This is a rather interesting topic and I am quite amused with some of the answers.
To start, I have over 27 years in IT. I've been through the ranks of programmer in all sorts of languages. Some of my greatest achievements were to take a medium size corporate lending company into the modern age of computer systems. None the less, I've been on both sides of the table. I've asked those tough questions and I've been asked those same type of questions. The key is to have an objective. If you want someone to clean up someone's mess then you better state that during the interviewing process. When I was looking for experienced developers I made sure the candidate new what I was looking for. In the one situation I told each candidate that I needed to clean up a mess and to mentor the other developers to stop making the mess. I was quite surprised to see how many people actually turned down my offer. If you want to bring someone in to get a few minor tasks developed and to manage then make it clear to the candidates. As for testing, the programmer position I took on last year I was asked to take a test. The test was no big deal but as stated here, it was designed to see if I had the ability to program a solution given a set of rules. My present position I was able to carry my 27 years of experience as well as show some aptitude towards the type of work which turned out to be enough. Hiring talented programmers can be challenging. If you know what you want then the questions often times tend to flow much easier. One other hint. When I was staffing that corporate finance company's development staff I would often have others within the group participate in the interviewing process. This was done for several reasons. I wanted to make sure that the others withing the group felt comfortable with the candidate. It is so important to develop and establish good dynamics withing a group. Groups that get along tend to be much more productive. Keep us posted. Kurt Zimmerman DBA RHWI, Inc Poughkeepsie, NY Kurt W. Zimmerman ____________________________________________________________________________________ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097 _______________________________________________ New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online http://www.nyphpcon.com Show Your Participation in New York PHP http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
