Unit 4bc Book
6. Interviews and Inventions
Do you know who first came up with the idea of a job interview? Well, it was Thomas Edison in 1921, when he created a written test to evaluate job candidate´s knowledge. It consisted of 146 tough questions which most candidates failed to answer, including Einstein, for example. However, some other candidates passed and were eventually hired to work in Edison´s laboratories, for example, Nikola Tesla, a later rival of his. Although Edison himself was not well school-educated, understanding most of his inventions by intuition rather than based on scientific facts, his laboratories are considered to be predecessors of modern think tanks we know today.
If you want, you can try Edison´s test of knowledge here. Some people think Edison invented the test because he was frustrated by the low level of knowledge some of his university-educated candidates possessed. When talking to a reporter, he once said:
“Anyone can be a success, providing he is willing to pay the price, which is continuous hard work. The trouble with a large number of young men today who are given positions is that they refuse to pay the price, and thus become a drag on the industry. Our young men today do not wish to work as much and as hard as they did when I was a boy. They want shorter hours and more pay, and too many amusements, the same as all workmen do; but I think this condition will be rectified when people come to their senses. It certainly cannot last.”
Definitely, Edison´s hard work has paid him off. He held more than 1,000 patents and played a role, for example, in inventing the telegraph, light bulb, phonograph, movie camera, and alkaline batteries. If he lived today and was interviewed, what would he say about his inventions? Read about them here.