Your Next Job Interview Could Be Playing a Weird Smartphone Game

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Candidates hoping to land their dream job are increasingly being asked to play video games, with companies like Siemens, E.ON and Walmart filtering out hundreds of applicants before the interview stage based partly on how they perform.Played on either smartphones or computers, the games’designers say they can help improve workplace diversity, but there are questions over how informative the results really are.

為了在面試之前淘汰數(shù)百名申請(qǐng)者，西門子、意昂集團(tuán)和沃爾瑪?shù)裙緦ⅰ巴骐娮佑螒颉奔{入了測(cè)試——想得到理想工作的求職者需要先玩游戲，游戲表現(xiàn)將在一定程度上決定其能否獲得面試機(jī)會(huì)。這種做法現(xiàn)在越來(lái)越流行。游戲可以在智能手機(jī)或電腦上玩，游戲設(shè)計(jì)人員稱這些游戲有助提高職場(chǎng)多樣性，但有人質(zhì)疑這樣的測(cè)試結(jié)果究竟能反映多少信息。

[2]To the casual observer, many of the games might seem almost nonsensical.One series of tests by UK-based software house Arctic Shores includes a trial where the player must tap a button frantically to infl ate balloons for a party without bursting them.In another, the candidate taps a logo matching the one displayed on screen, at an ever more blistering pace.

[2]乍看之下，許多游戲似乎毫無(wú)意義。在一款由英國(guó)軟件公司北極海岸開發(fā)的某系列測(cè)試游戲中，玩家必須狂點(diǎn)按鈕，給聚會(huì)用的氣球充氣，同時(shí)還不能讓它們爆炸。在另一款游戲里，玩家需要以超快的速度點(diǎn)擊與屏幕所顯示標(biāo)識(shí)相匹配的那個(gè)標(biāo)識(shí)。

[3]Afterwards, a personality profile is built using data on how someone performed, says Robert Newry at Arctic Shores.They claim the traits that can be measured include a person’s willingness to deliberate, seek novel approaches to tasks and even their tendency for social dominance.“What we are measuring is not your reaction skills, your dexterity,”says Newry.“It’s the way you go about approaching and solving the challenge that is put in front of you.”

[3]北極海岸的羅伯特·紐里表示，游戲過(guò)后，會(huì)根據(jù)求職者游戲過(guò)程中的數(shù)據(jù)分析出其性格特征。他們聲稱，可測(cè)特質(zhì)包括一個(gè)人是否愿意仔細(xì)思考、尋找解決任務(wù)的新方法，甚至是否傾向在社會(huì)中取得主導(dǎo)地位?！拔覀兯鶞y(cè)的不是反應(yīng)技能或者靈巧度，”紐里說(shuō)道，“而是如何處理和解決擺在面前的問(wèn)題。”

[4]Using the games, Siemens UK doubled the proportion of female candidates that made it past the initial stages of graduate recruitment than in the previous year, according to data released by Arctic Shores.Another company that makes such tests, Pymetrics, says its assessments have boosted recruitment of under-represented groups, with one financial services firm increasing the number of minority candidates offered technical roles by 20 per cent.However,it’s not clear if the boost could simply be down to an increased focus on or awareness of diversity in the workplace.

[4]北極海岸最近公布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，借助游戲的方式，西門子英國(guó)公司畢業(yè)生招聘初選階段通過(guò)的女性候選人比例較前一年翻了一番。另一個(gè)制作此類測(cè)試游戲的公司Pymetrics表示，評(píng)估改善了少數(shù)群體的錄用情況——在某金融服務(wù)公司，獲得技術(shù)崗位的少數(shù)族裔人數(shù)增加了20%。然而，這種數(shù)量提升是否可以簡(jiǎn)單歸因于對(duì)職場(chǎng)多樣性關(guān)注度的上升，結(jié)果尚不明確。

[5]The games are meant to offer a form of psychometric testing and are based on techniques developed for measuring personality traits.But whereas in academic research the tests are generally calibrated the same way for all participants, when used for recruitment they are often tweaked depending on how existing employees at a company play them.

[5]游戲基于為衡量性格特征而開發(fā)出的技術(shù)，目的是提供一種心理測(cè)試。但是，在學(xué)術(shù)調(diào)查中，測(cè)試對(duì)所有參與者的衡量標(biāo)準(zhǔn)通常都相同，而用于招聘時(shí)，測(cè)試標(biāo)準(zhǔn)常常會(huì)參照已就職員工的游戲表現(xiàn)加以調(diào)整。

[6]“We go into these companies and say, ‘Your individuals may be different.Let’s use your high performers to put together a data set,’” says Frida Polli, co-founder of Pymetrics.In other words, if your gameplay matches that of someone already at the firm, you’re more likely to advance to the next stage of recruitment.“You can develop a game-based assessment as rigorous as any traditional psychometric assessment,” says Richard Landers at Old Dominion University in Virginia.“But I don’t know how many companies actually succeed at that.” This is because it takes time and money to show that any assessment’s measurement of a given trait is statistically reliable.

[6]Pymetrics 公司的共同創(chuàng)始人弗里達(dá)·波利表示：“我們走進(jìn)這些公司說(shuō)：‘你們的員工可能各不相同。讓業(yè)績(jī)突出的人來(lái)玩游戲，再將測(cè)試結(jié)果形成一組數(shù)據(jù)?！睋Q句話說(shuō)，如果求職者的游戲結(jié)果與已經(jīng)入職者的結(jié)果匹配，那么他更可能勝出進(jìn)入招聘的下一階段?！澳憧梢宰鞒龌谟螒虻脑u(píng)估，跟任何傳統(tǒng)心理測(cè)試的評(píng)估一樣精準(zhǔn)，”弗吉尼亞州歐道明大學(xué)的理查德·蘭德斯說(shuō)，“但我不知道有多少家公司真正成功了。”這是因?yàn)?，要想證明評(píng)估中給定特征的每項(xiàng)測(cè)量數(shù)據(jù)都可靠，需要時(shí)間和財(cái)力。

[7]Landers performed an independent review of game-like intelligence tests by Australia-based firm Revelian and says the results were reliable.Arctic Shores have also ran a study with around 300 participants to validate their games.

[7]蘭德斯對(duì)澳大利亞Revelian公司推出的游戲類智力測(cè)試進(jìn)行了獨(dú)立研究，表示該測(cè)試結(jié)果值得信賴。北極海岸也對(duì)大約300名參與者進(jìn)行了研究，以證實(shí)此類游戲測(cè)試的可行性。

[8]Caryn Lerman at the University of Pennsylvania has studied brain-training apps and says that although people’s improved performance at these can be tracked over time, they generally have no observable impact on cognitive ability in the real world.She is sceptical that playing the games well corresponds to ability to do a good day’s work in the office.

[8]賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)的卡里恩·萊爾曼研究訓(xùn)練大腦的軟件后表示，盡管人們成績(jī)的進(jìn)步能夠不斷被記錄下來(lái)，但在真實(shí)世界中，這些軟件并不會(huì)對(duì)其認(rèn)知能力產(chǎn)生實(shí)際影響。她懷疑游戲玩得好是否代表在辦公室日常工作就能干得好。

[9]Although the game-based tests are mandatory, a company’s decision to interview someone may be based on other factors as well, such as their academic record.But in trying to find new ways of shortlisting the best of the bunch,companies risk alienating unsuccessful candidates, says Margaret Beier at Rice University in Texas.They might even expose themselves to lawsuits.“Ifiapply for a job, play games that seem totally unrelated to it and then don’t get that job, I might have a lot of questions about that assessment,” she says.

[9]盡管必須進(jìn)行基于游戲的測(cè)試，但公司決定面試某人可能還會(huì)考慮其他因素，比如學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)。不過(guò)，得克薩斯州萊斯大學(xué)的瑪格麗特·貝耶爾表示，在嘗試尋找新途徑挑選優(yōu)秀人才的過(guò)程中，公司會(huì)面臨求職者失敗后產(chǎn)生敵視心理的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，甚至可能惹上官司。她說(shuō)：“如果我申請(qǐng)一份工作，玩的游戲似乎與工作崗位毫無(wú)關(guān)系，最后我沒有得到那份工作，那我可能會(huì)對(duì)那種評(píng)估產(chǎn)生很大質(zhì)疑。”