I started working at an Amazon sortation center early last summer. When the pandemic hit, I got laid off from my previous job, and I spent months staying on friends’ couches looking for work. Jobs were in short supply back then, but Amazon’s recruitment ads were all over my Facebook feed.

The first stage of the online application process was a fifteen-minute multiple-choice assessment. After watching Amazon’s introductory video, which assured me that there were “no wrong answers,” I set about answering a host of personality questions. It was actually nice not to have to write a cover letter or résumé for once.

The questions varied from “How would your last supervisor rate your work ethic?” to how comfortable I was having my day-to-day performance “closely monitored.” Many of them had nothing to do with work at all, such as asking me to agree or disagree with statements like “I rarely expect that good things will happen to me,” or “It’s best to keep your hopes low to avoid disappointment.”