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Feedback Screening Applicants Tests Oversimplification

As part of the entertainment at our year-end dinner, the company hired a handwriting analyst. She came to the table where I was sitting with my manager and several fellow employees and asked us to write our names on a sheet of paper. Then she gave some positive descriptions of everyone except me. She wondered about my energy and persistence. I don't know if my manager bought what she was saying, but he semi-jokingly said that he would like to hire her to help screen new applicants. This experience wrecked the whole evening for me, and I'm wondering if I should discuss the matter with him.



Just because a handwriting analyst had a less-than-flattering description of you does not mean that the handwriting is on the wall. This person was part of the evening's entertainment, and you should leave it at that. Your persistence and energy levels are best reflected by your performance on the job, rather than by someone who does not have one fact concerning your work.

Every once in a while, one hears about a company that uses handwriting analysis in the hiring process. The positive side of handwriting analysis is that it typically provides attractively-bound reports with definitive statements regarding numerous aspects of a person's personality, such as confidence, maturity, intelligence, independence, and so forth. The only problem is that there is no scientific basis behind these assertions at all.

There have been studies in which the exact same handwriting samples have been sent to different handwriting analysts, and the reports from these analysts reached totally different conclusions about the personality of the writer. Handwriting analysis is interesting, intriguing, and amusing, and its role in business is just where you found it -- as entertainment at a year-end dinner.

There is no reason for you to meet with your manager to discuss the comments made by this entertainer. For whatever reason, she picked up some inaccurate cues from you. Perhaps it was your attire, pattern of speech, or the way you were sitting... although she was analyzing your handwriting, she was looking at you and trying to gather as much data as possible.

When it comes to work, handwriting content is far more important than style, parlor games belong in the parlor, and the most accurate indicator of a person's energy level is his or her behavior. Speaking of behavior, do you think a low-energy person would write a letter?




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