QUESTION TRADE TESTS 
22 3 
certain kind of work, that he will be able to select others 
who will succeed. A successful industrial, production, 
or mechanical engineer is by no means a successful em 
ployment interviewer. He may be a good judge of human 
nature and he may not. His success may rest largely on 
other grounds, such as special experience, education, or 
ability in a certain field. It is most often the case that 
if asked to state just what are the requirements of his 
position or what factors in his own make-up have enabled 
him to succeed, he is unable to give a clear and unam 
biguous answer. Although he knows what his work is 
and although he possesses the qualities necessary to suc 
ceed at it, he is still unable to state them. 
At this point the significance of trade tests or, to use the 
more inclusive term, occupational tests, becomes once 
more apparent. One of the commonest forms of the oc 
cupational tests is a series of questions relating to the 
duties of a particular occupation. Accompanying these 
questions is a set of answers which may be expected from 
an applicant who knows the work under consideration. 
The development of such a series of questions for industrial 
use is by no means a simple task. The faults pointed out 
are only too likely to be committed, as the following inci 
dent will show: 
A foreman of unusual ability in handling men, who had 
once been an employment manager and had interviewed 
many hundred of applicants, was asked to answer the 
following request: “Please put down ten questions which 
you consider the most important that might be asked a 
candidate for the position of gun assembler. These 
questions should be asked with a view of drawing out the 
candidate’s knowledge of his trade and show his skill as 
a thoroughgoing assembler. Give also the correct answer