A telephone interview with HR occurred a week after submitting an online application. I was asked to complete a Predictive Index Assessment. I am a seasoned manager with more than 20 years of experience. I have experience with legitimate, statistically verified personality testing such as Myers-Briggs which is the gold standard. I have utilized this type of testing solely in the context of teambuilding for existing employees, as a method for team members to understand each other’s behaviors and motivations. I have never used personality profiling as a candidate screening tool. Nearly all business professionals would consider the PI assessment to be junk science, akin to astrology and fortune telling. Choosing a few words from a long list of words tells you absolutely nothing a candidate’s skills, knowledge, accomplishments, intelligence, education, ability to perform on the job, etc. Per Myers-Briggs, I am an INTJ which is located in one of the four corners of their matrix. Those in the 4 corners of Myers-Briggs are usually found in leadership positions. Famous INTJs include: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, John Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Walter White. Any experienced manager knows, the only know way to predict a candidate’s future behavior is to examine his/her past behavior which led to the science and creation of behavior based interviewing. During the telephone interview, I was asked normal questions about by background and experiences. However, she routinely cut me off before I finished my answer. Initially, I was unsure if the interviewer was an inexperienced interviewer, was rude, or was just going through the motions. I quickly found the answer. The interviewer abruptly changed subjects and asked about my salary requirement. At this point, I did not have one because salary is only one component of total compensation and I was unaware of their benefit package, bonus potential, etc., as well as not knowing the dimensions of accountability for the position. I indicated that my only requirement was that compensation should be consistent with that determined by the marketplace for similar positions. I then asked the interviewer if she would share the salary range as I was prepared to tell her if my past salary was within their range or outside of it. She refused. She made it clear that my answer was unacceptable and demanded to know the bottom line salary I would accept. Really? Really?? I did not provide one as that information is none of her business and a totally inappropriate interview question, especially since an offer of employment had not been presented and we were not negotiating compensation. The entire telephone interview lasted only 11 minutes. My experience was consistent with a number of others who have documented similar experiences below. My advice to all is stay away from this company as there are numerous red flags: (1) Unwillingness to share a wage range and playing cute reindeer games indicates the employer is most likely to pay a lower than average wage, lower than the prevailing wage determined by the market place. Lower wages lead to poor job satisfaction and high employee turnover. What candidate wants to sign up for that? (2) If HR and other senior leaders are so gullible as to have swallowed the fake science of PI assessment, hook, line and sinker, don’t expect to have a logical conversation with them about your job, your career, any business-related subject, or any other subject. Perhaps the PI assessment is able to reveal those candidates who are weak minded, gullible and susceptible to being bullied into accepting a below market wage? Now that is a possibility...