I applied for a warehouse job and the interviewer loved me and my resume and said I was hired, I just had to fill out a basic literacy test. I was studying at university so it was a silly thing to ask but he said it’s just a formality; they have to do it.
One question said “describe yourself in three sentences”. I wrote something like “I am very punctual. I enjoy stacking boxes. I’m a self starter. I always do more than asked.” Get it? It’s four sentences but they asked for three. The fourth one being about doing more than asked. Funny right?? Yeah the interviewer called me back saying head office didn’t find it funny and I was disqualified for failing the literacy test.
I figured I dodged a bullet because it must suck to work for a bunch of people without a sense of humour!
I think they wanted people who follow orders to the dot, not people who have a sense of humor. Sounds like a terrible place to work, but I still understand their reasoning.
Those people would have also fired you for failing the question because you weren’t fired, you just weren’t hired. I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to have a sense of humor but they’re basically saying you’re illiterate because you can write 4 sentences instead of 3, instead of just being honest about the fact that they’re gonna micromanage you and they can already see it won’t work out because you don’t follow stupid rules to the letter.
I applied for a warehouse job and the interviewer loved me and my resume and said I was hired, I just had to fill out a basic literacy test. I was studying at university so it was a silly thing to ask but he said it’s just a formality; they have to do it.
One question said “describe yourself in three sentences”. I wrote something like “I am very punctual. I enjoy stacking boxes. I’m a self starter. I always do more than asked.” Get it? It’s four sentences but they asked for three. The fourth one being about doing more than asked. Funny right?? Yeah the interviewer called me back saying head office didn’t find it funny and I was disqualified for failing the literacy test.
I figured I dodged a bullet because it must suck to work for a bunch of people without a sense of humour!
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Martin Fowler has a pretty good collection of these.
I think they wanted people who follow orders to the dot, not people who have a sense of humor. Sounds like a terrible place to work, but I still understand their reasoning.
Those people would have also fired you for failing the question because you weren’t fired, you just weren’t hired. I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to have a sense of humor but they’re basically saying you’re illiterate because you can write 4 sentences instead of 3, instead of just being honest about the fact that they’re gonna micromanage you and they can already see it won’t work out because you don’t follow stupid rules to the letter.
Maybe writing two sentences would have been more than asked, since it would have been more concise. Who knows. I’m sorry that happened to you.
They simply decided that intelligent person will get super bored in this position and will not perform well.
It’s hard for me to imagine this not being Amazon. That’s ridiculous.