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GE, LENO,LETTERMAN to use Edison's employment quiz

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Contributed by: Fran Miller on 11/28/2007

General Electric, once Thomas Edison's company before the Wall Street raiders forced him out, has historically used sophisticated pre-employment psychological tests to hire the creme de creme.

The whole system broke down this week when the Writer's strike revealed that the same questions used by Jay Leno on Jaywalk and David Letterman's Top 10 List were being pilfered by Back Water agents in the dark of night and used on the hiring test.

With the writer's on strike and Leno and Letterman doing reruns, prospective candidates could watch old episodes, get the answers, write them next to their tatoos and no one was the wiser. So, senior management at GE hired Jack Welch, who caucased with his trophy punch bunny wife, Suzie. They suggested returning to Edison's old test. The only downside is that the test was never administered to women and thus there is a temporary hiring freeze at GE for women.
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Just In; Press Release from Castle Rock:Upon hearing about the test, Douglas County Schools have also decided to embrace Edison's grading scheme rather than the "1,2,3, 4, we know who you are," scheme proposed by Denver Public Schools to replace A, B, C, D, and F.
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Sometime in 1920, it turns out, Thomas Edison wrote a test of general knowledge to be given to anyone who wanted to go to work as a manager for him. The questions covered science, history, literature, current events, math, even morality. After being interviewed the candidate was given a set of questions devised by Mr. Edison himself to indicate the breadth of reading and knowledge possessed by the applicant. Applicants had two hours and were graded by an XYZ. Only 30 out of 500 scored as 'Class A' men. Edison graded the test himself and was the only one to see the scores. Applicants were sworn to secrecy, but men not hired leaked questions to the press and Edison had to change the test frequently.

Edison is quoted as saying:

" Men who have gone to college I find to be amazingly ignorant. They don't seem to know anything"

The New York Times responded with:

"Why should a dreamy young college graduate need to know how glass is made, or where sulfur was mined, or who invented the cotton gin?"

TWENTY SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1. Why is cast iron called pig iron?
2. What place is the greatest distance below sea level?
3. Who wrote the song "Home Sweet Home"?
4. Who was Pizarro?
5. What city in the United States leads in making laundry machines?
6. What eight countries bound France"
7. Where is the River Volga?
8. What country consumed the most tea before World War I?
9. What city in the United States leads in making laundry machines in 1921?
10. What city is the fur center of the U.S.?
11. What country is the greatest textile producer?
12. Which has the greater area, Greenland or Australia?
13. Where is Copenhagen?
14. Where is Spitzbergen?
15. In what country other than Australia are kangaroos found?
16. Who was Bessemer and what did he do?
17. How many states were there in the Union in 1921?
18. What are prunes and where do we get the most of them from?
19. Who was Paul Revere?
20. Who was Solon?

Try your hand at getting hired by Thomas Edison. We'll publish the answers next week.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Fran Miller

Parker , CO

Fran Miller has posted 106 stories and 14 comments since joining on 9/28/2007. Fran Miller 's average story rating is 4.78.

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