RE: Spam:RE: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Similar

["Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>]

>But you're interviewing for a writing job so where is the surprise? I'd
be
>surprised if you didn't know this was possible. I've had them sprung on
me
>many times

I've had it sprung on me +once+.  

The interviewers gave me ten minutes to write a short piece about how to
program one of those video recorders that records by programme rather
than by time.

I almost certainly made an ooky face.  I don't have one of those video
recorders.  I explained this, and they insisted that I do the assignment
anyway.

I ended up hand-writing (they seemed surprised that I didn't have a
laptop with me.  I didn't +own+ a laptop at the time, and even if I had
it wouldn't have occurred to me to take it to an interview) a piece of,
essentially, creative writing.

What did that tell them about me?  Not a lot.  It told me, however, that
I'd work in McDonald's before I worked for them.

> This is what we do - we write

But +not+ under those conditions.  Not often, anyway.  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.

If, on the other hand, it requires you to be able to write/edit normal
documentation, for which you have a context and an understanding, under
various different deadlines, while juggling tasks of various priorities;
well, that's what my portfolio's for.

I've never understood why it would be necessary to +see+ me write under
the unique conditions of an interview when the interviewer has samples
of my normal output ready to hand.

S.
Sarah Bouchier
Technical Author

exony
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