This may be a story about a company CEO who has a
silly attitude towards hiring new employees. Or it may just be a story about clever
marketing.
The CEO of an American marketing company became famous
recently for using a “snowflake test” when hiring new staff members. He said that the test was designed to weed
out unsuitable candidates.
The word “snowflake” is sometimes used to criticise the
young generation today: it suggests that they feel that they are unique and
delicate like a snowflake, and melt easily. In other words, people who behave like snowflakes
are narcissistic and weak.
I wonder if the American CEO who devised the test
really believes that the young are becoming snowflakes? I don’t trust the CEOs of marketing
companies. Maybe, a little bit like
Donald Trump, he says controversial things to create media attention for himself. Even if the media attention is largely
negative, at least he has made himself and his company famous.
Let’s take a look at some of the questions from the
test. There are 30 questions in
all. I’ll pick out a few questions,
guess why the CEO chose to ask it, and give some advice on an answer you could
give to pass the test.
Question: How many
sick days should be given to employees?
Why: If you give a high
number, then you are a snowflake and weak!
Answer: What is a
sick day? I have never heard of it.
Question: How do you
feel about guns?
Why?: People who
don’t like guns are snowflakes and weak!
Answer: Can I take a
look at your gun? Wow, how cool!
Question: When was
the last time you cried and why?
Why?: People who cry
are snowflakes and weak!
Answer: The only time
I cried was when the police took away my machine-gun.
Question: What’s your
favourite drink when you go to a coffee house?
Why? People who drink
soy-lattes are snowflakes and weak!
Answer: I drink a
double espresso with a topping of Tabasco sauce.
Question: How do you
handle bullies?
Why? People worried
about bullies are snowflakes and weak!
Answer: People don’t
bully me. They see my gun and smell my
Tabasco-coffee breath, and they know that I’m too tough to handle.
Congratulations! You
have passed the snowflake test. Now go
and market products like an all-American hero!
Vocabulary:
a CEO – a chief executive officer; the highest ranking
person in a company or organisation
to hire someone – to start to employ someone
to weed something out – to pick out and remove something
unwanted
to melt – of something frozen such as ice, to become liquid
or watery because of high temperature
narcissistic – tending to love oneself too much; having a
very high opinion of oneself
to devise something – to think of and create something
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