Hiring (was: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)

[Joaquim Baptista <px -at- EASYPHONE -dot- PT>]

Lisa Hodge <techpubs -at- MAILCITY -dot- COM> wrote
>However, as a hiring manager, I sometimes feel as though I have no proof
>that the candidate sitting before me actually authored the material.

I just hired someone in Portugal after looking for three months.  I had
candidates lying to me about their knowledge -- one of the liars was
actually found in the final interview, just before being hired!


I had two major problems. The first problem is English.  I want people to
*write* in English.  Most persons applying for the job could read English
well, but had little need to write in English.

We devised a simple test by ripping an exercise from a book that prepares
for the English Proficiency test.  The exercise has 8 pictures of a lady
unpacking and assembling a home computer; the task is to put the pictures
in words.

Later we found that the test actually tested two things: the ability to
write in English, and the ability to understand the pictures and pose the
right questions. You see, the pictures are ambiguous, lack steps, and use
old computer monitors that no longer exist :-)

We can readily distinguish between candidates that:
- Do not know enough English for the job
- Do not write enough and miss steps
- Write enough in a clear manner
- Write enough in a confusing manner (long sentences and such)
- Write too much and embelish the text with spurious sentences.


The second major problem was with persons lying about their qualifications.
 Some years ago Portugal started to have private Universities.  However, it
turns out that most of these Universities do a very bad job of teaching
technical matters, mostly because they have bad teachers, not enough
computers, not enough exercises and, frankly, they don't seem to care about
their studends beyond "I give you a title for your money".

The solution is to ask questions about the technical matters that the
candidates say that they know well.  You can quickly figure if the
candidate knows something or nothing.


Now, back to work...
--
Joaquim Baptista, alias pxQuim            Precisa de uma contabilista?
- px -at- easyphone -dot- pt                                (01) 8684294


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