Re: Spam:RE: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Similar
There is another side to this, and Gene's comments about the botched
FrameMaker template reminded me. That test was a great indicator that the
job would be a, let's say, "can of worms"?
I have been tested a couple of times. Once, the test itself was a pretty
good indicator that I did not want to work for that person: there were
numerous steps that did not have adquate information, and I was not allowed
to ask. I made notes where the SME would have to be consulted, and the
writing manager was very surprised that I thought steps were missing ("see,
here and here, and here, we don't tell them how to get from this to ...).
She insisted it was fine. Uh uh. Don't want that job. (And they make fun of
me on my current job because I am "very thorough" LOL, but they love me
anyway.)
The other test (the
take-the-plain-text-edit-rephrase-and-restructure-into-steps test...) got me
the job. The lone technical writer, Connie, there wrote the test, and she
came by when I was about halfway through to see how I was doing. (I was in
the lobby, at the receptionist's desk, with people walking back and forth
looking at me!) I was at a part that said "delete the user and..." and I
told her, "we will not be deleting any users. They don't like it and I think
it's mean." She laughed and I got the job. She is absolutely, hands down,
the best tech writer I have EVER seen, and I learned a lot from her.
I'd take a test again, if asked, I imagine, although I don't think it's a
very good indicator of much. I'd rather talk about how the person solves
problems, personally, and find their approach to their work. But that's me.
I certainly understand needing "superstars" and therefore testing, but I
also wonder: would the superstar *want* to work where your reactions to a
surprise are supposed to be masked, or your considered bad? I have to be in
a place where I can be honest when I express myself. And I do great work.
:-D
Happy Friday.
Also A SuperStar
PT
On 11/17/06, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
>
> My attitude about testing is inevitably colored by my own experience.
> I have been "tested" twice. The first was a six-month temp-to-perm
> contract at my very first job as a writer. The second was a small
> company whose sole writer had left and whose engineers had devised
> a "writing test" in FrameMaker and Visio by munging up one of that
> writer's document files for grammar, spelling and graphics formatting.
> Along the way they also somehow managed to *unintentionally* bollux
> up the Frame master template as well; the autonumbering and cross-
> referencing didn't work, every page had its own frame so that text
> didn't
> flow, etc. The only way to complete the test in the alloted time was
> to first change all the text to one plain style and do everything as if
> FM was Notepad before you could even address the document's writing
> and organizational issues. After the test the R&D manager told me they
> couldn't understand why *nobody* else seemed to be able to handle FM
> as well as their previous writer, but the stake through the heart of
> that job
> was when they told me that the engineers had been "muddling through"
> document revisions in FM for the past three months since that writer
> had left. I was offered the job, but did not take it.
>
> I think if I found myself in a situation where my management insisted
> on a test for writing candidates, I would create one by typing out the
> instructional steps from a bank ATM as a plain text file and have the
> candidate rewrite it in Notepad.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>
>
> If the job you're
> hiring for specifically requires being able to write/edit information
> you don't know anything about with a fifteen minute deadline, then the
> test's perfect.
>
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References:
RE: Spam:RE: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Similar: From: Sarah Bouchier
Re: Spam:RE: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Similar: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: Spam:RE: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Similar: From: Pro TechWriter
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