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Contractor Interviews and Testing?

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  • malvolio
    replied
    Yeah, dead easy - until you're in charge of a £10m budget and people's livelihoods.
    For example - "Here's a 300 page ITT for an outsourcing deal. How do we make a profit on it and undercut our competition. You have three days to come up with a costed proposal..."

    Successful senior architects and similar don't get paid good money for talking, they have to deliver difficult and often complicated solutions aginst demanding constraints. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

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  • Hobosapien
    replied
    Any feedback on what types of interview to expect depending on role?

    Surely analysis/architecture/management and other senior roles rely more on scenario based questions than crappy technical tests about syntax and other bollox that are often just memory tests not competence tests.

    Reason for asking is I'm considering moving up the chain now I'm 'senior' so can rely on my experience rather than memory and not constantly having to learn the latest crappy frameworks or tools the code monkeys love tangling with. Much easier to sit in meetings/workshops and knock up a few documents/presentations where the hardest task is avoiding eating too much cake.

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  • BR14
    replied
    Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
    Words fail me.
    ummmmm................... yeh

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  • northernladuk
    replied
    Words fail me.

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  • FK1
    replied
    Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
    Rubbish. What about all the time and effort taken finding/interviewing/onboarding to meet timelines? You get someone in without proper diligence and bin them a week later puts the project back and costs money.

    Granted a poorly done tech test isn't a good way to find the right candidate but just trialing expensive contractors for a week isn't the way to go either.
    The first week is always a probation period in fact. Nobody trusts you because of interview stage tests and nobody will pay you until you deliver working things.

    Real life working tasks take days. 1-2 hours tests just check interview skills and nothing more.
    In the context of a contract for services it is a non-sense. In the context of a senior level specialist with a working history it is a disgrace.

    Any fear of fake could be treated with a few minutes on the Companies House web-site. Like a credit check.

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  • northernladuk
    replied
    Originally posted by FK1 View Post
    A first week is always a probation period in fact. No needs to test.
    Rubbish. What about all the time and effort taken finding/interviewing/onboarding to meet timelines? You get someone in without proper diligence and bin them a week later puts the project back and costs money.

    Granted a poorly done tech test isn't a good way to find the right candidate but just trialing expensive contractors for a week isn't the way to go either.

    Leave a comment:


  • psychocandy
    replied
    Best gigs - ones secured via friendly chat.
    Crap gigs - one involving multiple interviews and/or tests.

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  • Snarf
    replied
    Originally posted by t0bytoo View Post
    I've seen two types of tests: good ones and bad ones.

    Good ones involved sitting down with an exercise that reasonably reflects the type of work I'd expect to do. Usually quite fun to do as an exercise.

    Bad ones come in the form of some lazy instructions and/or irrelevant computer science related algorithms that I usually don't understand and never bother doing.

    The tests are to help the client know a bit about how you work and - importantly - for you to get a sense of how the client works. If the test is nonsense, the work will be nonsense - walk away!. If the test is interesting and followed up by a discussion about implementation, scalability, etc, that's useful.

    I don't think that anything created in a test has any commercial value, so I wouldn't worry about that.
    Fizz buzz

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  • FK1
    replied
    A first week is always a probation period in fact. No needs to test.

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  • northernladuk
    replied
    Originally posted by pauldee View Post
    Having been on the hiring side, I have to admit having been hoodwinked by impressive seeming people who could talk the talk, but when I sat them in front of a computer it became clear they had no idea what they we're doing.
    Rather embarrassingly I have to hold my hand up to this as well. Talked a great talk in the interview and as it happens he did know his stuff. He was just not at all professional or dedicated to the gig when he turned up. Not sure how I could have changed anything to spot this but had to hold my hand up when the client asked who the f*** chose him.

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