Yesterday was an eventful day. We were in a snowstorm and I had to take an employment test 36 miles away. I almost cancelled the test, but it was the last day for it so I braved the onslaught of white fluffiness, I need a job. Not sure how much snow we got in all, however, when I reached my destination at noon, it was reported 8 inches by ten a.m.
Anywho…after whiteout conditions I was ready for a warm latte and a warm room to take this important employment test in. I am not divulging who/what the test was for. I will just say that it was a general skills test. It was comprised of general knowledge, picking out definitions for words, comprehension by reading a paragraph and answering questions, some addition, subtraction and one multiplication question, the rest were setting you up with situations in which you had to pick the correct answer using given information.
I arrived at exactly 4 minutes to one. The test was to start at one. There was already a woman in the testing room. I went in and the facilitator had me sign in, asked for my forms of identification and handed me an application. The application was the standard name, address, ssn, dob and education. In fact it was much less than many applications as you simply had to check mark what your highest education completed was, not actually state where you went. And then it had a few other questions about felonies, drug charges and etc. Standard stuff.
By 1:15 we had another tester and I was done with the application and the I-9 and had read the pamphlet. By 1:25 the facilitator wanted to start the test but the other two testers weren’t done with their application yet. It took the facilitator 4 minutes to convince the other two that it would be alright to finish the application after the test.
So the facilitator started, she had to explain the test, how it was structured, how to fill in the bubbles on the answer sheet and how to NOT write in the test booklet. I had flashbacks to 5th grade…but understood it is part of her job to explain how it works. She also explained that there were 28 questions on the test and 30 minutes to complete the test. Just after she stated, “So that gives you a very good idea how long you have for each question.” The guy that was in there for the test piped up with, “Really??”… and he was seriously confused as to how you could tell how long each question should take.
So…the test began. It wasn’t very difficult, but actually could be confusing if you went too fast. Not that they were trick questions, just that some were very involved. Around question 13 the math questions started. There were five of them. The most complicated one was multiplication of two numbers, one having a decimal point. I was on question 26 when suddenly the man blurts out, “OMIGOD! I HATE MATH!”
When I was done, I looked at the clock and saw that I had 8 minutes left for the test. There were two questions I went over simply because they were complicated with wording so I took the time remaining to go over those two questions to make sure I was satisfied with my answer. The last four minutes I spent darkening my circles on the test sheet.
When the facilitator called time’s up, the other two people were not done with the test yet. Which caused them some grief since they didn’t know and were not told how that might affect their results. In fact the facilitator claimed ignorance as to how the scoring is done, which I am sure she doesn’t know or at least isn’t supposed to tell prospects.
The one thing that really concerned me was that this man was an EMT….and the woman was at least ten to fifteen years older than I…and they had problems filling out the application about themselves. I understand that everyone is different and that people have issues. Perhaps the woman is dyslexic so it takes her longer to read and make sure she is reading correctly, or something. I don’t fault people for that. It just totally struck me as odd, you know…all of it.
It made me feel uncomfortable. Especially when the test was over and they had not been done, the male tester looks at me and asks me if I finished. I said yes. The facilitator smiled and I instantly felt uncomfortable….as if I thought that he suddenly thought I was a genius or that it was some sort of amazing feat.
And this sort of thing also saddens me….because after all this time, all these applications…all these different tests….I still don’t have a job. Worse, the facilitator could not tell us when we would have results and also stated that even if we pass the test, it does not mean that we will get a job because there are so many qualified applicants.
