Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sanity...Oh Sweet Fleeting Sanity

It might amuse you, my dear readers, to know that I had to take a full blown psychological assessment for reasons that will hopefully become more apparent in the near future when I am a little freer to discuss the reasons for same. In the meantime, I thought you might find parts of one of the assessment exercises interesting. I was asked to do a sentence completion exercise. I have no idea what insight this exercise gave them into my psyche, but apparently it didn't trip any major alarms.

Following are some of the more interesting questions/responses (set up in bold, completion responses normal):

  • If I were given complete and absolute freedom and the means to do it, I would restore a vintage DC-3 or PBY Catalina and fly it all over the world to visit places I’ve never been, learn about other cultures, do things I’ve never done and help as many people as I could along the way." 
  • The 4 traits in people I dislike most are a) dishonesty, b) bad table manners, c) stubborness, and d) abusiveness to other people or animals.
  • Most people don't know that they are blind to their own ignorance.
  • People in business generally want to stay in business.
  • Power is dangerous.
There was three pages of that kind of stuff not including the four or five other online assessments including advanced numerical reasoning (math geekery - which is greater? 1/59-1/95 or 1/37-1/73), pattern analysis (think Rohrshach ink blots meets Sesame Street "which one of these is most like the other"), personality inventories, etc. It was an evening of fun and self discovery for the whole family. Not really...it did take the whole evening...by myself...in the office. It was like taking the GRE and LSAT all over again...with the full knowledge that someone was going to use the information to make a recommendation about my "suitability".

Missed dinner too.That made me a little grumpy the next morning (woke up with a headache) when I was supposed to meet with the head shrinker in person.

More to come hopefully in the next week or so.

12 comments:

  1. Well thought out answers, and you're far more restrained than I'd be when asked the same.

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  2. Yes, lots more restrained than I would be. Good luck in whatever this is supposed to be accomplishing.

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  3. Power is voltage times current.

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  4. North- LOL!

    I hated those tests!

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  5. i have worked for several agencies and am wondering if the next step, if you pass, will be a lie-detector test. i have been through all of that for about 18 yrs. your answers are spot-on, btw. you have my email if you want to talk about this some more.

    good luck in your endeavours.

    your friend,
    kymber

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  6. Stephen, restraint was difficult at times. For instance, one sentence was "I suffer most from..." My inclination was to answer "...a dry sense of humor." or "...bad puns." I chose to take things a little more seriously since I didn't want for there to be a written record on file somewhere suggesting that I might be a tad bit twisted.

    Matt, I'm told that the process is going very smoothly. In fact, it is supposedly so smooth that the words "miraculous" and "surprising" are being tossed around.

    North, dangit...why didn't I think of that? Other acceptably snarky answers would have been "Power is necessary to keep the beer cold." or "Power is only a problem at the wrong end of a pair of jumper cables."

    Keads - I'm not a fan either.

    kymber, there has been no mention of a lie detector test as part of the process though I had a friend once who applied for an engineering job with one of the companies who builds subs for the US Navy. He listed me as a reference, and the chat I had with the FBI checking references was very interesting.

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  7. Good luck, I think you're going to be fine.

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  8. Me not you, I'm not terribly worried about the situation. It's just the waiting that's annoying.

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  9. Is the waiting worse than when you were waiting to hear from law school?

    I've missed you!

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  10. GunDiva, Yes and no. The time element involved so far has been very fast and definite. So, I haven't had to wait very long or wonder what's going on. Having said, there have been a couple of "Is it tomorrow yet?"s.

    And I've missed you all too. This whole blogger thing is addicting.

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  11. Just keep in mind what Sigmund Freud said..

    "The aim of psychoanalysis is to relieve people of their neurotic unhappiness so that they can be normally unhappy."

    May all your days be happy ones :o)

    Hope it continues to go well for you....

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  12. Mr. Daddy, I try to avoid Freudian slips.

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