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Online Test for Interview

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    #21
    Originally posted by SussexSeagull View Post
    Not sure anyone on £3,000 a week could ever be described as run of the mill. The average salary is the UK is apparently only £585 a week.
    Apples and pears. Try getting a decent sw dev for £585 a week than. You'll need at least twice as that + decent benefits + promise of development and decent career opportunities.
    Make a mention of it being a shorter project, FTC etc and soon you'll find out that your only options is to ship one in, previously call centre operator bod.

    Comment


      #22
      I took an online test for SQL which I was sure I passed with flying colours - only to be told that I gave wrong answers. To their credit, they gave me some detailed feedback, so I could see what they had been expecting. There were 4 big questions. in two of the questions, their expected answers were wrong. I should say, the answers they were expecting would have been right only for that use case they showed.

      As an illustrative example: it's as though they were to ask you to write a function that adds two numbers, 11 and 4. The answer should be 15, but you write a function that takes any two values as parameters, adds them, and returns the value. So you write and run the function as:

      fn Add(x, y) {
      return x+y
      }

      and when you run Add(11,4) and you get 15.

      Their answer would have been that while my return value is correct it's too slow and they suggest a faster alternative:

      fn Add(x, y) {
      return 15
      }

      Obviously this was not the actual question, but the difference between my answers and theirs was along those lines. I sent them back a polite response indicating where their answers were wrong and would cause a problem in production - but my recruiter freaked out and started yelling at me on the phone until I had to hang up.

      My guess is that the guy who wrote and who graded the tests was a bit junior. So as another poster here mentioned, anyone who would successfully pass this test would have to be an extremely crappy developer.

      Comment


        #23
        Originally posted by GigiBronz View Post
        It does not work for anyone. If you consider the risk of bench time. Risk of tax investigations. The risk premium you would get for a contract is not actually worth it.

        If you are a high flyer and getting north of £800pd outside contract. Good for you. I would presume there are not many of those roles around.

        For the rest of run of the mill people that were seeing an opportunity to stay away from corporate politics, afford more holidays per year there is only one option now: go permi and see yourself being fired in 6m when the client no longer needs you there.
        If they need a temporary resource now, they'll just get someone in, lie to him of the opportunities and amount of work than fire him in 1 year when there is no more work around on a made up reason.
        Actually, up until about 9 months ago there were plenty of roles around paying £800/day or more, relatively speaking. The difference is that relatively few people are experienced or skilled enough to do those roles. In IT, many of those roles would be senior management such as interim Heads Of or above or technical experts in hot skill sets.

        However, that interim market has dried up a lot too and an increasing number of those roles are likely to be classed as inside IR35 in future. if you want that kind of role outside IR35 in future, the most likely way is coming in as a 'consultant' that doesn't appear anywhere on an org chart. There are many companies and networks out there which have associates who will charge around £800-1000/day plus for consulting gigs as part of teams that are put together. The difference is those people have usually got at least 20 years experience and have been in very senior positions in permie land and/or are already experienced consultants. Compare that to what you get for £1000/day from a typical big consultancy.

        This model is about the only longer term growth one I know of in technology contracting these days.

        Comment


          #24
          Originally posted by GigiBronz View Post
          Are you sure about that? Have you done the math on that? Usually is 15% of yearly salary with sometimes a break-out clause if employee leaves or is not up to standard.

          Assumed 220 days in year with 400pd that is 88k per year. Assumed 15% agency margin.
          For 400pd you'd struggle to get even someone to fit your central heating.... but for 70k you'd have a queue of highly skilled professionals at your door.

          The poor sod has the impression is taken care of, long term security as opposed to a short term resource that delivers and leaves. Better for his productivity.
          Originally posted by eek View Post
          15% is incredibly low - most of the ones I'm talking to are 20%+, 30% isn't uncommon... Mind you I'm talking about specialist firms not the Office People of this world.
          Around the 30% of annual salary fee, you're usually talking of roles with salary of £140-150k upwards. Those searches require a lot of effort and research and are typically carried out by executive search firms that relatively few people will have heard of. Those type of headhunters wouldn't find it worthwhile below that kind of salary and wouldn't be able to do a thorough enough search.

          If you go to the 'headhunting' arm of mainstream medium to large recruitment firms, then you're talking 25% or possibly a bit less.

          Comment


            #25
            Originally posted by Katalyst View Post
            I took an online test for SQL which I was sure I passed with flying colours - only to be told that I gave wrong answers. To their credit, they gave me some detailed feedback, so I could see what they had been expecting. There were 4 big questions. in two of the questions, their expected answers were wrong. I should say, the answers they were expecting would have been right only for that use case they showed.

            As an illustrative example: it's as though they were to ask you to write a function that adds two numbers, 11 and 4. The answer should be 15, but you write a function that takes any two values as parameters, adds them, and returns the value. So you write and run the function as:

            fn Add(x, y) {
            return x+y
            }

            and when you run Add(11,4) and you get 15.

            Their answer would have been that while my return value is correct it's too slow and they suggest a faster alternative:

            fn Add(x, y) {
            return 15
            }

            Obviously this was not the actual question, but the difference between my answers and theirs was along those lines. I sent them back a polite response indicating where their answers were wrong and would cause a problem in production - but my recruiter freaked out and started yelling at me on the phone until I had to hang up.

            My guess is that the guy who wrote and who graded the tests was a bit junior. So as another poster here mentioned, anyone who would successfully pass this test would have to be an extremely crappy developer.
            Reminds me of this one time I had a phone interview with an American from Texas even though I'd be based in London.

            He asked me how much experience I had with right joins. I answered that I don't use right joins, I write everything as a left join as that is considered best practice.

            At first I thought it was a trick question but nope. He told me he wasn't sure if I'd be able to do the job since they do a lot of right joins lol. I didn't get the contract. Probably a good thing since he was the technical lead.

            Comment


              #26
              Originally posted by GigiBronz View Post
              The agency can demand similar margins or even higher. But still, it would be cheaper option than an £600pd run of the mill contractor.
              You get a more manageable resource, with a single approach across the organisation. One approach across the country.
              It keeps people in their place as there is not so much emphasis on anyone's value.(that they are made aware of)

              Company politics helps with results vaguely being linked to someone while the weekly lovely 1-1s promotes a continuous undermined state of mind.

              It is cheaper, more manageable approach that works better for the corporate world. Especially a world with increased emphasis on control.

              It is not about the finances, it is about ideology. It has always been.
              Are you sure about increased emphasis on control? With Covid, most organisations are now talking about the complete opposite with largely remote workforces longer term.

              Comment


                #27
                Back when I actually bothered doing the tests, had one where I got negative feedback - the person who set and assessed the tests got basic facts wrong. Agent forwarded email from client - they wanted me to go in at a far lower rate because "lead developer believes I'm not as good as claimed based upon poor test results".

                I politely declined, pointing out I'd want more money not less since I'd have to educate their staff.

                Comment


                  #28
                  Originally posted by edison View Post
                  Are you sure about increased emphasis on control? With Covid, most organisations are now talking about the complete opposite with largely remote workforces longer term.
                  Working remotely and control aren't the same thing.

                  Comment


                    #29
                    Originally posted by edison View Post
                    Are you sure about increased emphasis on control? With Covid, most organisations are now talking about the complete opposite with largely remote workforces longer term.
                    It is the backbone of the modern workforce culture.
                    The ability of a manager to succeed it is entirely linked to the ability to obfuscate the message and make alternative narratives that confuse the employee.

                    Comment


                      #30
                      Originally posted by Jake1000 View Post
                      Hi all,

                      In these covid times companies are giving online timed tests for .NET c# and other languages. Does anyone have any experience with these? Any idea on formats etc?
                      If you are looking for C# work see https://www.contractoruk.com/forums/...bee-start.html

                      Comment

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