Your Next Job Interview Could Be Playing a Weird Smartphone Game

By

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百名申請者，西門子、意昂集團和沃爾瑪等公司將“玩電子游戲”納入了測試——想得到理想工作的求職者需要先玩游戲，游戲表現將在一定程度上決定其能否獲得面試機會。這種做法現在越來越流行。游戲可以在智能手機或電腦上玩，游戲設計人員稱這些游戲有助提高職場多樣性，但有人質疑這樣的測試結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，許多游戲似乎毫無意義。在一款由英國軟件公司北極海岸開發的某系列測試游戲中，玩家必須狂點按鈕，給聚會用的氣球充氣，同時還不能讓它們爆炸。在另一款游戲里，玩家需要以超快的速度點擊與屏幕所顯示標識相匹配的那個標識。

[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，游戲過后，會根據求職者游戲過程中的數據分析出其性格特征。他們聲稱，可測特質包括一個人是否愿意仔細思考、尋找解決任務的新方法，甚至是否傾向在社會中取得主導地位?！拔覀兯鶞y的不是反應技能或者靈巧度，”紐里說道，“而是如何處理和解決擺在面前的問題。”

[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據顯示，借助游戲的方式，西門子英國公司畢業生招聘初選階段通過的女性候選人比例較前一年翻了一番。另一個制作此類測試游戲的公司Pymetrics表示，評估改善了少數群體的錄用情況——在某金融服務公司，獲得技術崗位的少數族裔人數增加了20%。然而，這種數量提升是否可以簡單歸因于對職場多樣性關注度的上升，結果尚不明確。

[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出的技術，目的是提供一種心理測試。但是，在學術調查中，測試對所有參與者的衡量標準通常都相同，而用于招聘時，測試標準常常會參照已就職員工的游戲表現加以調整。

[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 公司的共同創始人弗里達·波利表示：“我們走進這些公司說：‘你們的員工可能各不相同。讓業績突出的人來玩游戲，再將測試結果形成一組數據?！睋Q句話說，如果求職者的游戲結果與已經入職者的結果匹配，那么他更可能勝出進入招聘的下一階段?！澳憧梢宰鞒龌谟螒虻脑u估，跟任何傳統心理測試的評估一樣精準，”弗吉尼亞州歐道明大學的理查德·蘭德斯說，“但我不知道有多少家公司真正成功了。”這是因為，要想證明評估中給定特征的每項測量數據都可靠，需要時間和財力。

[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]蘭德斯對澳大利亞Revelian公司推出的游戲類智力測試進行了獨立研究，表示該測試結果值得信賴。北極海岸也對大約300名參與者進行了研究，以證實此類游戲測試的可行性。

[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]賓夕法尼亞大學的卡里恩·萊爾曼研究訓練大腦的軟件后表示，盡管人們成績的進步能夠不斷被記錄下來，但在真實世界中，這些軟件并不會對其認知能力產生實際影響。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]盡管必須進行基于游戲的測試，但公司決定面試某人可能還會考慮其他因素，比如學習成績。不過，得克薩斯州萊斯大學的瑪格麗特·貝耶爾表示，在嘗試尋找新途徑挑選優秀人才的過程中，公司會面臨求職者失敗后產生敵視心理的風險，甚至可能惹上官司。她說：“如果我申請一份工作，玩的游戲似乎與工作崗位毫無關系，最后我沒有得到那份工作，那我可能會對那種評估產生很大質疑?！?/p>