Some of you may know that I sold my web dev business and restaurants recently. I've been tinkering, studying, learning, goofing off since. My wife could tell I was getting antsy and encouraged me to look into finding a job or doing pro bono work or something. I can work for someone else if I'm in charge of my area of work and I'm not so good at being a grunt but I can't help it if I see a web site that struggles to be a web site and I saw a job listing for a web developer for a manufacturer near me and I feel like I'll be a knight in shining armor coming to the rescue.
Now, I say "near me" because it's actually just under an hour drive away in the middle of nowhere. I am positive they aren't going to get any professionals who would want to go to Podunk Hollow for this unless they already live near Podunk Hollow so I applied thinking it might be fun coming in on my white steed and plates all glistening in the sunlight.
That was on December 4th and I hadn't heard anything until the first week of January when I got an email asking me to come in to take a mechanical test. I could come in, any time, Monday through Thursday from 7AM to 4PM. Unannounced. Just show up.
Huh.
I was wondering if this was some kind of automated response to my application but I'm a professional and I wish to be treated as such and, no thank you, I will not respond to such requests. However, two weeks later, I get a phone call from HR lady. "We sent you an email asking you to come in to take our mechanical test. Did you get that? Won't you come in?"
"Er. Why am I taking such a test?", I asked.
"Oh, it's company policy. Everyone takes it. For example, our previous web developer decided he could make more money working in the plant and he needed to show mechanical aptitude to get that job."
Huh.
I told her I'm taken aback from such a request and would have to think about it but, a few days later, I went to lunch with a former client who was near said Podunk Hollow and I figured, what the heck, I think I'll go by this place and take the test for fun to see what it's all about. Maybe it's 10 questions and I can get out of there or the real person in charge of hiring a software guy will get it and ignore it cause it doesn't make sense in the first place.
It was two tests of 120 questions total about things like bending sheet metal patterns, pulleys, loads and I don't care to the point that I just wanted to get out of there and I clicked on my best guess and left. The HR lady handed me her card with a date on the back of it. "If we think you fit the job, 'The Recruiter' will call you by this date." That was the fourth time I heard of "The Recruiter" as if he was some god behind a curtain to be feared but, surely, he wasn't so dumb to think I needed to pass a 120 question mechanics test--did he?
I went home and found a couple of online tests similar to what I took though they were only 10-20 question tests. One I only got a 60% grade on, again, not trying too hard. The other I got a 70%.
Would "The Recruiter" care? I don't know but today is the last day for them to call me. If the previous developer of their site went to the factory floor for more money then I don't think they can afford me. If they need me to pass a mechanics test to do their software development, I'm not sure I'm interested. I guess we'll know in about nine hours from now.
Now, I say "near me" because it's actually just under an hour drive away in the middle of nowhere. I am positive they aren't going to get any professionals who would want to go to Podunk Hollow for this unless they already live near Podunk Hollow so I applied thinking it might be fun coming in on my white steed and plates all glistening in the sunlight.
That was on December 4th and I hadn't heard anything until the first week of January when I got an email asking me to come in to take a mechanical test. I could come in, any time, Monday through Thursday from 7AM to 4PM. Unannounced. Just show up.
Huh.
I was wondering if this was some kind of automated response to my application but I'm a professional and I wish to be treated as such and, no thank you, I will not respond to such requests. However, two weeks later, I get a phone call from HR lady. "We sent you an email asking you to come in to take our mechanical test. Did you get that? Won't you come in?"
"Er. Why am I taking such a test?", I asked.
"Oh, it's company policy. Everyone takes it. For example, our previous web developer decided he could make more money working in the plant and he needed to show mechanical aptitude to get that job."
Huh.
I told her I'm taken aback from such a request and would have to think about it but, a few days later, I went to lunch with a former client who was near said Podunk Hollow and I figured, what the heck, I think I'll go by this place and take the test for fun to see what it's all about. Maybe it's 10 questions and I can get out of there or the real person in charge of hiring a software guy will get it and ignore it cause it doesn't make sense in the first place.
It was two tests of 120 questions total about things like bending sheet metal patterns, pulleys, loads and I don't care to the point that I just wanted to get out of there and I clicked on my best guess and left. The HR lady handed me her card with a date on the back of it. "If we think you fit the job, 'The Recruiter' will call you by this date." That was the fourth time I heard of "The Recruiter" as if he was some god behind a curtain to be feared but, surely, he wasn't so dumb to think I needed to pass a 120 question mechanics test--did he?
I went home and found a couple of online tests similar to what I took though they were only 10-20 question tests. One I only got a 60% grade on, again, not trying too hard. The other I got a 70%.
Would "The Recruiter" care? I don't know but today is the last day for them to call me. If the previous developer of their site went to the factory floor for more money then I don't think they can afford me. If they need me to pass a mechanics test to do their software development, I'm not sure I'm interested. I guess we'll know in about nine hours from now.