Yep, I think that the guy who you replied didn't work out that it was a joke. I am not really sure how anyone who has spent time in the real world thinks that tests are effective.
Look at Korea. They torture their kids, and are they smashing the world economically? Nope, economy still totally reliant on chaebols, almost no innovation, GDP per capita is actually quite low for such high levels of human capital. I have seen this in financial services...firms that hire teams of PHds get nowhere (one place even has their own postgrad institute at Oxford...still get shitty returns year after year).
I don't think tests are bad at all, I am not saying they aren't useful...but they optimise for stuff that doesn't always work in the real world. And, unf, hiring is one of those things that is just very hard...trying to uncover talent by doing these tests where everyone knows (roughly) what is going to be asked, and people are just preparing with rote study...that doesn't sound like you are actually trying to uncover talent. It sounds like you have decided hiring is hard, and you don't have anyone who can hire...but if you are Facebook and you are hiring thousands of programmers, statistically you aren't hiring the best of the best so...maybe it doesn't matter.
Look at Korea. They torture their kids, and are they smashing the world economically? Nope, economy still totally reliant on chaebols, almost no innovation, GDP per capita is actually quite low for such high levels of human capital. I have seen this in financial services...firms that hire teams of PHds get nowhere (one place even has their own postgrad institute at Oxford...still get shitty returns year after year).
I don't think tests are bad at all, I am not saying they aren't useful...but they optimise for stuff that doesn't always work in the real world. And, unf, hiring is one of those things that is just very hard...trying to uncover talent by doing these tests where everyone knows (roughly) what is going to be asked, and people are just preparing with rote study...that doesn't sound like you are actually trying to uncover talent. It sounds like you have decided hiring is hard, and you don't have anyone who can hire...but if you are Facebook and you are hiring thousands of programmers, statistically you aren't hiring the best of the best so...maybe it doesn't matter.