[thelist] Good "tests" for prospective employees?

[M. Seyon]

Message from Jay Blanchard (6/30/2005 04:35 PM)

>Actually, for testing web devs, I have
>asked them to do the "here is a print out of a page, write the HTML that
>would produce it", I have asked them to identify things, like presenting
>them with a snippet of CSS and asking them what the expected output
>would be, things like that. I have also given 20 questions tests that
>asks things like "what is the only required tag in the following group?"
><group of tags presented>.

I don't have the XHTML or CSS specs memorised. That's why I've got the 
Internet, plus downloaded specs, plus reference books. Rote learning went 
out for me round about age 12.

I'd be more interested in how they approach specific real world situations 
rather than how much they've crammed into their brain the night before the 
interview.

Even the printed page, produce HTML test is questionable. Depending on the 
complexity of the page some people will not code it all by hand, off the 
tops of their heads. Or perhaps they'd have written the code so long ago 
and had it stored in a convenient snippet library that they don't recall it 
immediately.

Developers rarely develop in isolation with no resources. Life is an open 
book exam.

And now that you've posted the answers to your questions I guess it doesn't 
matter that I figured them out. Spoilsport.

regards.
-marc

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