The Washington Post did a short story on pre-employment testing.  These are typically psychological tests that some employers use to determine whether you’re a sane person and likely not to go postal.  I got a nice quote, but the article didn’t capture the nuance.  What I meant to say was that if comprehensive aptitude testing (like my Careerfinder Program) is ever used to screen out people in the job interview process, it could be a devasting blow someone to find out that they don’t have the talents for the career path they were formally educated and trained for.   For instance, imagine a hypothetical scenario of an engineering college grad named Joe:

HR Person: Sorry Joe, we can’t hire you.  You measured too low in the spatial ability test, which is the key aptitude for our entry-level engineering positions. 

Joe:  What is spatial ability, I’ve never heard of it?  Does this mean I’m not cut out for the field of engineering? 

HR Person:  That’s about right.  You’re screwed, but at least you know this early on.  Chances are, you probably won’t like being an engineer.  We can’t take the chance of you going postal on us 5 years from now because your life has turned into an empty, meaningless wasteland. 

Joe:   I’m confused.  I studied hard for this degree.  I’m 100K in debt.  Now what should I do?

HR Person:   You should have asked that question before you went to college.

If you were in Joe’s shoes, would you be glad to learn this unexpected “bad” news during the interview process of getting a job, or would you rather get the job and then learn a few years later (in the school of hard knocks) that you chose a career path that is totally wrong for you?  Either way, now or later, you’d have to face the inconvenient truth.