Maybe instead of asking anything that specific, you can ask them about their computer habits, such as what programs they regularly use, either for fun or business, and possibly what purpose they use them for. And maybe if they have any favorite websites?
You can also ask if they've had any computer classes. ASU required a computer class that taught essentially the basic office suite (it was torture).
You could also perhaps think of a troubleshooting situation that is likely to come up often and ask what they'd do. It can be something general but I suspect the steps they'd take would tell you something about how much they know about computers.
Fun fact: every time I go over to my boss's I end up fixing/messing with some piece of technology. Do I do legal work? Um, not that often. -_- Clearly I'm in the wrong field.
I agree with slytherinblack: probably a good idea to ask what their computer habits are, on a more general basis. Also, evaluate what daily computer-related tasks you find yourself using. What programs do you use? If it's Excel, ask them some simple questions that they might be required to know regarding Excel functionality. The best way to evaluate their computer performance is probably to sit them in front of a computer with a demo spreadsheet/document and ask them to manipulate it. In that case, if you wanted, you could even be like: please make sure you save this as a duplicate file (to see if they know something as simple as Save As...) and test their data-entry skills (WPM, can they even use a spreadsheet, etc.)
I've never interviewed people for a job, but I've been interviewed for a computer related job! It was a job scanning old documents in the library when I was in college, and the interview consisted of a lot of my showing how much I knew about Photoshop. Basically he gave me a list of tasks to do and observed me as I did them in a procedural format representative of what I'd do on the job; things like "adjust the scan settings", "straighten out this picture"; then "clean off dust", etc, etc. I'm assuming that the job you're interviewing for is, um, less specialized than that. I guess to avoid sounding condescending, "find desktop. open folder named whatever" could be at the start of a procedure representative of whatever THEY might be expected to do, and then move on to things like "open the word/excel document", "access email inbox", "print it out." I dunno, whatever's in the job description? Not like they need to know how to use photoshop or run a command prompt, but there's some basic stuff they should be expected to know. I
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Ask them if they know the keyboard shortcuts for copy & paste. Generally speaking, that's where we've found the split between people who know what they're doing and those who don't lays. So say my IT friends, anyway. o_o Also, that question isn't horribly condescending. If they give you a look, say you've had people not know. Just be honest. ^_^
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Maybe instead of asking anything that specific, you can ask them about their computer habits, such as what programs they regularly use, either for fun or business, and possibly what purpose they use them for. And maybe if they have any favorite websites?
You can also ask if they've had any computer classes. ASU required a computer class that taught essentially the basic office suite (it was torture).
You could also perhaps think of a troubleshooting situation that is likely to come up often and ask what they'd do. It can be something general but I suspect the steps they'd take would tell you something about how much they know about computers.
Fun fact: every time I go over to my boss's I end up fixing/messing with some piece of technology. Do I do legal work? Um, not that often. -_- Clearly I'm in the wrong field.
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Somethin' like that?
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