A couple years back, I was desperate enough for a job that I applied at WalMart. On their computer, as you submit the application, you are subjected to a bunch of questions supposedly used to get a profile of your personality.
It seems to me the questions were terribly worded. There are some that ask if you think some people steal because they don't get paid enough. The answer is "Yes". I wouldn't unless my family was starving and no agency could help me, but it didn't ask that. It didn't give any qualifications. So the answer would be "Yes". Not only that but it didn't ask me for an assessment of whether or not that is right. Only whether it happens. Really "I don't know from firsthand experience" would be the best, but they didn't have that as an option.
There were a lot of dumb questions, most I've forgotten. The one above is actually just a made-up example similar in character to many of the questions. The worst one I remember fully. You're asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: "I have stolen in the past, but that is behind me now" or something to that effect.
Is that dumb or what? The only way you can agree with that is if you both have stolen AND don't plan on stealing again (actually that's true of me, but I think it was saying at work, not as a kid). So if you have stolen and plan to steal again you disagree. If you haven't stolen but want to start, you disagree. What's the point of that question. Personally I think the people who agree would be the least risk, but isn't that discriminatory to those who never stole?
But the best part is... anyone with an IQ of 90 can figure out how to answer the questions the way they want to hear them.
I actually did the opposite. I was so put off by wasting an hour on a stupid application process for a minimum wage job.
They called me a week later. I rejected because my faraway crappy job was at least willing to work around school. WalMart has never been known for valuing an educated workforce.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin

That is a bad question. In fact, to answer it honestly, I would have to answer no. That makes it seem as if I plan to steal in the future, but in reality, I have never stolen anything in my life. I have more than my share of faults, but for some reason I've never wanted to steal anything.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

Well "No" is how you're supposed to answer it. I think my answer is "no" because it was about employment theft, not childhood theft (if it were about childhood theft, imagine how many people would have to lie). The assumption is that one who stole once will steal again even if they think they won't. Statistically that might be true, but it is not always true. I know my behavior has changed dramatically over the last few years. It would be hypocritical for me to say something like "once a pothead, always a pothead" or anything similar. This question would screen out those who are honest ex-thieves while letting in current thieves and thieves smart enough to lie (thieves lying? Imagine that).
Those were some of the questions.
Another series of questions were about what you believe in how people succeed in business. But those are like the earlier sample question. I personally believe that luck does play a huge role in one's success (It is possible though not probable to succeed on luck alone, but it is not possible to succeed on skill alone if your luck is terrible- not saying that luck is constant or supernatural, but opportunities either happen or they don't and you have a limited amount of control- can only grasp opportunities when they occur. Most people in America will have some opportunity or another, but higher frequency of opportunity means greater chance of success. If I roll a die once, I might roll a six. If I roll it 100 times, I probably will. But I have to get my hands on it 100 times to find out). That does not mean that I resent people in power, that I believe all people are in power strictly because of luck, or that I will not try. But that is what they will try to draw from the question.
Many of those questions are almost as exaggerated as my political test questions. You'd have to be an ultra-cynic or a blind optimist to agree with them. The correct answer to an analytical person would usually be "sometimes", maybe even "usually" or "rarely". I picked up that WalMart was not looking for smart people, especially not for management.

Actually they're not that in depth. It's a simple scoring mechanism, much like political tests. It just aggravates me that they ask such dumb questions and add points on that basis.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin

If I'm sane at some point in the future and a questionnaire gives me the proposition, "I have had mental disorders in the past, but those are behind me now", how should I answer it?

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

you've applied for government jobs, those are far worse. I recall the FBI ones that were weird was how often I went to the movies, if I think someone is "out to get me," if I hear voices, etc. The CIA was the worst, does my shadow talk to me or does it have a life of its own, do I have sexual feelings for a family member, have I fantasized about killing someone...etc. I imagine most of those type questions must still be on the tests?

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Obama The Naive: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.’’ The Iranian response? “The Great Satan now has a black face.’’

I work for a huge company who, up until this past week, also made potential employees fill out those "questionnaires".

When I first went to work for the company, and I took the test, there was, honest to goodness, a question that said, 'In the past 5 years, have you stolen (a)$50 (b)$100 (c) $200 (d) $300 (e) $500 or more?

I refused to answer it.

The questions were loaded, and deliberately tried to trip you up to see if you said that no, you have never stolen in one question, and then well, yes, you stole once, in another question. They wanted to check your consistency.

Just the other day, before the tests were abolished, a kid comes in and I tell him, "OK, just tell the truth, and you'll do fine." He finishes about a half-hour later, and as I start to score his test, I notice some of his answers. One of the questions was "If a customer gets extremely angry with you, do you (a) remain calm and pleasant (b) find a manager (c) get angry right back or (d) pull him across the counter and show him who's boss (paraphrasing). The kid chose "c". *LOL* I think he was a little TOO honest, because yes, we ALL want to get angry right back, but he didn't know, as you mentioned, how you "take the test", by answering the right way, instead of the way it expects you to answer.

(E) It depends on my psychiatric status at the time.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

That's kind of funny.
The questions on the IRS pre-exam were actually more like "Here's a situation. What would you do?"-type questions. I actually thought they were pretty decent. Some other bureau I applied to (some administrative management bureau) asked a lot of redundant questions about experience.
Haven't seen the NSA questionnaire yet. That should be funny.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin

How might they have taken it had you said that you were no longer on speaking terms, having had a recent falling-out - when you asked it what it really got up-to in the dark?

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

that they either want to see if you are paying attention or weed out the real whackos.

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Obama The Naive: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.’’ The Iranian response? “The Great Satan now has a black face.’’