RE: Editing and writing tests for jobs

["Grant, Christopher" <CGrant -at- glhec -dot- org>]

Hi.

CB wrote:
> >The problem is that without a clear understanding
> >of what the employer is looking for as a result of
> >the test (change in content, spelling only, grammar
> >only, simplification, etc.) the candidate can only
> >guess as to what the employer is looking for.

I think this is a common misperception of what - IMHO - the real purpose of
a test should be.  There is no "result" that the employer is looking for.
There's no "correct answer."  The purpose of a good test is to approximate
(however poorly or accurately) some situation a writer would actually
experience if he or she was hired, and then to see how the candidate reacts.
The "result" ought to be unimportant.  It's what happens between that
matters.

Don't shoot for a certain result.  Just use the test, as Jane Carnall said,
as an opportunity to show off your skills, and a way to learn about the
company.  

Jane, I have to question something you said, though:
  
> (The one-on-one personal interview has been
> established to be no better than random choice, I seem to 
> remember reading in some book on interview technique.)

I get the point, but how can this actually be true?  "No better than" random
selection?  So if I sit down with someone and ask them what they've done,
what their skills are, and what they'd do in certain situations, that's no
better than me opening up the phone book and turning it to a page and
calling that person up?  It just makes no sense.  :) 

-Chris Grant



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