day 466: Pre-employment Testing

In today's day and age most people go through some type of pre-employment tests before being offered a job. These can be from the very informal quizzing around certain job duties to very sophisticated and in-depth analysis of values, principles, decision-making, people treatment, etc. Tens of thousands of dollars can be spent on one individual to ensure that what the company is seeing on the surface of the individual is actually what is down deep inside of the them. It has always been debatable as to the predictability and accuracy of these tests, but in today's corporate world where risk is managed carefully, the fact that the testing is done, versus not, brings some validity to the process. What is most important in the outcome of the testing is that there is a valid accounting of what you see is what you get in a person. Sometimes more is learned but if that simple validation provides that there is a consistency between what the candidate has expressed in the interviews and what references have confirmed, then the tests have achieved something. Not that we aren't all tested each and every day once we are on the job too. We are. If you read in Matthew Chapter 4, we see how the devil tested Jesus just before the ministry of Jesus was to begin. Satan gave Jesus the opportunity to be someone else when under fire and make decisions that would run counter to who Jesus claimed to be. At the end of the "pre-employment testing" Jesus was consistently Jesus and was on His way to begin what He was called to do. You may not be undergoing any pre-employment testing today, but you are going to be tested. We all are under fire and being tested for our consistency and values and principles, each and every day. How we come through the other side of the tests and how we either reflect accurately who we are or not, will determine in the minds of others how reputable and accurate are the words and positions we espouse for our lives. Be ready for the testing. It is always there and today could be another opportunity to prove out exactly who you really are.

Reference: Matthew Chapter 4 (New Living Testament)