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Maggie Secara wrote:
>I have to agree. Sure, we often have to produce under pressure, but not this
>kind of pressure, and never with paper and pen on the spur of the moment,
>off the top of your head. ...
I'm jealous. A lot of what I do is produced on very tight deadlines -- often tight enough to qualify for "off the top of your head." I get a lot of assignments that end with "... and, oh yeah, I'm taking it to the client at 1 p.m." and it's 10 a.m. It requires a lot of product knowledge. I complain about it, but it makes things interesting sometimes. Not that I'm a stress puppy or anything.
The point of tests like that are to see how you perform under suboptimal conditions. I'm not saying it's the best way, or even a good way, but sometimes it's the only way. The fact that it was too hot and the deadline was too short and there was no computer to work on was kinda the point. That said, I've never taken a writing or editing test for a tech writing gig, but have for other jobs. I've taken a personality test but never an IQ test for a job. I've been around a while in one editing or writing incarnation or another, and I wouldn't be insulted if an employer asked me to take a test. NDAs, security restrictions, etc., make it a challenge to keep a portfolio up to date for a lot of tech writers.
Jay Malone
Lead Technical Writer
Resource Consultants Inc.
Vienna VA
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