In order to gauge their passion for advertising, an ad agency measured the brainwaves of its intern applicants. This is what happened.
If you’ve ever been through an extensive recruitment process, you already know some of the ways companies try to get inside your head. Impossible calculations. Mind bending riddles. Practical problems. Psychometric testing. Left-field questions (like this real-life question: “A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?”). As recruiters try to streamline the hiring process and minimize the potential for decisions that could backfire later, they’re turning to ever more sophisticated means. It makes sense: when people are your most important assets, you need to do everything to ensure they’re the right people.
This is a new one, though: As part of a selection process for five new interns, TBWA\Istanbul, an ad agency in Turkey, placed electroencephalography (EEG) headgear on 503 applicants. Their stated goal was to test the “passion” of the youngsters for ad messaging. Those with strong responses made it through; those with less reaction weren’t so lucky.
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TBWA recruited a neuro-technology firm called Minder to provide the equipment and turn the brain waves into comparable data. Exactly how useful this information is is open to question. Presumably, the subjects could have strong responses for lots of reasons–not all of them related to their passion for the job, or their ability to do it. It’s the sort of process that gives the impression of scientific rigor, but ends up possibly measuring the wrong things. Personally, I feel sorry for the out-of-work graduates who have to put up with it.
via The Latest Job Interview Test: Measuring Your Brain Waves | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.
The Latest Job Interview Test: Measuring Your Brain Waves
