7 REASONS TO NEVER DO AN ASSESSMENT!

1. In this modern age, we make decisions through dialogue, participation, consultation, involvement, and input. Then comes the power structure of an assessment! You're an object, the subject that's observed and examined. You're a sitting duck. Do you have comments? Ha ha, we'll note 'the individual is sensitive to criticism' and add this to the - of course unchanged - conclusion.

2. Most assessments are not assessments at all! A 'real' assessment consists of various components: questionnaires, interviews including discussions about biography and results, and tasks that require different behaviors, knowledge, and skills that are demonstrably relevant to the role. If you want to do that seriously, it takes up a whole day. So, what are all these e-assessments worth?

3. If you're unlucky enough to have to go through a 'real' assessment, you won't even know what the purpose of those instruments and tasks is. Moreover, the questions are often more of the same, mind-numbing, verbose, tedious, and most importantly: far too many. This makes it quite likely that you'll become irritated, grumpy, or sluggish, and that disinterest and lethargy will strike. And of course, you'll get that nicely served in the results! Smacks of manipulation and not being taken seriously.

4. If the result of an assessment is disappointing, you're marked for life. You're labeled with a tag you can never get rid of. It can make you depressed, put you on sick leave. It can be fatal for your career. You have to defend yourself against opinions you never asked for. Your quality of life can be seriously disturbed by it. And practically, it leads you away from work rather than towards it.

5. The opaqueness of the whole thing smells of arbitrariness. There's no consistent overall assessment protocol, the approach of one agency can differ greatly from another, every assessment psychologist has their own way of interviewing, and so on. Not to mention what mood the assessment psychologist is in that day. This leads to dubious judgments. It's like with civil servants: it depends on who you encounter. And also very much: if you don't recognize your results, you'll just get the answer: they're your answers, not mine! Also, everything happens afterwards and then everything can be justified. Ladies and gentlemen, we smell abuse of power and institutional sadism.

6. If an organization takes you seriously, why don't they believe you on your word? You're not a criminal because you're applying, right? You have to trust them on their word too, don't you? Why do they have to know everything about you and you don't get a psychological profile of the people you're going to work with or the department you're going to join? Actually, there should be company or department assessments that show to what extent the environment you're entering is harmful!

7. Assessments actually make one thing very clear: you're distrusted. They think you present yourself better than you are or even that you outright lie. That's projection and it says everything about the company and the psychologist, but nothing about you. The paradox is also that by lying and impressing in an assessment, you get rejected, while in the business world, you can get very far with it! And also so nicely contradictory: acting talent. No, you should just be yourself, but you're expected to play a role in a situation you'll never experience in your life, with types who don't exist in your work, with actors who don't need a side job for nothing, while a room full of know-it-alls watches!

Have you recognized the misconceptions in each reason? Read the answers in the blog: 7 reasons to do an assessment 

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- Alexander Tegenbosch, Director iScreen