At 01:06 25/08/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Tjaart van der Walt wrote:
>[snip]
>> I am currently interviewing applicants for positions in the
>> development lab. I won't take anyone who doesn't have a
>> passion for electronics to the point of also doing it as a
>> hobby.
>>
>> The worst engineer is the one who studied it because his/her
>> advisor/parents said so.
>
>Some time ago I was selecting few people for the dev/lab too, and it was
>very interesting, I "planted" several objects into the waiting room.
>
>a) Few PC related magazines,
>b) Electronic Buyer's News paper,
>c) Two boards with microcontrollers
>d) Bare PCB's (no components)
>e) Few microcontrollers in a plastic tube
>f) Some circuit diagrams
>g) Some chips tech data sheet
>h) The Local Newspaper
>i) Time Magazine
>j) Sport Magazine
>k) Racing Car's Magazine
>
>When a candidate arrived, he was asked to wait for a whole minute in
>that room. The receptionist in the same room had the job to make notes
>of all objects the waiting "victim" touch, open, look or read. Of course
>the "victim" shouldn't notice it.
>
>I could be wrong, but we hired two guys: The first one found the
>"intentional" misplaced crystal connected to port pins instead the
>oscillator pins at the Orcad diagram printout, and he *told me that*
>during the enterview. The second told me that he found out about the
>receptionist writing. In real he played with her, she wrote two pages in
>less than a minute... :)  Those were not the only reasons why we hired
>them, but coincidentaly it happened.
>
>You can say you are a lucky person when your "paid job" is also your
>hobby.
>
>

Interesting to say the least, and very sneaky!
The question is what was the percentage of people whom looked at the non
technical related stuff to those that did?
In my situtation I don't think that one minute would be enough before my
inquisativness got the better of me. Also I think that I would be concerned
about a company that left it's "washing" out in a waiting room for everyone
to see. Perhaps these items placed in a more real situation would prevoke a
btter response.

Question for everyone->
Why do we think that people whom have a hobby of electronics are better?
Before you answer that contemplate this off the cuff situation:-
Do you care that your family doctor does not practice surgery as a hobby?


Dennis