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I agree. We need more than brainpower and knowledge in order to perform
well in a job. We need self-confidence in our skills, willingness to
learn new things, ability to admit that we goofed, people skills,
creativity, passion, to be organized and so on.
It is impossible to verify all that in an IQ test or during an
interview, even a long one.
The best people to hire someone is someone who knows the job well (has
already done it) certainly not HR people.
IMO.
> ----------
> From: Nora Merhar[SMTP:nmerhar -at- CHARLESINDUSTRIES -dot- COM]
> Reply To: Nora Merhar
> Sent: 18 septembre, 1998 11:58
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Degrees of Competence
>
> This degree/non-degree stuff is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned.
> It seems to boil down to non-degreed people defending the value of
> experience, and degreed people defending the value of a degree.
>
> Onne lister (whose post I deleted, very sorry) said that she didn't
> have
> a degree, and went on to discuss the battery of tests and interviews
> that she had to go through to get her current job--because the company
> believes in hiring the most intelligent people, not necessarily those
> with degrees.
>
> She approved of this method. OTOH, if I had to go through intelligence
> and personality tests, plus a 4-5 hour interview, I'd bill for my
> time! This is NOT a flame--just an illustration of the truth expressed
> on this list time and time again--one person's heaven is another
> person's hell.
>
> To me, tests prove very little except that a person tests well (and I
> am one of those people who test well--this is not sour grapes), and
> intelligence does not necessarily indicate common sense, people
> skills, or the ability to think on your feet. Nor does a degree
> indicate this. Hiring anyone is taking a leap of faith--you do your
> best to find the best person for the job, and then pray you end up
> with a diamond instead of a lump of coal.
>
> It is not surprising that companies try to weed out applicants based
> on degrees, I.Q. test, personality tests, etc., but there is no one
> reliable predictor of success on the job--at least none that I've
> heard of. If there was, all companies would be using it!
>
> Life is not fair, guys. If your dream job requires a degree and you
> don't have one, it wasn't really your dream job. For those of you
> whose companies require degrees to promote you, why don't you take
> advantage of that tuition reimbursement plan and start working on that
> degree? While I agree that one shouldn't necessarily "need" a degree
> to advance in this field, why not at least start taking classes
> towards one? It shows you want to continue to learn and grow. If the
> classes just re-cover stuff you already know, then you should ace
> them, right?
>
> And if you're getting jobs and are perfectly happy without the degree,
> then what's the problem?
>
> Nora
> nmerhar -at- charlesindustries -dot- com
>
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