First programming job applied / internet programming test

[meleader2]

i know a manager for a company and she said to send in my resume, i did, and received the following email from them:




xxxx,



I am the Recruitment Specialist for xxxxx. I received your resume form Katie xxxx in regards to the Development Trainee (for PHP) opportunity currently available. I invite you to take our online test as the next step in the application process. I invite you to take our online test. The test covers skills specific to our environment and some general questions. It should take no more than an hour. It will let you opt out of questions that are not suited to your skill set. We do not expect you to know everything on this test, but can get a good idea of your general programming skills by what you are able to answer.



Please let me know when you are done and I will have the Managers review the results and I will contact you.



Here is the link for the on-line test.

http:/xxxxxxxxx



Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.



Thank you,
xxxx











ok i bolded the part that seems to be relevant. am i to assume that this is just to create a guideline for an interview in person? or is it to weed me out as a candidate to be hired? i know no PHP but that's the purpose of this trainee program.

the job pays 10k more than i make now (after 3 months). what is the usual deal with these online programming tests? is it an actual task i have to complete or like a multiple choice thing?

i'm a BS in comp sci major, 11 years VB, 7~ C++, 4year C.

[tshort]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm a BS in comp sci major, 11 years VB, 7~ C++, 4year C.

[/ QUOTE ]

It will take no time for you to be working in PHP, as you probably know.

I can't imagine the test is geared towards syntax of a specific language. You should just ask her about the test before you take it.

[meleader2]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i'm a BS in comp sci major, 11 years VB, 7~ C++, 4year C.

[/ QUOTE ]

It will take no time for you to be working in PHP, as you probably know.

I can't imagine the test is geared towards syntax of a specific language. You should just ask her about the test before you take it.

[/ QUOTE ]


just for other's FYIs, it displayed some code in PHP and asked me what the function did/if there were problems/how i'd rewrite it.

then i had a round-robin question about DNS servers

had to write a function in PHP

had to declare a table in mySQL

asked me y such and such may slow down servers as a site gets more traffic

asked me to write a perl function





etc



i skipped most of the questions, but was told i was allowed to. i think it was just geared to get a general understanding if i could pick apart functions or if i was a moron.

for example one function had an internal function declaration with some variables like '$array' and then something that looked like it was appending a string but neglected the common theme of single quotes so i pointed that out as a possible cause of an error, then the function had passed in a variable called $array2 but within the internal function a variable was declared as "global $array2" which i said was a nono (but unsure cuz i dunno PHP)


we'll see how i did.

[neuroman]

[ QUOTE ]
i skipped most of the questions, but was told i was allowed to.

[/ QUOTE ]
This sounds bad, but if the company already knows your skillset then hopefully this test was just a stupid hoop that HR makes you jump through. Ah, memories...

[tshort]

Test seems silly. You can teach any monkey syntax.

I would want a programmer who understands programming paradigms, data structures, and algorithms.

You should have a spent at least a few hours on the syntax of PHP and brushed up on MySQL before the test. They are really easy to learn and you could have found a reference sheet with differences between C++/Java/PHP.

[meleader2]

[ QUOTE ]
Test seems silly. You can teach any monkey syntax.

I would want a programmer who understands programming paradigms, data structures, and algorithms.

You should have a spent at least a few hours on the syntax of PHP and brushed up on MySQL before the test. They are really easy to learn and you could have found a reference sheet with differences between C++/Java/PHP.

[/ QUOTE ]

i considered doing that for a little while but wound up not because i'm most likely going to have a formal interview after this, and this is for a PHP trainee program leading into a PHP programming position (3 month program), so why lie if i'm going to be taught it anyway? it just makes me look dumb when asked more questions in person.

[meleader2]

I'm got the job, and am being made an offer tomorrow morning/afternoon.

i'm REALLY bad at negotiating price, any advice? it's 35k to start as a PHP trainee, with a "signifcant" (to be determined tomorrow i guess) bump up in pay after 3 months.