Posted on 06/06/2024 8:51:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Although Thomas Edison was awarded 2,332 worldwide patents as an inventor, one of his lasting contributions to modern society was not proprietary: the job interview. Edison was not just a prolific inventor — he was also a businessman in charge of an industrial empire. His corporation, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., employed more than 10,000 workers at dozens of companies. Edison wanted employees who could memorize large quantities of information and also make efficient business decisions. To find them, he devised an extensive questionnaire to assess job candidates’ knowledge and personality.
Edison began using tests for candidate assessment in the late 19th century, but the questions he asked then were very specific to open positions he needed filled. Over time, he expanded on the idea, including questions that were not directly related to the job. While interviewing research assistants, for example, Edison served them soup to see if interviewees would season the soup before they tasted it; those who did were automatically disqualified as it suggested they were prone to operate on assumptions.
In 1921, Edison debuted the Edison Test, a knowledge test with more than 140 questions. Questions varied depending on the job position, but all interviewees were asked about information outside of their areas of expertise. The queries ranged from agricultural in nature (“Where do we get prunes from?”) to commercial (“In what cities are hats and shoes made?”) to the macabre (“Name three powerful poisons”).
After a copy of the questionnaire was leaked to The New York Times, Edison had to change the question bank multiple times to ensure applicants took the exam without any outside assistance.A score of 90% was required to pass, and out of the 718 people who had taken the test as of October 1921, only 32 (just 2%!) succeeded. The test was difficult, to say the least.
Edison’s own son Theodore failed it while a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). More famously, Albert Einstein failed the exam because he forgot the speed of sound.
The 1920s saw an upswing in college-educated people in the workforce, leading to increased competition for skilled labor, and thus more applicants for employers to choose from. Edison’s strategy of questioning candidates to assess their personality and aptitude was innovative at the time, and is still standard practice today — though employers are more likely to ask about someone’s greatest accomplishment than the origins of prunes.
Who had the toughest job interview, Thomas Edison or Admiral Hyman Rickover?
Biden would have failed after one question. And that’s not because of his current age; Biden would have failed after one question when he was 20. Biden was never intelligent enough for any job, but, he got as far as he has because of family and friends and purchases of influence. His lack of intelligence is the reason that he’s been wrong on foreign affairs for more than 50 years.
Sorry if I’ve taken the subject on a tangent. ;)
Edison was the original HR fool. Good to know.
While interviewing research assistants, for example, Edison served them soup to see if interviewees would season the soup before they tasted it; those who did were automatically disqualified as it suggested they were prone to operate on assumptions.
It's not an assumption that any soup that someone else serves me will need more seasoning. I know my tastes.
On such a test Biden would have immediately lied.
Questioner: Who was Queen Elizabeth II’s first prime minister?
Biden: That was Charles de Gaulle. I actually met him while I was studying medicine at Oxford.
Mr.Unique wrote: “It’s not an assumption that any soup that someone else serves me will need more seasoning. I know my tastes.”
The real assumption here is that all soups are properly prepared for all tastes and do not need additional seasoning.
You can’t have any idea about the seasoning until you test or taste the soup.
The good old days - back when merit mattered and the country was becoming the greatest in history. Now the test ask your KINK, YOUR KIN and YOUR COLOR. Sickening and stupid traits for a job.
The good old days - back when merit mattered and the country was becoming the greatest in history. Now the test ask your KINK, YOUR KIN and YOUR COLOR. Sickening and stupid traits for a job.
Maybe. But you also know your taste. If you know you like a lot of pepper in something, and if you don’t believe in the concept of too much pepper, it’s a safe bet you can just add pepper to anything put in front of you and it will be fine. Also some people just operate on muscle memory, throwing a dash of salt on something is just part of the eating ritual. That’s the funny part about the whole “question” Edison fails somebody for making assumptions, but in the process makes an assumption.
+1
Thanks.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
What do you do in your spare time?
(wait’s for answer)
WHY do you have spare time???
That doesn’t hold up in any way.
You don’t know what is in that bowl, Edison wasn’t making a presumption at all, he was watching to see if the person did, or even worst, did it out of habit because he never checks.
A man is not free, unless he is free to do nothing.
To what are you a slave?
Just because Einstein was smart doesn’t mean he would have been a good employee? Employers hire employees who can make a profit.
ansel12 wrote: “You can’t have any idea about the seasoning until you test or taste the soup.”
Past experience tells me that the soup needs more seasoning.
Republican or Democrat?
Next!!
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