No, it isn't a comment on my flirting style.
It's a post on my food blog about a trip to a grocery store HQ for food & fun.
05 April 2010
03 April 2010
The Layoff Chronicles Part 74: Job Search
I applied for a job doing what I used to do, but in a different industry.
My old job was basically technical writing - a lot of time spent translating complex weirdness into English, making sure the writing conformed to company style, tracking the progress of massive amounts of information through the pipeline, making sure all the tasks got completed on time, and producing large, heavy documents which no one would ever read.
Company X called me and said they wanted to do an assessment over the phone and we set up a time. I figured an "assessment" was some kind of pre-interview thing.
The woman called and the "assessment" was that she wanted to test my Microsoft Word 2007 skills on the phone. To be precise, on speakerphone with other people in the background.
What the everloving hell?
I was stunned. First of all, how exactly does one assess computer skills on the phone? And second, I dunno about you, but I don't THINK about the software I use - I just use it. That is part of being good at using it. You don't think "Step 1: Open a new document by pulling down the 'file' menu." It is just automatic, and I can't tell you how I do most of what I do.
Third, but probably most important: if you think that MS Word skills are the most salient thing about a technical writing job, you are so far off base that I don't want to talk to you because you are an idiot.
I did not tell her this. I escaped the horror by asking her if the job could be done from home, because I live 2 hours from their HQ (their ad didn't specify). She said no and I said goodbye.
It is a weird, weird world out there.
My old job was basically technical writing - a lot of time spent translating complex weirdness into English, making sure the writing conformed to company style, tracking the progress of massive amounts of information through the pipeline, making sure all the tasks got completed on time, and producing large, heavy documents which no one would ever read.
Company X called me and said they wanted to do an assessment over the phone and we set up a time. I figured an "assessment" was some kind of pre-interview thing.
The woman called and the "assessment" was that she wanted to test my Microsoft Word 2007 skills on the phone. To be precise, on speakerphone with other people in the background.
What the everloving hell?
I was stunned. First of all, how exactly does one assess computer skills on the phone? And second, I dunno about you, but I don't THINK about the software I use - I just use it. That is part of being good at using it. You don't think "Step 1: Open a new document by pulling down the 'file' menu." It is just automatic, and I can't tell you how I do most of what I do.
Third, but probably most important: if you think that MS Word skills are the most salient thing about a technical writing job, you are so far off base that I don't want to talk to you because you are an idiot.
I did not tell her this. I escaped the horror by asking her if the job could be done from home, because I live 2 hours from their HQ (their ad didn't specify). She said no and I said goodbye.
It is a weird, weird world out there.
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