William Couture <bcouture <at> gmail.com> writes:
> Information like this, coupled with a phone screen that checks
> to see that they actually have some of the knowledge they claim on
> their resume will eliminate many candidates.

Thanks for that comment.

So, still, this means that assuming the applicant is an engineer with
experience, who studied for at least 4 years and likely practiced for at least 4
more, is screened for what he knows in a 2-step process (resume screening and
phone interview) that likely takes much less than an hour (each step), which
achieves 98% accuracy. That means that each screening (resume and phone
interview) is at least about 86% accurate, and rejects a lot of applicants.

Given that f.ex. a full length professionally designed and administered
university exam will reject only about 20% of candidates at any given level, and
take well over three hours per test (with several tests per exam usually), the
hiring testing/screening standards must be very good by any measure, be
'designed' ad-hoc by engineers and hr employees who do not design exams for a
living in a few hours, and must carry a very high level of confidence.

Interesting numerical and psychological insights into hiring policy :) They sort
of sum up the current 'superiority' of Western manufacturing and engineering
companies, as well as their economic 'success' in not so many words. Not that
I'd have a solution for that. It's just the way things are, I guess. 

In any case, non-Western management style still has a long way to go to match
the Western managerial teams on the green turf and in spending power.

Peter

PS: I am well aware that one cannot talk about 'statistics' when considering one
or two job openings and hundreds of applicants, but waving some numbers instead
of just hot air over it is still something, as opposed to nothing imho.


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