[thelist] interview questions

[samiam at ns.linkfinity.net]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2001, Andre Gaulin wrote:

we use a simple html quiz.. search the list archives and you'll find a
thread about it. Lots of people find it stupid and demeaning and I say if
its beneath you please don't apply, this is a production job and you'll
need thicker skin than that (FWIW this is also my job we're talking
about.. ). And it's the attitude taken in the
replies that is all telling. Did they dash off the first thing that came
into their head, or did they take the question seriously and test out
their solution/answer.
With this in hand, the actual interview is much easier.. you can probe a
little and see exactly which part of very-large.com they were really
responsible for, and what they'd do different now. Talk tools and
processes. Some people just don't get efficiency and feel that
hand-typing each tag in every file in notepad is perfectly acceptable if
they indent their code nicely. (flame bait... sorry. Homesite user here,
scripts and snippets, with some DW thrown in :)

Where do they want to go with this? Some people are really looking for a
design job but will code while they find it. Waste of your time training
them, don't go there. Similarly some really want to be java developers but
will slum it while the market settles. Production work is a specialist
position. You can find people who do both, but how long will they stick it
out? and will they really care about their work.

These are some of the issue I've come across anyhow. And lots of bluffers
like you say. Try and really pointed question like "A client has requested
you change their email address on all 700 of their pages. How would you
approach this. "
Do they dive in. or investigate? etc..

anyhow, good luck with it.

Sam

  > Hey everyone...
>
> I need to conduct interviews for a production position (HTML production, not
> a developer or coder). I want to have a good, comprehensive list of
> questions and I was wondering if anyone out there had any suggestions.  What
> questions will really help determine if a potential candidate has the right
> stuff or is just bluffing (I have had problems with bluffers before).
>
> Any solid and high quality interview questions i could ask would be greatly
> appreciated.
>