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I worked for a while for an IT services company. For our entry level tech support position, I put together a quick interview document that we emailed applicant

I worked for a while for an IT services company. For our entry level tech support position, I put together a quick interview document that we emailed applicants, asking them 4 questions. They had to help someone fix their printer via email, fix their email client, write a powershell script to copy files from one directory to another, and solve FizzBuzz. We honestly didn't care if they blatantly plagiarized the answers (especially on the last two), because the point was the right answer as much to see if they knew enough vocabulary to know how to Google the question. Out of 30 responses, including recent college graduates with good GPAs, people claiming 20+ years of IT experience, owning their own IT consulting firm, etc, not one of them got all four right. Some even said, "I don't know how to solve this" on FizzBuzz. The person who actually got them all correct? My wife, an ESL teacher who I gave the questions as a control, and told her to not spend more than 15 minutes on them. Anyone who overthinks FizzBuzz is an automatic hire in my book. (yes, I know about http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html )

ceejayoz 11y ago
In fairness, someone with 20+ years of IT experience could very legitimately not have needed to do any significant amount programming. Maybe they built servers all day.
- jonesb6 11y ago
  Ok but they were emailed these questions (in what appears to be a take-home format). 1) Know how to use the internet 2) Know how to problem solve by obtaining information from external sources.
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    I'd rather answer "no clue" in an interview than fake knowledge and wind up in a job where I'm lacking basic required skills.
- russnewcomer 11y ago
  In general, I would agree with you. In that particular case (which I remember because the person with 20+ years of experience was recommended by a client), that person claimed they had written their own CRM system. (Way, way off topic, but are you the ceejayoz who used to be a Homeworld webmaster? I spent a month or so of my life on Homeworld in late 2000, fun times.)
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    That definitely changes things. And yes, I am. :-)
    - russnewcomer 11y ago
      Yeah, we only gave that candidate the document because we were had just come up with it, we figured he would completely ace it. When he came back with really bad answers for all of the questions (including, "I've never heard of Powershell and I'm not sure how I would use it to do this" in 2012 with claiming the last 10 years as a Windows admin), my boss called me into his office and we just stared at the answers in shock. Awesome. I was a bigger Total Annihilation fan/community member than I was for Homeworld, but still, it tickles me when I see names I recognize from gaming being 'real people' somewhere on the internet years later.

ceejayoz 11y ago

In fairness, someone with 20+ years of IT experience could very legitimately not have needed to do any significant amount programming. Maybe they built servers all day.

jonesb6 11y ago
Ok but they were emailed these questions (in what appears to be a take-home format). 1) Know how to use the internet 2) Know how to problem solve by obtaining information from external sources.
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  I'd rather answer "no clue" in an interview than fake knowledge and wind up in a job where I'm lacking basic required skills.
russnewcomer 11y ago
In general, I would agree with you. In that particular case (which I remember because the person with 20+ years of experience was recommended by a client), that person claimed they had written their own CRM system. (Way, way off topic, but are you the ceejayoz who used to be a Homeworld webmaster? I spent a month or so of my life on Homeworld in late 2000, fun times.)
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  That definitely changes things. And yes, I am. :-)
  - russnewcomer 11y ago
    Yeah, we only gave that candidate the document because we were had just come up with it, we figured he would completely ace it. When he came back with really bad answers for all of the questions (including, "I've never heard of Powershell and I'm not sure how I would use it to do this" in 2012 with claiming the last 10 years as a Windows admin), my boss called me into his office and we just stared at the answers in shock. Awesome. I was a bigger Total Annihilation fan/community member than I was for Homeworld, but still, it tickles me when I see names I recognize from gaming being 'real people' somewhere on the internet years later.