Random pre-interview quiz

So I had an interview on Friday for a 2nd/3rd line support for a local finance company, which I feel went well. But before it I was kind of knocked back by the fact they gave me 20 minutes to do a mini quiz on various things to do with IT. I've never had an interview that has done that before. They were basically easy questions for gauging my skill level but for some reason it really took me by surprise.

I guess what I'm really trying to ask here is. Has anyone else had this happen to them before?

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Comments

Essendon

It's probably just an HR thing and has happened to me too. No biggie, just went with the flow. Probably didnt have much significance either.

the_hutch

If I had to guess, I'd say the person/people interviewing you were non-technical. Probably just making sure you weren't bullshitting em...

undomiel

Several companies I've interviewed at in the past had me run through a pre-interview quiz as well. It seems like it is fairly common in tech support or help desk roles. I haven't really run into it in the more administrative and design roles.

knownhero

undomiel wrote: »

Several companies I've interviewed at in the past had me run through a pre-interview quiz as well. It seems like it is fairly common in tech support or help desk roles. I haven't really run into it in the more administrative and design roles.

That's what kind threw me. I'm applying for 2nd/3rd but some of the questions were really, really simple like 1st line support type.

FloOz

I had to take one of these before my initial phone interview with my current employer. It was about 10 questions which ranged from my troubleshooting methodology to explaining how I would handle stressful IT situations.

jibbajabba

Had that in one finance company in London as well .. Another Hedge Fund company at Piccadilly did the most random thing .. Their quiz was two pages of braindumps of each, Microsoft, VMware, Citrix and Cisco ...

I didn't fill any of them out and when the guy came back and asked "Do you really not know any of them?" - I said "I do, but these are stolen questions from exams and I presume you want to test me if I used these so I prefer not to but certainly willing / able to have any other technical test / quiz".

He then said that this is the way they test candidates and it wasn't a test whether I'd use braindumps so I should either do them or not ... well I didn't and left .. Agency was confused what happened and I just told him that that clearly none of them are technical enough to have a proper interview but rely on illegal testing material so no thanks .. not my "cup of tea" ..

But generally in finance companies in London I have "normal" technical interviews over the phone, then in person and that only pre-interview test, I remember now, was actually done by the agency.