Reader,

Steven here. So, let's talk tech assessments.

I was recently on the hunt for a new job thanks to my previous employer making some questionable business decisions in 2025.

One of the first interviews I got was for a "field service management SaaS" company.

AKA, they serve landscaper business owners who need help managing their operations.

(No names 😉)

But you're here because you want to know what their tech assessment looked like.

It was a 2-parter:

What the heck's "AI familiarity", you ask? Yeah...

In this client's view, it meant:

Here is a boiled-down list I took from the req (they've since filled it, but I found the deets on a Glassdoor posting that's still up) of the skills they demand for this role:

• QA Automation: Hands-on experience building/maintaining web test suites using Playwright or Cypress (specifically using Page Object Models).
• Coding: Proficiency in TypeScript (preferred), JavaScript, or Python.
• CI/CD & DevOps: Experience integrating tests into pipelines, managing parallelization, and using Git workflows.
• Strategic Testing: Ability to write clear test plans and balance exploratory testing with automation.
• Soft Skills: Strong communication for cross-functional influence and the ability to work with moderate autonomy.
• Mobile (Bonus): Exposure to Flutter, Dart, or mobile tools like Appium/Patrol is a significant plus.

Alrighty, let's see how the task maps to the req...

✅ Playwright test refactor -- Playwright

✅ Page Object Model class file migration -- Page Object Model

⚠️ Migrate from Java to TypeScript -- TypeScript??

From where I'm sitting, Java-TypeScript migration was a weird choice for testing candidates AI skills.

You might find it interesting that the team laughed when talking about Java, saying it was a tool that belongs in the early 2000s.

In other words, they wouldn't be caught dead using Java on their team.

When I asked them if they were migrating from Java currently, they said no. It was a TypeScript shop.

So why test candidates on migrating from Java?

Not to mention the untested skills in the req:

❌ CI / CD

❌ Test Plans

❌ Exploratory Testing

❌ Flutter exposure (bonus, but still...)

Long story short, I'm not a Java guy, so you probably know how that last part went.

It didn't help that they only gave me like 7 minutes to do it at the end of the call.

The overall point is this: When an assessment doesn’t measure what it’s supposed to, it’s misaligned and ultimately, it’s a poor-quality assessment. This happens far too often in hiring.
​
So what do you we take a way from this little debacle?

Make sure your manager has aligned their test to test the skills required for the role.

What good does it do to source, recruit and put up ace players when they ultimately get nixed for an assessment that does not make sense. You will find yourself back at square one, and for no good reason.

It doesn't matter if your manager "is technical" or "comes from an engineering background". You still need to take the time to review and advise.

These managers? They're good. They're really good at what they do.

But remind yourself that these folks spend less than 10% of their time hiring and it does not go down as a favorite activity. So be good at what you do.

Your job is to control the process,
before the process controls you.

In Part 2, we'll talk about how to make this assessment better.

Cheers,

Steven