An open letter to potential employers...(long rant)

[protege]

Ah, temp agencies. Biggest waste of time ever, IMHO. I didn't do so good with any of them...though I placed highly on their little tests. Did I get any interviews with prospective employers? Hell no. I got the runaround--too often, those "interviews" were simply with *another* temp agency, or someone looking for part-time work.

[Andara Bledin]

The test process was insulting - I scored "beginner" level on MS Office and Powerpoint, despite have a BA from a top 25 university, which should speak for itself over the IMO arbitrary test results.

Those "arbitrary" tests often reflect what might be encountered in an actual working environment.

Case in point: I worked for a company as a cashier and we got a new head cashier to handle the cash office. The woman had a degreen in accounting. She did not know how to operate a 10-key. It would have been nice if the company had bothered to throw at least one of those arbitrary tests at her.

^-.-^

[JLRodgers]

....The test process was insulting - I scored "beginner" level on MS Office and Powerpoint, despite have a BA from a top 25 university, which should speak for itself over the IMO arbitrary test results.....

I had a test like that once for two places -- for the one place I corrected the mistakes in the test (ex: the test would said [for MS Word, on windows] "alt-b made text bold" as the correct answer, or even the "keyboard" shortcut for italics was to "click" the italics button with the mouse). According to their test (despite me using office-like programs before office existed, and office since an early version) -- I failed.

Another place gave me a similar test and I didn't miss any questions and they said they wished they could hire me (the temp agency) but they had just filled their office position.

[powerboy]

Ah, temp agencies. Biggest waste of time ever, IMHO. I didn't do so good with any of them...though I placed highly on their little tests. Did I get any interviews with prospective employers? Hell no. I got the runaround--too often, those "interviews" were simply with *another* temp agency, or someone looking for part-time work.

That is what I got. And one, that bitch didn't even try to help me out. So fuck them.

[Kogarashi]

Anyanka, I feel for you. I don't usually do so well on the Powerpoint and Excel tests, though my Word scores are pretty good. And I've been with one agency that wanted me to call in all the time to see if they had offers, while the other 3 or 4 I applied with called me instead.

One of the most recent agencies, they had me do the Office tests, and I scored my highest yet on typing (90+ wpm, yo). The interviewer was bug-eyed at that.

[Geek King]

I had a test like that once for two places -- for the one place I corrected the mistakes in the test (ex: the test would said [for MS Word, on windows] "alt-b made text bold" as the correct answer, or even the "keyboard" shortcut for italics was to "click" the italics button with the mouse). According to their test (despite me using office-like programs before office existed, and office since an early version) -- I failed.

I've run into that. I took notes during the test (it was on the computer), then went back through the questions I missed, describing to the temp lady what I did that would work in real life, but wasn't exactly what the bloody-minded test creator had programmed to be the right answer. She seemed to be impressed, but I got a job offer before the time she said they would start calling me for work.


If anyone in a tech-related field is job hunting, I would suggest trying Robert Half Technology. Best temp service I've ever delt with, and they specialize in High-tech jobs. Got hired into a IT position through them, and they were really good about checking up with you on the job site.