Smart Phones are making us stupid

Same could be said for TomTom, Garmin and other GPS systems that dumb-down people driving locally. Why bother navigating via landmarks or knowing compass directions if you can rely on a voice telling you every move, so you don't have to think?

J.F.C., I feel ancient around millennials! Is there a therapy app for that?

 

We just interviewed a kid who had his cell phone on him asking for the Wi-Fi password so he could face-time with his family's legal counsel while in the office. For a $8/hr porter position at a dealership. Didn't last long and I am wondering how much conversation there was afterwards with said counsel when he was immediately turned out. Whiny little waif of a kid too.

Instant answers with no hunger for knowledge is the overall effect of this 100% connectivity. The ability to sift out the isht of the internet is what is disappearing as well.

 

Maybe word/excel aren't used as much now?

We don't use them much at work, either. PowerPoint is (finally)being jettisoned for actual conversations and/or interactive data, excel is rudimentary when we have BI tools or js visuals etc. I can't remember the last time I used word. Is the requirement that they compose a letter or that they use word specifically? Likewise for the excel, is the requirement to get the right answer or to do it in excel?

 

Nah. There will continue to be "an app for that" and the apps themselves will get better. I'm 62 years old and jealous of the youngsters b/c I won't be around to see how good it gets. Surmount the problem with the blood brain barrier and we'll become amazing....consider planning a trip to Italy, buying a 30 day license and downloading an app to your brain that allows you to understand and speak Italian for 30 days?

I agree with the poster that pointed out the relevance or lack thereof of Word and Excel today. Email has eliminated 99% of 'formal' letter writing...and I personally have never mastered Excel.

How long has this test been your standard hiring protocol? Are you in a business where these two skills are needed?

I fear you're on the wrong side of the digital divide...but don't get me started on the abysmal failure of the American public education system, either.

 

They didnt know how to use Word/Excel or didnt know how to write (bad grammar/spelling mistakes etc)?

 

Having a newly graduated mellinnial child now in law school and concurrently the ceo of an engineering startup company, I can tell you they work in ways we cannot fathom. Our generation is too wrapped up in the process. They are interested only in the outcome. Our generation is about the team and how the team functions toward the end goal. They work toward an end goal and disregard the process of getting there. They want flexibility in how they apply their job with the end goal task in focus. We are about the process restricting job flexibilty to end up at the completed task. I hope that makes some sense. I did not begin to understand the mellinnial mind until I saw how they work in action.

 

I don't understand the point of the interview test.
Word is just seeing if they can type? That's fair.
But Excel? Kid could be a genius and not ever encountered Excel.
I'd give an IQ test, or just ask what their SAT scores were. Simpler.