Measuring LAMP Competency? 453
Posted
by
kdawson
from the diogenes-as-tech-recruiter dept.
from the diogenes-as-tech-recruiter dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Our company is getting ready to hire a number of programmers. While the majority of the prospective candidates do have good-looking resumes, we are looking to see if we can get some clear metrics in the assessment process. After a little research we have learned that there is a well-established PHP + MySQL training and certification process, and some of the candidates are already certified. There is also a candidate with a good portfolio, a lot of experience, and no certification. Most of the applicants also have some college/university science-related education. So our goal is to be able to somehow measure LAMP overall competency as well as basic computer science concepts such as BNF, data normalization, OOP, MVC, etc. How do Slashdot readers go about this kind of characterization?"
ask to see a server they configured (Score:1, Informative)
The answer seems simple. Ask for guest access to a server that they configured. If they don't have something like that you could set up a simple lamp server and have them perform some basic tasks.
Re:No faith (Score:2, Informative)
That is a retarded statement. Certifications for both doctors and civil engineers are completely different than what he is talking about. Both of these professions involve people dying when it is not done properly. For both professions, it is not a matter of just completing your degree and getting licensed. Doctors work as interns for years. In addition, a PE license requires 4-years of qualifying experience after school.
I understand what you are saying here. I am a licensed Civil Engineer and I have worked with many licensed engineers that should probably not be and I have worked with unlicensed people that are exceptional. A certificate on your wall does not suddenly make you a genius, but both a medical license and PE license are non-trivial to obtain.
Re:why BNF? (Score:5, Informative)
Why BNF?
I think he is referring to Boyce-Codd Normal Form, a level of database normalization, as opposed to Backus-Naur Form, a way of describing context-free grammars.
Perhaps he accidentally dropped the C in the acronym. Although, judging from my CS classes, this is a common confusion.
Re:why BNF? (Score:3, Informative)
This has nothing to do with database design. It has to do with programming language design. BNF, or Backus Naur Form is basically a way of describing the syntax of a programming language in a precise way. It has nothing, zero, zip, nada, to do with database design. It's not useful for really anything outside of acadamia other than writing a compiler using bison/yacc. I've written a vrml parser, and so could answer some questions about it, but would be annoyed if I was interviewing for a LAMP position and they threw out there. I would think they were incompetent. Maybe you're thinking of BCNF, or Boise Codd Normal Form, which IS related to database design?
Re:No faith (Score:2, Informative)
Little Bobby Tables has your answer (Score:5, Informative)
It's not offensive so much as funny [xkcd.com].
You don't, by chance, do any web programming do you? If so, what's the URL? Just curious is all...
-B
I've done the app writing thing (Score:3, Informative)
We got to talking after the assignment was done and apparently they had been using that hypothetical DB for a long time and nobody had pointed out and fixed the errors. I found that amazing, so I asked how many people had actually finished the assignment. They said that nobody had given them code that actually ran, that there was always a syntax error or plain old typo somewhere. They went on to say that they didn't really count that against anyone since they wanted to see facility with the language of choice, coding style, general knowledge, ability to work under pressure, etc. So I had to ask: "Uh, did my code run?" And it did.
I don't know if it's because of the way I write code or because I've been doing it for a while, but I was just totally blown away that nobody they had interviewed could come up with 400 lines of code that actually ran. They had dudes with advanced CS degrees who couldn't write a simple web app that worked. It's mind boggling.
At the time I was a little scared of the interview process (the practical part was only 1/3 of the total interview process). But I think it's a good method.
-B
Re:Ignore the certificates (Score:4, Informative)
There's nothing wrong with that...
It just HTTP-redirects you to the URL in the s variable of the query string. Are you worried that someone will change the value and -gasp- be redirected to a page of their choosing? They already have an address bar you know.
Re:No faith (Score:3, Informative)
I've taken, and aced, the RHCE twice.
If you know wtf you're doing, it's really not that hard.
The RHCA exams, on the other hand... *twitch*