In seeking a job I had a 2 hour phone interview with a company. Was asked to bring bring examples of code for another 2 hour interview. I was asked detailed questions about my code. How, why, what’s this mean? They got my transcript from the techschool where I was taking programming with my 4.0 GPA, and letter of recommendation from my instructor. The department head interviewing me complimented me on the quality of my code. He offered me a position and a salary. He said I would have to take an Programmers Aptitude test because I had less than 2 years exp. I failed. The test had nothing to do with programming. It did not test my ability to write Cobol, Visual Basic, my knowlege of DOS, Windows or OS2. In fact, it is the exact kindof test that I can not pass do to my documented concentration problem. I finished Introduction to C in have the time the other students did. When I took the final, no one had told me the instructor had only gotten two-thirds through the course material so I finished the entire 15 pages of the final and aced it, not the ten pages the rest of the class had done. Cobol I was the same way. Dispite proving I knew how to code. A test disqualifed me from that job. Another interview with another company for a programming job resulted the same way. In my current job, PC Technican, I have recieved awards for problems I have resolved by writing custom cobol applications. Two tests have proven I could not have possibly written because them because and have no appitude to work with computers. Employers should consider “Appropiate demonstration of skills” as proof of qualification for a job. Policies designed to protect a company should NOT disqualify the abled and skilled employment.
James Charles Carey Jr.
PC Technician, MCSE, A+
GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc.
Servicing Division, Columbus Georgia
james.carey@greenpoint.com
tankie@knology.net
