> -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce Sorge [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:29 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Interview Questions > > I was informed today that I will be participating in the interview > process for my position. Since I know many of you on this list have > conducted interviews, can you all share with me some questions that I > need to ask? I can come up with technical questions but I want to be > sure that the candidates actually know what they are talking about and > did not just read a few docs on CF prior to the interview. Also, there > is a good chance that we are not going to be able to find a CF > developer
I've never found much use in questions with specific answers - the kind of "which tag would you use for X" or "what's the third parameter for function Z" questions. Rote knowledge of easily obtainable information isn't that impressive to me. Instead I've always liked more general, open-ended questions - they tend to bring things to the for more. I remember interviewing for a "Sr. Cold Fusion Developer" and asking "You have an older ColdFusion application (the original developer isn't available) that's having performance problems, what are some of the things you'd look for?" The applicant (rightly) spent some time talking about possible database issues but said nothing about CF. I prodded "What might you look for in the CF code?" and he went right back to the database. Finally I said "Let's say this application doesn't use a database." His answer was "You can't have a ColdFusion application without a database." So he wasn't hired. ;^) In general I want to know that they understand the issues involved rather than the specifics. Questions like "What are some of the methods you'd use to make ColdFusion applications easier to maintain?" or "What are some of the technologies/techniques you might take advantage of to integrate ColdFusion applications with other systems and languages?" You should hear how CF relates to common practice and such... they might talk generally about encapsulation and portability but then specifically about UDFs and CFCs. I also really like to see code samples. There's some legitimacy to say "I was under NDA" and not able to produce some code (especially enterprise code) but they should have SOME code they can share, something they did on their own time that they're proud of. (Not all programmers program for fun... but I honestly think the best ones do.) Have them walk through the code with you. If they can't produce any code have them walk through a problem they'd solved. Give them ten or so minutes to answer each question and you'll know easily enough if they know what they're talking about (and if they're excited about it) or if they've just padded their resume with "CF". Of course all of this puts a much larger burden on the interviewer - they really have to know their stuff as well. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:258418 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
