Questions required to sort the men from the boys!

[zathras]

Right, Ive got an advert out for a junior Crystal /SQL /Excel reports developer.

My boss wants ten easy questions that will sort the wheat from the chaff. Required is a couple of years experience on all of the above?

What questions do you reckon I should pose?

None.

He's a junior - by definition he knows nothing!

[SallyAnne]

Cheers.

"Bring back the employees who live in Newcastle."

Ah. That'll be the red herring. Everyone knows that all people in Newcastle are unemployed.

Har-de-ha-ha

[MarillionFan]

Cheers.

"Bring back the employees who live in Newcastle."

Ah. That'll be the red herring. Everyone knows that all people in Newcastle are unemployed.

[SallyAnne]

"What date do you leave school?"

This is about technical skills SA, not when he's old enough for you to pounce on him.

Well for SQL, you need to do one of those "Scenario" things - where you give him 3 tables with some values in

People_Table
Last_name First_name Employee_number Address_id Phone_id
Jones Fred 12345 1 1
Smith Paul 78945 2 NULL
Knacker Dan 54983 NULL 2

Address_Table
Address_id House_number Street_name Town
1 11 Cherry Lane Derby
2 74 Stratton Terrace Newcastle

Phone_Table
Phone_id Phone_Type Phone_Number
1 Home 0191 2465856
1 Mobile 07945623512
2 Home 01245 456231



And ask him to write the code to: -
1) Bring back all employees with their address details if they have them.
2) Bring back the employees who live in Newcastle.
3) Bring back all details where the person does not have a contact telephone number.

Some such sh*te like that would determie basic SQL skills I'd have thought. It depends how hard you want to be?

[The Lone Gunman]

Don't forget to throw in a red herring, something that has nothing to do with the subject. Weed out the bulltulipers.

[MarillionFan]

Milan.

If you put a couple of questions in, you never know it may well be a role you've applied for.....

[Kyajae]

SQL - what is the difference between an inner and outer join.

Excel - What would you have to do in order to use formulas with a imported data set in Excel. (answer: tell it to overwrite cells not delete the or the formulas go ape tulip)

I always thought SQL stood for "Something Queer-Looking". Hey ho

[Sockpuppet]

Right, Ive got an advert out for a junior Crystal /SQL /Excel reports developer.

My boss wants ten easy questions that will sort the wheat from the chaff. Required is a couple of years experience on all of the above?

What questions do you reckon I should pose?

SQL - what is the difference between an inner and outer join.

Excel - What would you have to do in order to use formulas with a imported data set in Excel. (answer: tell it to overwrite cells not delete the or the formulas go ape tulip)

[Kyajae]

in the MS world,

'Right, Ive got an advert out for a junior Crystal /SQL /Excel reports developer.

My boss wants ten easy questions that will sort the wheat from the chaff. Required is a couple of years experience on all of the above?',


does having a couple of years experience of the technologies make you a Junior ?

Oh Dear.

I guess so when you're competing with all these mid forties visual basic developerz


Milan.

you could try "what's the difference between MS Excel and MS Word?" - that usually sees 70% fall at this first hurdle

[milanbenes]

in the MS world,

'Right, Ive got an advert out for a junior Crystal /SQL /Excel reports developer.

My boss wants ten easy questions that will sort the wheat from the chaff. Required is a couple of years experience on all of the above?',


does having a couple of years experience of the technologies make you a Junior ?

Oh Dear.

I guess so when you're competing with all these mid forties visual basic developerz


Milan.

[MarillionFan]

"What date do you leave school?"

This is about technical skills SA, not when he's old enough for you to pounce on him.

[SallyAnne]

Excel reports developer.

What date do you leave school?

[MarillionFan]

Right, Ive got an advert out for a junior Crystal /SQL /Excel reports developer.

My boss wants ten easy questions that will sort the wheat from the chaff. Required is a couple of years experience on all of the above?

What questions do you reckon I should pose?