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Subject:Re: Giving a surprise test to interviewees? From:adf1972 -at- yahoo -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 17 Mar 2005 08:09:27 -0700
> If it is as basic as you describe, and if an applicant
> can score as low as 50% and still "pass," then the only people you're
> going to eliminate are those who are marginal candidates to begin with.
> Maybe I'm wrong but I would think most people who apply for a tech writing
> job have a grasp of rudimentary grammar, punctuation and usage. You could
> give this test to 10 people who are applying for a tech writing job and
> maybe eliminate one of the them -- maybe. Then you're left with 9 people
> who must be evaluated based on their performance in the interview, their
> samples and their references. If the problem you encountered before was
> the fabrication of sample work, then this test wouldn't have eliminated
> that candidate and you would have had the same result.
The sad part is that so far, nobody has even been able to spot the
difference between "effects" and "affects"...as in "The database upgrade
also effects the XYZ application." And we've interviewed people who have
been working as tech writers for a couple of years. The last candidate we
interviewed couldn't even spot the mistake in "it's paper tray jammed."
Well, from the feedback so far, I think the majority of responders think
that the test is a good idea, as long as it's not a surprise. I can see
the validity in that. Thank you for all of your input. As always, I love
this list!
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