Compass testing may be a pain in the a**e, but as a hoop to jump through, surely no worse than learning about stable platform inertial sytems, or doppler nav. (Not that long ago in the ATPL syllabus!).
The real problem is allowing HR to let it get to this stage. When you start looking for summer staff in April, having been offered an ample supply of extremely well qualified and motivated people 6 months earlier, then surely, you can expect a few fairly tense interviews with management...