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Old 29th Jan 2007, 01:32
  #13 (permalink)  
Sunfish
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: moon
Posts: 3,564
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This stuff was done to death about thirty years ago. Just do the tests, be yourself, if the tests reveal you are an accident waiting to happen then thank your lucky stars that you aren't working for people who believe this drivel.

First of all, some of the "personality inventory" tools were originally designed to diagnose sick people - ie: For use by people presenting at a hospital with some form of mental condition. Thats why you see questions in them like "I believe life is hopeless and I have no control over what happens to me." (Answer scale from "Agree strongly" to "disagree strongly"). These tests provide no useful data in healthy people.

Then there are the personality type definers like the Myers Briggs Tests that rank you as introvert/extrovert - feeling justifying, etc etc. You can fool these tests easily if you know what the airline is looking for (Hint - they are not looking for brooding introverts with "gut feel" perceptive thinking
skills. Pilots are going to show up with extroversion, a penchant for analytic thinking and fast decionmaking, uncomfortable with dualities.

Then there are all the proprietary tests designed to provide team players etc. etc. and weed out "bad" personalities. You can fool those too - you get taught it at MBA school, its not that hard.

The potentially dangerous pilots - narcissists, will sweep an interviewer off his(her) feet as well as pass any personality test with flying colors. I haven't seen it in aviation but I've seen it in business - the "born super manager" who knows all the jargon but destroys the company. Ernest K Gann refers to a pilot like this in "Fate is the Hunter".

Some of these test vendors also include trick questions to produce "Lie scores" so that in theory you can pick whop is lieing in the test. Only trouble is that a high lie score actually shows great motivation for wanting to do the job.

The U.S. Supreme Court went through all this a long time ago when "test results" were cited as the reason for racial bias in hiring and promotion decisions. The tests lost.

Aptitude tests - well that is a very different matter. They are relevent.


Also be aware that the axis of the aptitude test is occassionally not what it says it is.The classic in the Army at officer cadet courses is to be given a squad of soldiers and a pile of timber and being told to build a bridge within a set time limit. Needless to say, the "squad" have been told to stuff it up anyway and everyway possible. One simply sits back with the stopwatch prominently extended and watches the frustration build. It's great fun to do it when the candidate hasn't slept for 24 hours. The resulting explosion has terminated more than one career.
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