Pen-Elayne on the Web

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

So I read where Laura says that I don't like useless stats, and that's not technically true - I like 'em on occasion but I just don't take them that seriously. Unfortunately, when it comes to many real-life stats, like how one does on various employment-related tests, there are folks who take them very seriously indeed. Which I guess is understandable, as how else are you really going to measure someone's competency prior to hiring them? So today I went to the first employment agency that's bothered to test me, a fairly prestigious one (I hope), and overall I'm pretty pleased with how I did, although I can't for the life of me figure out how these computer tests are graded. I got tested in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and scored an 86, 66 and 60 respectively. Maybe that's a percentage of the 30 task questions answered correctly by performing the task precisely as the computer expects me to (with Microsoft programs there are often a dozen different ways to accomplish any one task), I dunno. I probably could have done better, oh well. I did get 104 wpm on my typing test, which I thought was damned good for as under-the-weather as I'm still feeling. The actual "pre-employment assessment" (i.e., in-person screening) was only a few minutes, as I'd suspected it would be, but the total visit put me out of the office for 2½ hours including the crosstown commute. Fortunately, my away-from-office boss didn't call in during that time, and I met with our HR person afterwards to report on things and she suggested I ask my boss for a salary increase commensurate with the company move so I can afford the extra commute out of NYC. They really do seem to want to keep me, it'd be hard to find someone else to jump the hoops I've jumped these past 6½ years I guess. I'm not holding out any hope, though - if he'd intended to pay me more he would have done so in the last 2+ years (I haven't had a raise since before 9-11). Besides, it's not - it never was - just a matter of money. More to come, I suppose.