I work for the government. The hiring practices of the government differ slightly than the real world. Putting it simply, anyone who works for the government falls under 1 of 2 categories: Civil Service, or Political Apointee. Civil Servants typically pass some kind of exam and are then ranked based on the results. Test takers are then selected to fill positions based on their rank. In theory, this is supposed to provide for a fair method of employment. (Political Apointees don’t take any tests; they’re typically selected by elected officials, usually campaign contributors or something like that.)
I recently took a Civil Service test for a higher position: an oddity about my career track within the context of Civil Service is that the exam for technology positions consists of a resume submission and a take-home exam. The take-home exams questions do not test a candidate’s practical knowledge; a question on the exam may be something like “Please list the number of years (0, 1 or 2) in which you have experience in the following:
___ Hands-on experience in mobile microcomputers
___ Local or Wide Area Network Administration
Please describe your experience in these areas.”
As you can see, an exam like this doesn’t really test the applicant: for the most part, he or she can just write down all the good numbers and fake the rest. It’s really kind of a bullshit selection method.
That said, I took one of these “tests” some months and scored an 80 out of 100 (minimum passing score of 70) for a grade 19 position (starting salary somewhere around $39K). My rank on the resulting list, however, was 87. 86 people scored higher than me on this test, meaning in order for me to be “reachable” (procedurally possible to be selected from the list), 84 people have to be either hired or removed from the list. That’s lovely.
I recently got back the test results from an equivelant position: I scored a 90! That should be pretty good, right?
My rank on the list: 87. Again.
Fuck. That.