Ive went for the test as a "PHP" developer last week,
and to my disappointment, i wasnt granted a single interview, because ive so called "fail"ed their test.

What im disappointed wasnt because i didnt pass the test, but i didnt "get" the chance to voice out my opinions on those questions they gave me.

I went in, straight to meet up "Su", and have the test.
Office was quite okay, but it was friday, so i see everyone on casual.

Okay fine.
I made so much preparation, went to ODesk, took their "PHP", "MySQL", "CSS2" tests, and all past 70+%

I even did several questions from zend sample, and i was thinking yeah, i guess i pretty much cover most of the requirement.
But NOOooo....

Here is how are some of the questions looks like:
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Who is the king of programmer?
p/s: what? am i suppose to know this? is this going to help in my work? o.. really? if ive an option to write my own, i will say "me"
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Which of the following are developer site?
some of the options include slashdot, msdn, sitepoint and others...
p/s: helo? my development site is "google". 1 search there, i get straight to the forum / "developer site" of which i need. Why should i border?
Unless ive a unique question that i need to solve, or im so free to contribute in one of those forum.
But i myself have contributed quite some notes in php.net itself, under my identity u007 or c00lways.
And my favorite spot is irc freenode server on ##php or ##java
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Which language is this "forgot-what-name-was-it" framework for?
p/s: elooo? I'm a PHP developer, and if you ask me about PHP, i can name u quite several of them!
Drupal, wordpress, joomla, zendframework, cakephp, symphony, code ignitter and more...
But come-on, how am i suppose to know about all of JAVA or RUBY or PYTHON framework?

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Which of the following SQL contains error?
2 Options make me wonder (forgot the name and value):
- select field1 from emp where field1='xxx';
- select field1 from emp where field2=`xxxx';
p/s: and then i'm wondering, it wouldnt make sense to select the field with that value if you already know the value,
unless you want to check if the value exists, but then 2nd answer make me worry
if the person who typed this document forgotten that m$ word actually converted all starting ' to `
Which 1 have error? im kind of speechless here

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Excluding those irrevelant questions, im quite satisfy with some of the questions which include recursive function call,
and some logic question which took me some time to draw out the table chart to get the answer.
But i think there wasnt enough question to test people on the PHP and MySQL to be in there.


I'm keen to hear from Experian HR / director / CEO regarding their objective and plans for Experian.
If im in technical management level, i would concentrate on several criteria below:
+ the candidate meet certain level of test score, not too high, and exclude those irrelevant questions...
+ ensure that canditate is up-to-date with the development of the language their using, such as OOP, code reuse, Model-View-Controller concept
+ ensure canditate knows and concern about several security problem which may occur from cross site scripting, SQL injection and others
+ view candidate past portfolio and what he/she have done to improve site development speed and security
+ makesure ive interview with the person to see their communication skill to ensure that their are able to express their opinions
+ listen to canditate on what kind of tough situation that he/she have face and how he/she have managed to solve those issue, especially with use of teamwork and open source technology (ok, this is php, and it meants open source)
+ view some of candidate codes. As this is important to know if the person practise code convention and if the person take time to comment his/her code. As a company, im not interested to see my programmer code something fancy just to show off their abilities, but become a hassle and big questions to other programmer trying to pickup from where they have left. Ive seen too many problems with egoistic coding.
+ and check out what candidate have been doing to keep him/herself up to date with latest technology and what passionate them about those recent technologies...
+ listen to candidate plans for their future career path, to see how he/she will fit in which position available in the company
+ and any way to see how the person cooperate as a team ... (which of is still something i'm pondering on)

I think in any work environment, most important is that the team player must be able to adapt to company environment and framework.
As everyone comes from so many different background, the person has to be able to play along / in tune with company frequency.
And culture of toyota (kaizen) would be great to be implemented in all level of the company.
Blame culture should be eliminated and leaders and management should be open and gentle to employees opinions.

In my dream company, i would prefer everyone be open to opinions and debate without the culture of pointing fingers @ each other when something went wrong.
I do belief that if something went wrong, it isnt just 1 side wrong, its both side mistake. One side fail to voice out their problem while another side fail to help.


Experian people? May i hear your opinions?

i got the interview called on wednesday for database lead. Nothing i will ask u about. It's just another day of job seeker. Your working hour is awesome. Being PM with new company recently. Working Like 8.30am - 9.00pm with 42 project tasks and 21 system problems(who said i rest on weekend? NO NO NO.About the test? i dunno if i can make some preparation, i still in office at this time >.<

This post has been edited by AmuR: Apr 25 2010, 02:43 PM

Hi There,

I had 1st intreview with the hiring Manager after the Technical QA. now a week later there call me again to interview with the "HR Interview with HR Director", is this mean i gt the job already or how.. need your help .. thks

[i am deleting all my posts as I want nothing more to do Experian]

This post has been edited by mbcx4jrh: Sep 9 2012, 10:06 PM

i'm not from experian... this is just my opinion as developer...
as a developer... u might need(or must) to know that .... not to expert on that particular thing... just to know basic thing about it... u can't just on ur 'PHP' world... sometimes, there's situation where u need to do some integration or communication with other framework or programming language... there's certain thing that PHP can't speak... so in that point u need help from other language....
we know the power of PHP... but knowing/combining more than 1 programming language will be more powerful.....

sorry if not answering ur question.. just my 2cent ....

Same here.. i've also taken their test for PHP developer and failed.Felt like the test is targeted to solution architect post..

really, if the test really pissed you off, the company is so and so.
you may find the environment on your 1st inspection quite good, but with that kind of test questions, you can guess more of less the so-call pro/senior is what level.

you may work in a good environment, but can you stand moron?

if no, then forget them.

i dont mind if its a casual question, like an interview question to see if you know other things in general , but if its a test to consider mark, its kind of off topic...

For your information,I'm currently studying in Multimedia University (MMU) and stay in a place called Cyberjaya, some sort an intelligent city. Doesn't make me intelligent in any way. So, the point is, this city is like a desert. It has extreme and unpredictable weather. It has very small population that you can sleep on the road and waking up alive. Not much restaurant or stalls selling food around. T.T.

Dear mbcx4jrh,

I've got this question to you, when I went for Interview with HR Director, he told me I entitle to 20days AL, somehow, when I got the Offer Letter, it stated 15 days AL, and the remaining 5 days is Study Leave. Would like to ask, what if I do NOT enrol to any study plan or course, do I still eligible to take the entire 20days AL or I am entitle to take 15 days AL as stated in the Offer Letter?

Meantime, is the entire Experian moving to Ericsson building or only certain team will be moving over?

Thanks.

This post has been edited by sunny_skywalker: Apr 28 2010, 10:50 AM

[i am deleting all my posts as I want nothing more to do Experian]

This post has been edited by mbcx4jrh: Sep 9 2012, 10:07 PM

Hi mbcx4jrh,

Thanks for the info, but I still doubt, if I do NOT have any study, will I be entitled to 15 days AL or 20 days AL by converting my 5 days Study Leave to AL?

Thanks

[i am deleting all my posts as I want nothing more to do Experian]

This post has been edited by mbcx4jrh: Sep 9 2012, 10:07 PM

Hi, I would like to ask... I understand that Experian do sponsor some certifications training, is that true? Does this comes under the study leave or training leave? Meaning study leave is for ur own personal developement - self-developement courses, etc. ?

that only make sense if the test question is related to the position.

if you intend to broaden up those question, do that in verbal/face to face.
question like what make the king of programmer

don't lum-sum anything to a test paper.
if you intend to use that at 1st filter, do it intelligently.

question about "king of programmer" in test paper, its a joke.

That is the purpose of the 'test'. They are not seeking for skillful staff but also with good attitude.

Even a question in test paper can piss you off like this and complaint so much on the question then they don think you have the correct attitude.
Thus, that is how filtering is work.

Who knows 1 day assigned you a task required different skillset from what you have then you will piss off easily and keep complaining instead. Let say you are from R&D team but assign you to support a system for days?

"ask me to support"? its a joke!"

are you sure being piss can be shown by mere paper test?
thats why ive proposed that these kind of question should be verbal interview question, not on paper.

Indirectly filtered those candidate who not happy with the question oredi.

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Added on April 29, 2010, 1:25 pmThe director of R&D did explained why they need to filtered.

If you dono answer then leave it blank and pray will be shortlisted.
Else just leave(this is the purpose of 'filtering')

I went for their senior java developer interview but din't smell anything wrong. I passed the test too but eventually i din go for hiring manager interview due to better offer from others.

This post has been edited by k3w3ll: Apr 29 2010, 01:25 PM

I think the filter worked just fine. u007 tripped over his own two feet on the SQL question. I'm not sure how the "king of programmers" question was phrased, but I'm guessing they want to know who you look up to or aspire to be. Names like Martin Fowler (you're into agile), Linus Torvalds (you're into system), Alan Kay (you're classicist idealist) or Donald Knuth (you're mad) or the GoF. It's a fair question.

I guess you should be one of management or the person who took the test.