Bizarre recruitment processes

[Unusualusernames]

I may well be being unreasonable but I decided I want to apply to the probation service. The application process opened this week and was due to end at the end of the month. I started the application intending to finish it at the weekend then got an email saying it's closing early tomorrow due to the amount of applications.

I rushed the application, completed it then got an email saying you have to download an app which you then had to use to play what was not unlike candy crush for an hour.

I feel like I'm having some sort of weird dream.

I've not applied for a job in a whole. Is this normal?!!

• a while

At uni, in a group interview for a Saturday job in a clothes shop, I was asked to describe the knickers I was wearing and what I thought they said about me as a person. That was an early lesson in how weird recruitment can get.

I take it you mean a psychometric test? I. E. Asking you the same question 5 different ways and multiple choice answers then matching shapes etc?

If so it's been around since the 80s at least, but normally for senior roles. If they've got 100s of candidates then it'll be an easier way for them to whittle down their interview list.

It's a form of personality and skills testing, I. E. How you cope under the pressure of timed questions etc.