linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer) (03/20/86)
A friend of mine, who is an engineer from Israel, said that when you apply for an engineering job there you have give a handwriting sample for analysis, and that you have to take psychological tests. It is not unusual to ask a person about details of marital and family life. Is this only true for military-related jobs, or commercial ones too? These are supposed to be tests for "emotional stability".
jans@tekecs.UUCP (Jan Steinman) (03/22/86)
In article <10876@amdcad.UUCP> linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer) writes: >A friend of mine, who is an engineer from Israel, said that when you apply for >an engineering job there you have give a handwriting sample for analysis... This happens all the time right here in the U.S. How many times have you had to fill out essay-type application questions on the spot? Did they offer you a typewriter? Have you ever seen phrases like, "Tell, in your own writing, what skills and qualifications you have for this position." Many personnel people have training in graphology or grahpo-analysis. Although many consider it on par with fringes such as astrology or phreneology, handwriting analysis is particularly useful in detecting mental disease, chronic alcoholism, and criminal tendancies. Although the results of an analysis would probably not of itself disqualify a candidate, it might indicate that the candidate's references should be checked with particular care. IBM and ATT are two companies identified by Nadya Olyanova as using handwriting analysis as a routine part of their hiring procedure, and N. M. Bunker reports that just about anytime you apply for a job and have to fill out long handwritten sections, your writing will be analyzed. [1] Nadya Olyanova, <Handwriting Tells>, 1969, Bell Publishing Co., New York. [2] M N Bunker, <What Handwriting Tells You>, 1965, Nelson Hall Co, Chicago. (It's amazing what you can find in garage sales!) :::::: Artificial Intelligence Machines --- Smalltalk Project :::::: :::::: Jan Steinman Box 1000, MS 60-405 (w)503/685-2956 :::::: :::::: tektronix!tekecs!jans Wilsonville, OR 97070 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::