I work for a small MSP in the Midwest. I do some network administration, some help desk, and some coding. The basic jack-of-all-trades, master of none type of position. The position was intended to be filled by someone with relatively low experience, i.e. recent college grad. (I had 5 years of development and IT Admin experience)
When I was going through the hiring process, I got a list of questions that were specifically related to the kind of work I would do.
"My e-mail doesn't work, how do I fix it?"
"How would you write a script to check for number of a given event log events?"
"Write a simple SQL statement to get this data out of this table."
I was apparently the only candidate who even assumed that I was on the phone with someone whose email didn't work. That was largely what got me the job.
Now, granted, this is only an anecdotal piece of evidence about one job in the Midwest. But the larger lesson that can be applied, I think, is the same one that Jean brings out in the article.
The most effective technical interview is one that tests what the candidate will be doing. So, if you're developing Android apps, asking the candidate to develop an app is probably pretty effective. If you are looking for a software engineer, ask them to engineer. A java pop quiz has little worth.
When I was going through the hiring process, I got a list of questions that were specifically related to the kind of work I would do.
"My e-mail doesn't work, how do I fix it?"
"How would you write a script to check for number of a given event log events?"
"Write a simple SQL statement to get this data out of this table."
I was apparently the only candidate who even assumed that I was on the phone with someone whose email didn't work. That was largely what got me the job.
Now, granted, this is only an anecdotal piece of evidence about one job in the Midwest. But the larger lesson that can be applied, I think, is the same one that Jean brings out in the article.
The most effective technical interview is one that tests what the candidate will be doing. So, if you're developing Android apps, asking the candidate to develop an app is probably pretty effective. If you are looking for a software engineer, ask them to engineer. A java pop quiz has little worth.