Status: Undergraduate studying computer engineering
Position: Software Engineer Intern Summer 2020
Location: UK
Date: November 8, 2019
I applied on the company careers site. Three days later I was contacted by the recruiter and Invited to the next stage.
Behavioural assessment(~1 hour)
This assessment time itself takes around 35-45 minutes to complete, with an additional 5-7 minutes to download the app and read through the instructions for the different levels. This assessment was a game-based, psychometric assessment. The assessment was hosted on Arctic Shores.
Assessment Deadline: 5 Days from invitation.
The assessment was just a game of 7 different levels:
level 1 - Memorize
you are given 15 cards, each time they light up in a certain sequence. You are expected to memorize and repeat the order at which cards lit up.
level 2 - P and Q
you are given a grid of arrows (facing left, right or 'X') and asked to focus on only the middle arrow.If it is facing left press'Q', press 'P' when it is facing right. Press no keys if the middle arrow is surrounded by 'X's only.
level 3 - more P and Q
you are given 4 lsmall black screens and a picture appears one at a time on one of the screens randomly. If the picture is a 'light bulb' press 'Q'. If it is a gear press 'P'.
level 4 - Backspace
you are given a balloon and pressing backspace causes it to inflate. Each time you inflate the balloon you recieve 1$. If however the balloon blew up you get nothing. You must press Enter to grant the amount of money you got to your bank account.
level 5 - Facial expression Recognition
you are given random photos of people and a group of emotions (sad - happy - neutral- disgust - angry - surprised - scared) and asked to choose the approriate expression for each photo.
level 6 - Power generators
you are given 4 power generators and each time you lift the generator's switch you either get or lose power. generate maximum power you can get.
level 7 - Bet on stockmarket
you are part of a team in Visa and you have another opponent team.
If you both bet high you both lose.
If you both bet low you get 50.
Result
just after I finished the game I recieved an email from Arctic Shores, my personality report.
This report is organised into 5 sections that contain a set of unique psychological
characteristics:
• Personal Style
• Cognition
• Drive
• Interpersonal Style
• Thinking Style
Result of the stage[reject]
I recieved an email from Visa hiring team: "We’ve reviewed your background and experience and unfortunately, we have decided to move ahead with other candidates."
My thoughts
I felt how silly the whole thing seems as I am writing down this interview experience. Evaluating an undergraduate software engineer based on a "game" reflects recruiters' ignorance. I don't care if this is a tested method of evaluation or not. It doesn't even measure your personal abilities or work skills. No single question was about any thing related to Computer engineering. No one tested my problem-solving skills nor my knowledge.
Overall
It was a really bad experience and a waste of time. I think interviewing interns should be something more serious.
and I want you guys to leave your opinions on that and correct me if I am wrong maybe you have some point of view.