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We recently hired two new people in my department. One is competent, but the other lacks basic common sense. I had not had the opportunity to meet him in person until last week and was just surprised at how much of an airhead/ditz he is. For example, he was unable to make the distinction between a university and the town the university was located in. The names are not similar and there's no reason a reasonable person would mix them up.
He's not as technically skilled as the other new hire, but this lack of basic common sense was just really disconcerting. He had asked a lot of repetitive and simple questions before I met him, but he doesn't have another colleague who has done this role at the same site, so I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt, but was just disturbed by the lack of basic knowledge that should be assumed most people off the street would have.
This can be a huge issue, particularly since you cannot teach common sense. For a while when I was doing the bulk of the interviewing, I would actually propose scenario's and ask if X happened, and then Y happened, how would you handle it? In a fast paced environment, it's critical to be able to think on your feet.
I don't care if you're talking about Princeton - mixing up a town and a University makes NO sense.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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This is something that should have been discovered in the interview process. Someone (hiring manager or HR?) needs to work on their interview questions and skills.
Young people now days are not doing what us older folk have done through out our lifetime and some if us that have come through the tough times know it better.
My son can work circles around most others his age, because we came through some tough times, and had to learn how to make do with what we had, or suffer with out.
Even I find my self not memorizing things, more so now because I know where to look it up almost instantly; the computer will lull one into a state of dependency on it, rather than thinking for one's self.
The elite do not want kids that think for them selves , they want drones. that is what the school system is preparing the kids to be.
Check out the thread on the RFI chip.
Emigrations, I hate to say it, but some people are just not that bright. But as Hemlock stated, someone should have picked up on that during the interviewing process.
Arleigh, I have to disagree. I believe there's a higher percentage of younger people who are unemployable because of the way they were raised. Those who think they're special and think the company and manager are supposed to make them happy. But the percentage that isn't like that work very hard, are very bright, and have a great work ethic.
The employee the op describes could be any age. Some people just aren't that bright and really do not have common sense.
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