Contracting straight out of uni. Is it doable? v2

[firestarter]

When done properly, tech tests are a great way of filtering out poor candidates.

The numbers of candidates we've seen who have years of experience and yet can't follow a simple spec that requires ~15 lines of straight forward code and a couple of unit tests.

[SuperZ]

When done properly, tech tests are a great way of filtering out poor candidates.

The numbers of candidates we've seen who have years of experience and yet can't follow a simple spec that requires ~15 lines of straight forward code and a couple of unit tests.

Fair enough . Some people can get brain lock at interviews though so also weeding those out too. Regarding what someone else said, you can weed out the poor candidates during the interview with good technique, and a verifiable CV tells a story in itself, ie, candidate doing the same role for many years with some long contracts, highly unlikely to be a chancer.

I don't have an issue with technical questions but written tests especially being left alone in a room to complete I have no interest in nowadays, and that's partly down to experience. During early part of my career, fine. I've always been open and honest with clients and have been able to actually get some clients to park their interview style and instead tell me what they need doing and during the interview we have even been able to come up with a little plan. Ultimately we are or should be providing a professional service, the traditional interview styles (and written tests) go hand in hand with permanent employment IMO.

Last year I was offered something that I turned down because I didn't feel I could do it, at least efficiently, didn't need a test to tell me that

[firestarter]

Fair enough . Some people can get brain lock at interviews though so also weeding those out too. Regarding what someone else said, you can weed out the poor candidates during the interview with good technique, and a verifiable CV tells a story in itself, ie, candidate doing the same role for many years with some long contracts, highly unlikely to be a chancer.

There's a lot of contractors with long stints who I'm sure could explain their previous roles and what they delivered fairly confidently, but that doesn't tell us whether their code quality is any good. Case in point, they might talk about unit tests, but can they write any when asked to do so?

Ultimately we are or should be providing a professional service, the traditional interview styles (and written tests) go hand in hand with permanent employment IMO.

I suppose it depends on the industry. In companies where the average contract length is 2-3 years, there's no reason why contractors shouldn't be held to similar technical standards to the permanent members of staff.

[SueEllen]

There's a lot of contractors with long stints who I'm sure could explain their previous roles and what they delivered fairly confidently, but that doesn't tell us whether their code quality is any good. Case in point, they might talk about unit tests, but can they write any when asked to do so?



I suppose it depends on the industry. In companies where the average contract length is 2-3 years, there's no reason why contractors shouldn't be held to similar technical standards to the permanent members of staff.

But that's what you are refusing to understand we are not permanent members of staff. Current Clientco and my last Client expect contractors to drive best practise there as many of their permanent members of staff can get away with not being proactive.

Also if you have a candidate who has 10 possible interviews and you decide to give them a technical test which takes their time they simply won't bother with you. However if you are crafty enough to throw in technical questions which test their knowledge while asking about their background you won't lose that candidate.

[squarepeg]

But that's what you are refusing to understand we are not permanent members of staff. Current Clientco and my last Client expect contractors to drive best practise there as many of their permanent members of staff can get away with not being proactive.

Also if you have a candidate who has 10 possible interviews and you decide to give them a technical test which takes their time they simply won't bother with you. However if you are crafty enough to throw in technical questions which test their knowledge while asking about their background you won't lose that candidate.

This.

[nomadd]

But that's what you are refusing to understand we are not permanent members of staff.

Sue, remember that CUK is mostly populated these days with highly-opinionated newbies. They simply do not understand what "The supply of project-specific professional I.T. consultancy services" actually means.

Mind you, in the last two pages I've learned from them all the things I need to know for those "technical tests" - the time-wasting nonsense I've refused for the last near 30 years of my contracting career: How to iterate over an array (gosh!). How to call a function recursively (sexy!). How to write a Junit test (I am a God amongst the Coding Chimps!)

Seriously, this place seems to be full of school kids practising for their GCSE in ICT.

[SueEllen]

Sue, remember that CUK is mostly populated these days with highly-opinionated newbies. They simply do not understand what "The supply of project-specific professional I.T. consultancy services" actually means.

True which is why I guess people didn't understand what I meant by a technical interview.

It is also why they don't understand that someone else in the world who is cheaper than them can easily do their job.

Mind you, in the last two pages I've learned from them all the things I need to know for those "technical tests" - the time-wasting nonsense I've refused for the last near 30 years of my contracting career: How to iterate over an array (gosh!). How to call a function recursively (sexy!). How to write a Junit test (I am a God amongst the Coding Chimps!)

You should have just Googled. Seriously every thing is out there.

Seriously, this place seems to be full of school kids practising for their GCSE in ICT.

Nah they would have just asked their dad or paid the swot to do it.

[firestarter]

How to write a Junit test

The number of candidates that fail this part...

[firestarter]

But that's what you are refusing to understand we are not permanent members of staff.

Join me for a tour of the IT department of any bank in the city and we'll play a game of "observe the working practises of each developer and try to tell apart the permies from the contractors."

I know a lot of you like to think you're special and a cut above the permies, but in reality you're hired because it's convenient.

[TheGreenBastard]

Sue, remember that CUK is mostly populated these days with highly-opinionated newbies. They simply do not understand what "The supply of project-specific professional I.T. consultancy services" actually means.

Mind you, in the last two pages I've learned from them all the things I need to know for those "technical tests" - the time-wasting nonsense I've refused for the last near 30 years of my contracting career: How to iterate over an array (gosh!). How to call a function recursively (sexy!). How to write a Junit test (I am a God amongst the Coding Chimps!)

Seriously, this place seems to be full of school kids practising for their GCSE in ICT.

Well, your milage might vary, but it's weeded out many chumps for me.