Does Canonical really make candidates take IQ tests?

They make you take the Thomas General Intelligence Assessment. It's not strictly "IQ" but it's still an "intelligence" metric.

The entire process is absurd. I wasn't joking when I said that the application required me to write a 9 page essay to even move forward. It took me two hours, and then I'm told I have to do some pop-psychology horseshit to prove my "intelligence" to these assholes.

I don't really like insulting people if there's any chance of the person actually seeing it, but I genuinely have to question the competence of anyone who thinks that this is a good use of the company's or candidates time. I genuinely think that the world would be better if they chose a different career.

I have worked with a statistically significant number of ex-Canonical engineers and have not come away with a positive impression of that organization.

I was pretty disappointed by their entire process, and I guess if their goal was to weed out candidates who don't want to spend days indulging them in pop-psychology bullshit and writing multiple projects after writing nine pages of answers to questions, then they achieved their goal.

I would have loved to be paid to work on FOSS stuff, but this interview process was too stupid.

Some of the smartest and most capable people I’ve ever worked with came from government agencies where you send in your CV, write a max 700-800 word spiel about why you’d be a good fit for the role, and then do a 30-60 minute interview if you look good enough on paper to be shortlisted.

It’s a surprisingly efficient and low-bullshit process.

Yeah, I have never worked for the federal government, but I have family that does and they said the interview process wasn’t too bad at all.

I almost applied for a job at Canonical once. As soon as I saw the first question about high school (which I finished almost 30 years ago), I closed that browser tab.

I was pretty annoyed that I had to try and find my old high school scores and try to sell myself about why I was really smart in high school. I graduated high school in 2009, sixteen years ago, I have attended multiple universities and graduate schools, what could they really glean from shit I did as a teenager?

I'm sure some middle manager read some article about the best way to hire candidates and implemented that, and maybe it really is the absolute best way of hiring, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way.