August 7, 2008 @ 12:25 am
Finding a Good Employee is like…
…getting a girlfriend/boyfriend - it seems as though all the good ones are either taken or don’t play in your field (if you know what I mean).
Seriously though I didn’t think it could be this difficult. Could it be the quality of our universities?
The first question I always ask in an interview is “Explain to me what a Unix timestamp is” and I have yet to have a local - some headhunted, some from Jobstreet - are unable to answer this question.
I get the “Oh I don’t know the answer but I would just look it up” waffle a lot - there was even one guy who was Googling during his phone interview - but there are some questions you can’t just shrug off. I don’t claim to be a programming guru, but the Unix timestamp is the base of every time-related function in PHP, MySQL and Linux; if you are a “Web developer” who doesn’t know what it is, you have either never used a single date-related function or you have been cut and pasting code without knowing what it does - I’m not sure which is worse. And if you marked “Advanced” for MySQL or PHP; or “3 years of experience” then there’s not much to say.
/rant
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Filed under: Nuffnang, Personal, Rants
Tags: mysql, Nuffnang, php, programming, Rants, work
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Leng Kuan thought that...
August 7, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
But how come you can’t fix an IE 6 problem… hehe.
hw thought that...
August 7, 2008 @ 11:28 pm
i know what you mean man.. i helped my prev company interview for a web developer as well, and omg 99% of them dont know shit. I have no idea what the local unis/colleges teach here… i hate how they like to overstate their job experience as well, just because they used PHP for 2 months in a college project, they put 1 year experience… just stumps me how a person with 4-5 years experience knows less about basic programming stuff than a fresh grad….
after interviewing countless individuals in the field of software development (i refuse to call it IT), there’s just not enough well versed software engineers out there who can think out of the box.
yay for the brain drain.
Khay Soon thought that...
August 8, 2008 @ 11:20 am
Dude, don’t be too hard on those trying to make their mark on ‘Web Designing’. Loads of people out there are probably boasting about their skills. Maybe you did wanted to do that before didn’t you? :) if you’re honest enough… In the end, the attitude counts. You can have all the skills in the world with one bloody lousy attitude and that’s worse than a person with moderate skills but with a willingness to give their best and learn. But don’t stop criticizing man…. haha…. I would miss your sarcasm if that happens :D
Cheers.
Tim thought that...
August 8, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
@wendy: Go away >: (
@hw: Exactly. We had one girl in the office who rated herself as “Intermediate” in computers and she didn’t know how to use MS Office…. argh.
@K soon: Haha dude, every one that comes for interview says “I’m willing to learn”. Most popular tagline! But simply put the question I posed already gauges your attitude - it’s not normally taught in colleges, but if you can’t answer it and you marked yourself as having web development experience, then you have an attitude problem and lack of initiative… or you’ve never done time in a web application :P
cksoon thought that...
August 9, 2008 @ 10:12 am
I see we’ve a problem of identifying the true attitude in a person. So we just judge that person from the first impression. I mean, “C’mon, STOP wasting my precious time, you incompetent @ssh013!” Ok, hand’s up, I do that sometimes :P
pinkpau thought that...
August 11, 2008 @ 8:50 am
waffle dont be emo. and why you complain to hw about other people! you are so rood T___T
‘I get the “Oh I don’t know the answer but I would just look it up” waffle a lot’
hahahaha this sentence is very amusing :D it’s like a semi pun