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Job as a PHP developer....
Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 12:45 pm
by skeedo
I have a company interested in hiring me as a PHP developer, my problem is my knoweldge of PHP is quite limited I have spent most of my time modifying 3rd party PHP scripts and not developing scripts from scratch. They gave me a test and while I was able to complete some of the questions on my own, other questions were way out of my league and I had to get outside help to complete them.
Do I have a chance at this position which I believe involves maintaining PHP/ mySQL driven websites? Should I spend every waking hour I can supply practicing PHP coding thru online tutorials and such?
Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 12:46 pm
by Luke
You probably should have answered the questions to the best of your own ability. Why would you try for a position if you know you aren't qualified?

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 1:07 pm
by skeedo
Because I am in dire need of a job. It wasn't the actual questions I had a problem with it was mostly debugging a script they included.
Oh well, we'll see what happens.
Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:15 pm
by timvw
If i was an interviewer, and asked you for a follow-up interview, i'd probably ask you about the problems you didn't solve (just to check you saw it as a chance to learn something and improve yourself)...
Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 3:45 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I think you are putting yourself at risk by taking a job you are not qualified for. What happens when they ask for your logic of a solution you developed when it wasn't you who developed it but someone else that helped you?
I say you be honest with the company and tell them what is really going on. Maybe they would be willing to let you learn while you work.
Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 4:30 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I guess you'd better get learning then hadn't you!
Interviews programming jobs usually involve a simple practical assessment followed by some questioning on what you wrote (the questioning usually reveals whether you actually understand your own code or not). I'd be very suprised if you can bullsh** your way through an entire nterview process with no decent knowledge of PHP. But if you can then good for you, and hard luck for the company who should learn to do better interviews!
ball is in company's court
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 12:15 am
by chrisranjana
It depends on how desperate the company needs a PHP programmer.
Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 4:24 pm
by impulse()
Where is the company based if you don't mind me asking. Our company has had a few interviews over the past few weeks and I was snooping on the code that was being written at the time. And for a simple address book which stored inputted data in a MySQL database and then a page to view those details the person had totally over complicated a simple problem with masses of OOP

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 9:27 am
by Grim...
When we interviewed for a developer the other month, we had a few test questions in the 'online' section of the interview (which applicants do as soon as they apply to see if they make the grade).
I forget the exact question, but basically they had to write a function to do something, and the solution was to use recursion.
Less than 5% of the applicants got past that stage.
We didn't end up employing anybody
