Well, it's Friday here already, so that would make it my turn again ....



The other day I had an interview for a Technical Writing job … nothing unusual in that – it’s a fairly normal occurrence for a Technical Writer doing a fill-in job.

It’s also not that unusual that they gave me a test to determine how many errors I could find in a sample of their user guides (and/or how many suggestions I could make). Again, it goes with the territory.

It’s also not that unusual that they had me participate in a psychometric assessment, and it’s not that surprising that it was the same Belbin team role/personality profile test I’d had when I was 17.

What’s interesting is the results – to be more specific, the differences between the results I got when I was 17, and the results this time around, now aged 32.


When I took the test as a youth, my high scores were in the “Plant” (“individualistic & unorthodox"), and “Resource Investigator” (“enthusiastic & curious"), and pretty much nothing for the other team roles.

Now middle aged (let’s be realistic, if I live to 90, 30-60 is middle aged), the differences are quite marked. This time around, my two highest scores (85th percentile) are for “Shaper” (“dynamic, challenging") and “Implementor” (“organising, hardworking, disciplined").
Next highest (65th percentile +) were my scores for “Plant” & “Completer/Finisher” (focused on details & deadlines), and “Monitor/Evaluator” (objective, careful judge) came in around the 55th percentile.
After that, there’s a big drop to a 25th percentile score for “Resource Investigator”, “Co-ordinator” (Calm, self-confident), and “Teamworker” ("socially orientated, mild").

The final role of “Specialist” I did even worse on – down into the 15th percentile. Suits me – specialisation is for insects


So what’s all this mean? The way I interpret it, in the last 15 years I’ve lost some of my enthusiasm, am less likely to come up with daft ideas, but have become more dynamic, disciplined & focussed. Sounds good to me, but I am a bit worried about that “Teamworker” score. Well, what I actually care about is how my potential employer will react to the score.


Post scriptum: I didn’t get the job

Aw screw 'em...with your salary check from being on the staff at PR, why would you need this job anyway?

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob Aw screw 'em...with your salary check from being on the staff at PR, why would you need this job anyway?

Yeah Those cheques must have got lost in the post.

edit:

Well Jon...

Every suggestion I have made to you since joining the DD Team has been shot down, ridiculed and made fun of on IM....so that low "Team Player" score does not surprise me, I am sure if they had a category for "Tyrant" you would have blown up the chart!

I am only now coming forward with this information because in hopes that I may protect the rest of the DD staff..I have finally been accepted into the witness protection program, that severed Horse Head that showed up next to me in bed last week kind of drove the point home


J/K!!! ...
You have always been helpfull and team oriented here at PR, I don't know how much faith I would place in that one test.
Just like Benchmarking, some are better than others at testing specific parts of a system (CPU,Memory, HD Video, etc..) it takes quite a few diffferent tests to get a clear picture of "Overall" performance in one specific category.

People change over the course of their lives, me for example.

I used to go through life without a care in the world, but after seeing people die and bad things happening to good people, I have learned to appreciate life more than I previously did, especially after the storm drain incident, I have never been the same since.

I think your years of hard work has left you feeling jaded to the thought of making your life better and so you content yourself with doing your mindless repetitive tasks with more flourish to make up for it.

Or I'm blowing smoke out of my ass.

Already bored with the soldering? Hard to believe...

and another thing... who came up with those category titles? When I think of a plant, individualistic and unorthodox NEVER come to mind. Maybe they were smoking a plant when they thought of them.

Hope you find a job to your liking soon.

Quote: Originally Posted by DuplexEmotions I think your years of hard work has left you feeling jaded to the thought of making your life better and so you content yourself with doing your mindless repetitive tasks with more flourish to make up for it....

No, the reason I'm jaded is the fact that the years of hardwork have been rewarded with getting the boot. I do these low level jobs because they're the best I can get.

Do you know how many decent jobs there have been in all the hundreds I've applied for in the last few years? Ones where it was a genuine vacancy, I got an interview that was professionally conducted, and it was a good match to my skills and experience?

One.

And I missed out on that because a former employer lied and said I dismissed for incomptence, out of spite that they were legally required to pay me off to terminate my contract.

You are a good man Jonny, and good things always happen eventually to good people. So turn that frown upside down! (Jumps away while Jonny tries to kick me in the ass...)

Don't listen to BA JE. Crap happens to good people all the time. I guess there's always the guardrail.