Someone contacted me asking me to do an online assessment to test my math and logic skills before proceeding to the next step. The assessment has nothing to do with writing, if you're curious.

I submitted the Google forms application to apply for the Content Writer position, and about a week later received an email that stated I moved to the next stage of the application process. The email had short, vague instructions along with a link to complete a “quick assessment” that should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. Before I took the assessment, I did some research on the company and read some mixed reviews that made me a bit skeptical about the stability of the position. However, as is expected in my character, I decided to move forward and complete the assessment. Generally, I don’t have a problem with aptitude tests or assessments as part of an interview process, but when I realized the context of the questions had to do with probability word problems, I was pretty surprised and stressed! Now, my background is in teaching and writing, and that is where my strength lies - it has never been and will never be in math (as is the case with most writers, in my experience). I understand the position entails writing content for educational courses (math included), but a large part of successfully writing for context you are not well versed in is dependent on having time to research and learn that content so that you can essentially write, or teach, it. But in the case of the application, I did not appreciate being expected to know and apply probability formulas to decode word problems. I completed the test (and took much longer than 20 minutes to do so) and likely bombed it, but I was more disappointed that I had wasted my time. If the company had divulged some information up front that candidates had to be well-rounded in math, I most certainly would not have applied. As an educational company, filtering out potential employees by this blanket assessment, is not conducive to how many people learn or demonstrate intelligence ability. Needless to say, I didn’t get invited for an interview, but I’m not surprised. I really disliked that test, and would not have been suited for a company that sprung such surprises on people. All this to say - please be more upfront about what’s expected and/or write your test to be a more accurate assessment of writing and teaching abilities.