV, loads of experience, lives locally and would be the perfect person for the job. So she goes to HR to ask why that application was never sent through to her dept. The answer – she didn't score well.

Score well on what? It turns out the HR dept adopted screening software that asks a bunch of random questions that applicants must answer quickly, the results of which determine a suitability score. Only those deemed suitable are sent through to the department for interview.

The test supposedly shows with a high degree of scientific accuracy whether an applicant is suitable, giving scores for self-confidence, caring nature, respect for authority etc.

So regardless of someone's qualifications and experience, if they don't pass the personality test, their application doesn't even make it past HR. So my friend sat down with the dept head and took the test. She scored 1 star.

She has worked there for more than 10 years and is quite senior in the department. She has been recognised with internal and external awards for her work. But she wouldn't even get an interview for a junior casual spot in her dept because she failed a personality test.

The HR dept insist their system is highly accurate and they will not pass on any applications from people who don't pass the test. So now the entire department, along with a few senior members of other departments are all taking the test, and coming up with some very poor scores

So if you're wondering why you never got an interview for that job you *know* you would be perfect for – it might be because recruiters are basically slaves to shitty software.

There *might* be some systems out there that are actually good at this, but I doubt it. It's basically reading tealeaves or the entrails of a sacrificed goat. People's careers are being derailed by HR astrology. It's clearly not ideal for the orgs that need good people either.

Likewise, if you’re wondering why you can’t find the right people for that crucial position, it might be because Gwyneth in HR is excluding people using repurposed love quizzes from 1980s magazines

I haven’t got a soundcloud so if you made it this far do something nice for somebody