PSYCH TESTS

[Cobra]

Curious to know if any of you fellow 'drivers' have undergone a PSYCHOLOGICAL APPRAISAL before being contracted/employed by your Company.
Ex 'line & Military pilots would have had that "pleasure?" but I'm curious to know how widespread it is in our field of endeavour.
By the way our Company does it as a matter of practice, including Engineering and Administration.

[ShyTorque]

HAHAHA HAHAHA!

BLUB BLUB BLUB!

WAHOO! YEHAA!

GET BACK! GET BACK!

OI STOPPIT! STOPPIT!

Sorry, What was the question?

Oh, er, yes! Passed - you should have seen the others!

Just relax, be yourself and don't try to put on an act. Unless you're barking mad, that is. And leave the axe at home. Good luck.

[StressFree]

My firm gives a psychometric test but we still seem to end up with some donkeys!!!!
Humour gents, only humour.

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

------------------
'Keep the Stress Down'

[Cobra]

The silence is deafening!!!
Didn't think the question warranted such total disregard.
Oh well, back to "work" http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

[This message has been edited by Cobra (edited 07 February 2001).]

[185 Lbs of Ballast!!]

EEEEE ORRRRRR!!!!!

[Porgy]

Cobra,

When I first graduated as a Psychologist my first job was writing psychometric tests and validating them.

I can only reassure you that the facile response you have had to your posts are very typical and widespread and stem from peoples discomfort at the thought that there may be an objective measure of what is going on inside their heads as opposed to people just accepting the persona which they carefully present.

Porgy

[Cobra]

Porgy

Thanks for your response.
Does seem that the terms Psychological or Psychometric, envoke fear into the minds of my fellow 'travellers'

[TheDrop]

Rumour has it that FlexJet Europe is now picking up on simride entries as well as psychological tests, not just an interview.

Anyone heard anything more about that ?

[Joe Ninety]

Sorry Porgy, but I disagree. My company has been using psychometric tests for a long time and the resulting hires still seem to possess every personality disorder known to man!

In my opinion, the best "psychometric" test available is for a senior pilot with a good line in conversational skills (preferably the same pilot each time) to sit down with the prospective employee and talk to him in depth - not just with the standard interview-type questions, but about all sorts of things - politics, current affairs, what he drives, what he does in spare time, all sorts. I concede that in a large company it's harder to spend the time on that kind of in depth conversation, hence the widespread use in larger outfits of the psychometric test I suppose, but in my experience the companies who hire in the way I've described usually have happier, more fulfilled pilot workforces than the ones who've used psychometric tests.

[Airking]

I agree with Joe90 very much,
having interviewed possible Copilots for our very small ( 1 Aircraft ) aircharter company.
The first one hired stayed for more than 2 years and is now with a major Airline, the other guy is still with us. However, the psych test issue is a growing one, and the discomfort of most testees is something very understandible to me.
My fellow Co now with Lufthansa Cityline, failed at Crossair, because of dominant behavior. What utter bull****, I know him for 2 years and he´s a really relaxed, nice guy.
Then he took the test with HapagLlyod, went through the psychtest and failed in Simulator.
Afterwards he applied at Lufthansa Cityline, and passed all 3 Stages of testing.(Psych test, Sim ,Acessment Center).
Now, how accurate is this Kind of testing?
Having failed at one test (Hapag-Llyod); I wasn´t told why. When I took the test, I had some 3.500hrs, 2.500 of them in command, incident and accident free. That certainly doesn´t means that I´m Charles Lindbergh or Orville Wright, but it shows that I know, where to pull to get airborne.
Anybody in the industry knows that you can prepare for these tests, therefore the level has been raised, meaning that unprepared testees will fail. Now at least they test wether you´re willing to spend another 2.000-4.000 German Marks to pass their test.
Have fun turnig cubes !

[con-pilot]

With my company if you play golf and drink beer you pretty well have it made. You can tell a lot about a person on how they act playing golf and drinking beer.

As for hiring someone that doesn't play golf or drink beer, your'e kidding right?

[Joe Ninety]

Seems like a good opportunity to tell my BA recruiting stories. My friend X tried for years to get in to BA and failed the psycho tests on numerous occasions, only to get in on about the sixth attempt. I've known him for years, a gifted pilot, excellent instructor, nice personality all going to make him a very good crewmember. How come it took them that long to notice? They didn't, he just decided for the last attempt to tell them what they wanted to hear instead of answering the questions truthfully!

Or how about another of my friends, Y? Hamble-trained (that was the flying college BA used to own and run for training their own pilots many years ago), which means he was hand-picked and trained at great expense to the taxpayer, only for there to be no job at the end of it. After a variety of other flying jobs over 10 years or more, he was flying 757s when BA started recruiting again. Considering his background he thought it shouldn't be too hard to get in to BA, so he applied - and failed the psych. tests. A year later, they phoned him and invited him to reapply, given his previous graduation from Hamble with flying colours, so he did, and failed again. Huh?

Plenty more where those stories came from!

[chinny]

The drop
Yes to all the above,-physco,sim and interview.

[Capt Ted Striker]

Chinny,
Any idea if the psycho testing is just personality profiling or the full maths, psychometric and technical type deal?
Cheers
Ted

[old-timer]

phsycho test..???
who asked, what did they say,
what have you heard, I'm only paranoid cos' they are always picking on me,
watch out for the men in white coats, they are in league with 'them'...

Only kidding....
I'm completely normal..honest...
????????

[Cobra]

Seems like most of the replies thus far are from the UK-good to know the problem/s are confined to one location.
Bit like "mad cow" disease http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

[chinny]

Cap'in Ted
Expect the lot but probably won't get the tech!

[FourGreens]

Cobra,

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is not at all like BSE. It is much worse than that. It is NOT confined to one location...

I do have to say that I agree with most of the other replies though. A psychometric test in my opinion does not give a full and completely correct handle to evaluate a personality. Interview is one thing, but I think the way someone is in the simulator and/or in their probation period, gives a much better indication of the person. Believe me, I have seen a lot of examples - as well around me as in person. I failed two tests (Tyrolean and Transavia), but then passed the one for the Air Force. Makes you wonder doesn't it ? They let you fly an F-16, but not a CRJ...

I guess somebodoy needs to make a living somewhere, and therefore it is justified to have a schrink think that he knows what's going on in peoples heads after a couple of hours of testing and questionnaires. However, after two weeks of continuous observation of a group of people in the USA, the psychologists were still not able to predict somebody's behaviour in a reliable way... Draw your own conclusions.

- Cheers

[chinny]

Cap'in Ted
2nd time lucky.....expect everything but probably unlikely to get the tech side of things.It's no big deal as all physco tests are!

[Capt Ted Striker]

Thanks Chinny, much appreciated.
Anyone been through the process recently?
If so, rates of pay and conditions?
Cheers
Ted

[OLD_EGG_BOUND]

Did a whole weekend of tests when I applied to be an explosive ordnance disposal operative, 8 applicants being watched by a dozen officers, 2 pti`s and a number of snco`s.
I passed "without reservation".

Does this mean I am sane?

[Zeitgebers]

Put someone in the sim, then take him to the bar and get him pissed.
This answers 2 questions.
1/ Can he fly ?
2/ Is he a w@nker ?
What else do you need to know !

Just put your underpants on your head and stick two pencils up your nose.

[chinny]

Cap'in Ted
Check out the old thread which has just come off"biz jet" entitled Netjet or Flexjet started by Shanwick Shanwick-lots of good gen there.