[texhax] test for LaTeX typist ?

[Alan Litchfield]

On Apr 26, 2006, at 6:37 PM, Dana Murray wrote:

> Hi
>
> The secretary in our Math dept is leaving us.  She learned LaTeX very
> quickly and became quite proficient.  Ad now we have to replace  
> her :-(
>
> Can anyone suggest a test, or an approach that we can follow, to
> determine whether an applicant for the job has the potential to become
> competent in LaTeX, roughy at the level of undergraduate math exam
> papers.
>
> Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated
>

All suggestions already promulgated accepted. But...

What was the criteria you used for this person? Why can't you use  
that again?

My impression is that they did not already have LaTeX skills before  
coming on board, so now are you looking for a person who has a higher  
level of skills than they had? In which case I think you may have  
some problems unless you are prepared to pay more for that better  
skill set.

Have you considered looking for an older person? What about some of  
those retired/redundant typesetters from the 80's and early 90's.

An older person is more likely to be stable and less likely to move  
on, and they would have had a grounding in the style of computing you  
are looking for (pre/non-GUI).

On the other hand, if you look for someone who has good scripting or  
limited programming skills, I would ask myself why they would want to  
be a secretary and not gone for a better position somewhere else.

Alan