NYCPHP Meetup

[Ben Sgro (ProjectSkyline)]

Hello all, 

So, once again, depending on the actual job description, I might take some ugly code (in any real work environment, there should be no shortage of that :), print it out, and give the candidate a pad and a pen, or a text editor, and say "Clean this up.  I'll be back in 20 minutes." 

That's a great idea. Our first product (wasn't meant to ever be realesed heh) is a mess. If the candidate could manage to navigate through it and improve it, I would be impressed.


Also check with HR to find out what you are *not* allowed to ask, anything that could be construed to be a basis for discrimination like age.

We don't have HR, but I will keep it pretty technical and not personal...besides asking what
their personal interests are.


If you like somebody and think they will work out, ask them to come back and invite in 2 or 3 of their potential coworkers and have a short brainstorming session on a problem you have at the moment.  See what they contribute.

That's a great idea. The position is for a coder, but I let candidates know in my post and on the phone
that there would be times when they might deal with customers, work an account, provide insight
to larger projects, be writing CL scripts, etc. It's a many hats position, because we are a small company
and have lots to get done. I know that this may not work, so based on their performance, I can
place more of their time onto things they a) enjoy doing b) do well (which probably are related).

As for questions, its good to have a formal test you ask them to take, but interviewing is an art you can only get good at with practice.

This will be the first time the tables are turned. I've never conducted an interview before.

Thanks for the feedback.

- Ben

Ben Sgro, Chief Engineer
ProjectSkyLine - Defining New Horizons


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Christopher R. Merlo 
  To: NYPHP Talk 
  Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 8:48 AM
  Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] Questions to ask at a job interview?


  On 6/28/07, Ben Sgro (ProjectSkyline) <ben at projectskyline.com> wrote:
    Good Morning, 

    In a few days, I will be sitting down with a perspective employee, 
    and I'd like to get some feedback on good programming questions
    or excercises I can have them work on.

  I think this mostly depends on what you want the employee to do once he/she is employed.  If the job is mostly OO class design, then ask candidates to create a class to represent, say, a shopping cart, or a customer.  If the job is mostly design, then create a boring HTML page and ask them to mark it up for proper application of CSS, or design on paper (without any code) a user interface for some part of your overall project. 

  That being said, if I were in your shoes, I would try to gauge the candidate's level of understanding regarding certain key areas (inheritance, comments, modularity, etc.), as opposed to how much stuff they have memorized or can look up.  My first programming gig straight out of school was cleaning up legacy code, and so in class I always emphasize the importance of looking at code you've never seen before, figuring out what it does, and figuring out ways to improve upon it.  So, once again, depending on the actual job description, I might take some ugly code (in any real work environment, there should be no shortage of that :), print it out, and give the candidate a pad and a pen, or a text editor, and say "Clean this up.  I'll be back in 20 minutes." 
  -c



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