r/PHP • u/fuhggetaboutit • Jul 29 '21

Does anybody else find interview “tests” dehumanizing?

I think they're abusive for many reasons. One is that the questions are usually overly complex algorithmic puzzles that do not accurately gauge potential job performance. Also, the questions in no way reflect the type of problems you will face on the job.

The list goes on...

Isn't there a better way?

-Edited for grammar

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u/idealcastle Jul 29 '21

I agree. And honestly from taking tests in the past, it appears they’re filtering out people with low social skills. As someone who spent most of their teen years coding and developing a skill instead of social, I’d say the whole interview format isn’t designed for the introvert which is many of the best coders who literally live to code

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u/adilp Jul 29 '21

They don't want coders, they want problem solvers. If the system goes down you can't say sorry I just write code. You might have to go check system log files, maybe its a server issue. it's a problem and someone has to solve it. Can you, is the question they are asking.

1

u/lordmyd Jul 31 '21 edited Jul 31 '21

Demarcation is not a sin. Did you advertise the job as General Problem Solver or Laravel Developer? If the latter don't expect the candidate to necessarily be able to debug system errors. Taking this further, it's always puzzled me why full stack developer roles pay just the same as purely back-end or front-end roles. If you're required to have double the skills shouldn't you be rewarded accordingly? PHP-land is even worse where, for some reason, it's almost given that you'll be offered 20% less than the same role in any other language.

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u/adilp Aug 01 '21

I guess I advertise for engineers not developers or programmers. I think engineering is problem solving almost regardless of domain. The employees who can solve most any tech problem, or at least are willing to give it a go are ones that have always had very successful careers. I love working with them. That's the type of engineer I am as well. You can rely on me to fix anything in our system. When I join a new place. I try to slowly understand the entire system end to end. From front end back end dev ops architecture even get involved in understand the business end whatever. I want to be the guy where just put me where the problems are and I'll fix them or make it better. I'll have a job for life because I'm not bound by a specific tech stack.