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RE: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview?
Subject:RE: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview? From:MAGGIE SECARA <SECARAM -at- mainsaver -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>, "'Kat Nagel'" <katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 1999 14:16:36 -0800
And then, how about giving them an actual stapler, so they don't have to
make its features up out of whole cloth, which is an exercise in fiction,
after all. Ok, I realize that may not be inappropriate for marketing, but
you might let the candidate focus on the task instead of trying to derive
some platonic ideal of "stapler".
I've had to do this a few times. Sometimes I've gotten the job, sometimes
not. In every case I'd have been happier to just decline. More than once,
the writing test has had no bearing on the job itself, even when the test
wasn't something someone got out of a management seminar. I once tested by
writing a procedure for some AS/400 function, which I know how to do, and
was assigned to write daily informational releases on mortgage banking for
the company's branches. They took it very ill when I complained this was
not what I was hired to do. But perhaps that's another story for another
time :)
Maggie Secara
secaram -at- mainsaver -dot- com
"All the world's a stage, Mick, but some of us are dreadfully
under-rehearsed."
> ----------
> From: Kat Nagel[SMTP:katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net]
> Reply To: Kat Nagel
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 10:31 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview?
>
[...]
> I suppose the stapler thing might be appropriate if you make the
> assignment
> appropriate for a marketing writer. After all, you wouldn't expect a
> marketing writer to do an operations manual or a repair procedure. Why
> not
> ask the candidate to write a catalogue description or a sales brochure for
> the stapler or another common office product?
> --
> Kat Nagel, MasterWork Consulting
