Widely published photographs of three comatose young men in business suits lying in the middle of a public square in Chongqing municipality were both amusing and shocking.

The three, two of them university students, were applicants for jobs. Reports said it was the interviewer who forced them to drink till they lost their senses to convince their potential employer about their social skills.

It is true that in China, as well as the business world in many other countries, having a good level of interpersonal (social) skills strengthens an applicant's chances of getting a job. But there are far more effective ways to judge such skills in jobseekers. For example, they can be asked to take part in a business negotiation or discussion, or even be invited to a formal dinner to be judged for their social skills.

That the three got blind drunk to pass a "test" shows that the interviewer and the interviewees both are socially inept.

It is not a bad thing to invite someone for a drink, but forcing someone to drink to the point of vomiting and losing his/her senses - as happened in Chongqing - should impress nobody.

This shocking incident is yet another poor example for interviewers as well as jobseekers. Let us hope that jobseekers are put to more appropriate "tests" of suitability in future.

Paul Surtees, via e-mail

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(China Daily 11/17/2010 page9)