Let me translate what you said into what I heard.
I want to hire cheap talent. I don't want skilled people, just peons who can do as I say and not cost a bundle.

I want to put little energy into finding these peons. Is there some test I can give to do my work for me?

Suggestions? Perhaps Brainbench?

That may be unfair, but it is what I heard. And if the shoe doesn't fit, then please rest assured that there are many employers for whom it does.

Here is my answer.

A classic problem that management has is underestimating how much they are wasting in the long run by making short-term decisions. While a cheap programmer can get the job done, it won't be done as reliably or as fast as a good programmer would do, and having been done shoddily, further modifications will be likely to cost you more down the road. (Although to be fair, it is hard for most employers to tell good programmers from bad ones...)

But if you want to take this path, then brainbench probably is what you are looking for. I took their Perl test a few years ago on a lark. Based on that I would say that someone who manages to pass that test without cheating probably does know Perl. However a lot of what is tested is probably going to be irrelevant to you. If you have far more candidates than you need, and are willing to weed them down to technically capable ones on a somewhat arbitrary criteria, that will likely do it.

It won't tell you anything about that person's work habits, what they know of good software practice, or how you will get along with them. You know that. My experience is that it doesn't take much looking through code that a person wrote to tell a good programmer pretty quickly that person's general skill level, and also something about what that person knows of good software practice. Of course that requires a good programmer, which is kind of a chicken and egg problem.

In reply to Re: Perl Exam? by tilly
in thread Perl Exam? by lnl

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