Experience in PHP, how to tell ?

[~n[EO]n~]

It just happened a week ago when i went to give interview for PHP developer and in the interview "they" asked me, Tell your expertise in PHP in Percentage , just don't guess tell !!!

 

So, i calculated in this basis...

 

Total no. of sites done in PHP = 17

 

Time taken to finish 17 project in days = 85 days (taking average 5 days per project)

 

And to calculate the percentage :

 

sites done                        17

----------- x 100            ---- x 100 = 20%

no. of days                      85

 

And it came 20%  and they didn't hire me....

 

Does this formula works for you guys...

 

Just wanted to know

 

 

[zq29]

Your expertise in PHP as a percentage?! What a stupid question. 100%.

[~n[EO]n~]

Your expertise in PHP as a percentage?! What a stupid question. 100%.

 

yeah, i thought the same but when u are in an interview in a 'big' company and u are asked such a question then what will u tell ???

[neylitalo]

For starters, your algorithm is logically flawed. Regardless of your level of expertise in the technology, you're going to have precious few projects that only take one day. (With an average of one day per project, your expertise would be 100%)

 

And if I were in an interview and was asked that question, I would ask the interviewer the basis they wanted me to use for my calculation. If I were to just answer the question, I would say somewhere around 80%, due to the fact that I occasionally need to reference the manual for syntax, etc. I realize that this does not indicate "expertise" at all, but if they want me to use inaccurate or nonexistent metrics, then I guess I can play along.

[AndyB]

n~ link=topic=160285.msg699393#msg699393 date=1190365488]

And it came 20%  and they didn't hire me....

 

Of course not. And neither would I.

 

You could have calculated it as 17 sites in about 3 months (500%+) or 17 sites in a bit less than a quarter year (6800%+).  Would they have hired you then? No, and neither would I.

 

Assuming that "they" are not so stupid that I would be ashamed to work for them, the question was an attempt to see how you dealt with insanely stupid questions to which there's no proper answer.  And you failed.

[~n[EO]n~]

n~ link=topic=160285.msg699393#msg699393 date=1190365488]

And it came 20%  and they didn't hire me....

 

Of course not. And neither would I.

 

You could have calculated it as 17 sites in about 3 months (500%+) or 17 sites in a bit less than a quarter year (6800%+).  Would they have hired you then? No, and neither would I.

 

Assuming that "they" are not so stupid that I would be ashamed to work for them, the question was an attempt to see how you dealt with insanely stupid questions to which there's no proper answer.  And you failed.

 

Ohh... was it so, and far as your calculating basis about 500% or 6800%, if it was like that I would have told them 75000%.

 

Assuming that you are a super moderator and a genius and "you" were back from the North Pole... I am taking this as a Corporate Humor.

[steelmanronald06]

Actually, he is right.  It was a test to see what your ability in dealing with the unexpected are, how quickly you can solve such a problem, and to get an idea of your PHP skills at the same time.  So, taking that into account, and the fact that you didn't get the job because of it, I would say you failed.

[bilis_money]

stupid formula and stupid interview.  :-\

 

those are not enough to estimate your ability on php.

 

i wish they have more specific and very systematic and very reasonable way to estimate your skills on php.

 

If they did not hire you then go some where and find another company. 

 

They are a waste of time, you know there are more better company than they do. 

 

good luck and god bless 

 

 

[~n[EO]n~]

stupid formula and stupid interview.  :-\

 

those are not enough to estimate your ability on php.

 

i wish they have more specific and very systematic and very reasonable way to estimate your skills on php.

 

If they did not hire you then go some where and find another company. 

 

They are a waste of time, you know there are more better company than they do. 

 

good luck and god bless 

 

 

 

Yeah.. ok took your advice... that formula was just calculated (on the fly) cause i got nervous, i just thought there may be some way to find the (%)...

 

;D

 

Anyway thanks a lot for you guys, maybe u guys didn't had to bear such a phishing question in your career

[448191]

I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a test to see how you respond to stupid questions, I think it just was a subjective question and a subjective (and confident) answer was expected.

 

If someone would ask me that during a job interview I would answer something like:

 

"That's pretty hard to express in percentages, but if you insist, I would have to say somewhere between 85 and 95%..."

 

They didn't ask "please take out your calculator". 

 

P.S. "experience" and "expertise" and two totally different things. This is a generic "good" answer to both questions though.

[Ninjakreborn]

You could work up a factoring system possible.

No-one can learn everything, but someone can certainly learn almost everything about

1 thing.

You can pick up a list of subjects related to php.

Basics - (all basic stuff, variables, control structures, array setting).

Advanced Arrays

File handling

Directory handling

function memory

so forth, and work up a list of like 10-15 different categories.

With that, you can rate your skills in each.

0 = never done anythign with it 100% know everything about it.

Then factor up a total percentage.

That would not be that hard, and it could be made logical if thought out well enough.

[GingerRobot]

You could work up a factoring system possible.

No-one can learn everything, but someone can certainly learn almost everything about

1 thing.

You can pick up a list of subjects related to php.

Basics - (all basic stuff, variables, control structures, array setting).

Advanced Arrays

File handling

Directory handling

function memory

so forth, and work up a list of like 10-15 different categories.

With that, you can rate your skills in each.

0 = never done anythign with it 100% know everything about it.

Then factor up a total percentage.

That would not be that hard, and it could be made logical if thought out well enough.

 

I have to disagree there (perhaps just because im in an argumentative mood this morning, but i dont think so!) - any percentage based rating system would have to be flawed. I dont believe it is possible to learn everything about any given subject. Therefore, no-one could be rated as 100%, so all percentages would be irrelevant - if the rating of 100% does make logical sense, then it follows that no other percentage makes sense either.

 

Aside from that, any given list of sub-categories within a subject would be wildly subjective.

[Daniel0]

You could work up a factoring system possible.

No-one can learn everything, but someone can certainly learn almost everything about

1 thing.

You can pick up a list of subjects related to php.

Basics - (all basic stuff, variables, control structures, array setting).

Advanced Arrays

File handling

Directory handling

function memory

so forth, and work up a list of like 10-15 different categories.

With that, you can rate your skills in each.

0 = never done anythign with it 100% know everything about it.

Then factor up a total percentage.

That would not be that hard, and it could be made logical if thought out well enough.

 

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[Jessica]

It's post like Daniel's that make me wish we had a thumbs up sort of thing

 

"It just happened a week ago when i went to give interview for PHP developer and in the interview "they" asked me, Tell your expertise in PHP in Percentage , just don't guess tell !!!"

Uhm, before giving a lowball percentage like 20, I would have asked for further explanation. Maybe they wanted to know what your strong points were, IE, 50% of my php experience has been with OOP projects, etc. But I'm inclined to think it was a trick question, and you failed the test.

 

I had a previous employer ask me to rank my skills in different languages on 1-10, and we did some little examples on the whiteboard, that was actually pretty easy.