Member-only story
The Key Lesson I Learned from Being Wrong
The feeling of being right is misleading
Testing, testing, 1,2,3…
The campus employment office advertised a recruiting campaign by the local telephone company. It piqued my interest.
The company was conducting aptitude tests, which could lead to full-time employment as a phone installer, or line technician. I decided to take the test.
I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. My mechanical skills at the time were rather dismal. What I did know was that working for BC Tel meant full-time work, union wages, medical benefits, and a pension. The kind of jobs that no longer exist.
All I needed was to pass a test. How hard could that be?
I arrived at the testing site early one Saturday morning.
There were about thirty people in the room. Most looked older than me. Some appeared to be tradespeople, which made me feel a bit insecure.
The tester described the three-part testing procedure. The first part was a questionnaire asking general questions about ourselves: education, career goals, that type of thing.
The second part was the technical part of the test. Pages filled with diagrams of gears, belts, pumps, scales, circuits, and switches. Some of my answers on the multiple-choice answer sheet were pure guesses.
Part three of the test was a single sheet of paper filled with rows of circles about 8mm in diameter.
The task was to place an X in the centre of each circle making sure that the X did not touch the outline of the circle. We would have one minute to complete the test.
“Make as many Xs as you can. Do not erase anything. Are you ready? 3…2…1… begin.” The tester clicked her stopwatch.
What seemed simple, wasn’t.
I worked as fast as I could to fill the page. My hand did not respond as I expected. I made a mess. I would at times cross the edges of the circles. Panic. Re-calibrate, then screw up someplace else.
