Despite meticulous preparation and practising for common interview questions, job candidates cannot be completely sure an interviewer won’t throw an unexpected challenge their way, with the aim to catch them off guard.
This was exactly the tactic one employer claimed he employed while screening applicants for a position at his company, stating that it helped filter out unsuitable candidates.
In a Reddit thread titled, “Managers, do you have special ‘tests’ for interviewees that you put them through without their knowing?”, one manager divulged his unique method—a jigsaw puzzle test—to observe the reaction of potential hires.
He revealed: “My next test involved mixing very different jigsaw puzzles together on the table (one was a Bob Ross original that I cut up with an X-acto knife and the other was a picture of me taken at the 1918 world fair where I am crying after having dropped my ice cream) and asked them to assemble the two original pictures.
“If they refused and told me it was a pointless task, they were a go-getter who didn’t waste their skills with frivolous time-sinks. If they spent the requisite ten hours putting together all 46,000 pieces, they were a go-getter who was willing to drop everything, especially their sanity, to get the job done.”
He asserts that these tests assist him in identifying those with the ‘right’ attitude for the job advertised, enabling him to employ a driven individual who will give their all to every task. He further stated: ” In the end we ended up with some of the greatest minds in the world.”
However, this isn’t his only recruitment strategy as he’s known to test candidates with a piece of candy. He reminisced: “Back in the early 50s when Truman was still the Emperor and jobs were handed out like candy due to the economic boom following the second world war (and candy was distributed like jobs, and so on), I was a hiring manager for a small company you might know as IBM, or Intimidatingly Burly Men.
“It was my duty to recruit only the best candidates, forcing me to devise numerous subtle personality tests to determine the best man for the job (if memory serves, women weren’t permitted jobs until the late 80s, and even then only as secretaries, nurses or eye candy).”
One of the first things I’d do with a new candidate is place a salt lick and a lemon drop on the table before them. I would then ask them to choose their preferred sweet.
Bear in mind, if you will, that sweets were handed out like job offers, serving as a subtle metaphor for employment. If the candidate opted for the salt lick, they demonstrated a go-getter attitude, willing to go the extra mile to impress me. If they chose the lemon drop, they showed their intention to be a hardworking and diligent employee.
