The Accountancy industry

Yup. If it says on the application form that you must write about an often irrelevant topic in your own handwriting, the employer will take the handwriting to a little old lady with a crystal ball on her table. She will look at it and proclaim, if your t's and l's slope at different angles, that you unreliable and dishonest and put the application form into the bin without looking at irrelevancies such as qualifications or experience.

I don't bother applying on such forms for two reasons. One, I always fail graphology tests (my handwriting is quite legible, but slopes and spaces vary), and two I wouldn't want to put my career in the hands of people who take such things seriously. Maybe next year you'll have to be a Pisces to get a promotion!

I've seen this before, but it isn't to divine character from your penmanship. It's to get a "known", good copy of your handwriting into their files, and in sufficient quantity, so that it can be compared to your answers on different parts of the test (before or after your lunch- break) or even later, should you join their firm.

"David" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.greennet.net:

Lol. Yes, and the other reason they sometimes use to justify insisting on getting the handwriting sample is because they must send it to an expert to make sure that it is legible. I was actually talking about the handwriting sample they get on application forms.

It is up to you what you want to believe.