This wsj article (via) about weird interview requests includes things like this:
Rodney Archer, a 51-year-old engineering consultant in Silicon Valley, had spent several hours interviewing for a job at a tech company when his would-be employer posed an unusual request: Would he submit a handwriting sample?
Baffled, he asked why. It turned out the company had an analyst in Israel who regularly reviewed potential employees’ handwriting. “It’s a very effective way to find out what people’s true personalities are and what they’re like to work with,” he recalls being told.
The correct response is, “sure. Would you also like me to shave my head and give you a plaster cast of my skull so your company phrenologist can read the bumps for you?”
As an artist, Ed, do you feel any elements of your personality find expression in your artwork (inadvertantly or otherwise)?
If so, is it also possible in handwriting?
Oh, it’s *possible*. But I wouldn’t trust somebody to hire me or not based on what a consultant said they found out about my personality by looking at my art. (Unless the job was to produce art…)
I was interested in graphology when I was a kid, read some library books on it and stuff. It seemed interesting and all, but as far as I know there’s no more scientific validation for it than for phrenology.
Good article on it that seems pretty level-headed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphology
Graphology isn’t like art anyway. In art, you generally have some sort of intention, even if it’s just messing around for the hell of it. In graphology, the way your writing just happens to be is supposed to reveal deep clues to your personality. Me, I hate all forms of hidden motives schools of thought. It’s the “you say you’re doing X, but we know what you’re *really* doing.” It shows up in all sorts of philosophies and forms of activism, lots of pop psychology, all kinds of places. Why we can’t just take people at their word until proven otherwise is beyond me. I guess it’s more fun to play asshole amature detective and look for supposedly hidden secrets in everybody. Mind, I’m not saying that isn’t valid, sometimes, that people say one thing and do another. It’s just damned annoying when you have people finding hidden motives everywhere. Graphology strikes me as something like that. I mean, here’s a neat idea. Instead of going “oooo … you dot your ‘i’s with little harts, that must mean you’re loving!” How about, I dunno, getting to know the person? They’ll probably turn out to be a complete bitch anyway, heh. And yeah, I know graphology probably doesn’t do that, it was an example.
Touch a nerve there Khomus? :)
Actually, I’d love to see somebody analyze my handwriting, but I don’t know if they could. All I remember how to write is my signature. At some point I toyed with learning all the letters, at least to print them, and the numbers, but I don’t remember most of them. Half the time, my signature doesn’t come out the same. In fact ,if it ever did, I’d be surmazed and aprized. I’ll have to remember to try it if I ever get somewhere whee somebody does it.
As for the rest, eh. I just hate people/philosophies who think they know you better than you do, that’s all. And I think I’m getting crotchety in my old age. Ain’tcha glad I decided to start leaving comments now? :)