Sounds familiar? You are looking to hire a developer with a professional skill set in e.g. PHP. You bring your offer out to the job boards of the globe. Certainly you receive a load of applications. Are you going to interview them all, knowing that most will not even have ten percent of the skills needed?
Tests for Geeks helps you filter the load and leaves you only those applicants who are actually able to perform as you need it. This is done by thoroughly developed tests targeting different core sections every programmer should have a sound knowledge of. It's also interesting if you are a developer seeking to be hired. So, in any case, read on...
Online Tests to Prove Candidates Skills Made Easy ;-)
I know what I am talking about. I hired developers already more than once believing what their papers suggested, only to find out that there was no truth in what the papers said. Unfortunately, there are no clear job profiles with sound and proven educational backgrounds to rely upon. Even people who actually studies Computer Sciences turned out to be disappointments more than once.
My learning: As there are no reliable profiles to depend upon and no safe education to base the assessment decision on, all we can do is look at what an applicant is able to do. Only a real life test separates the wheat from the chaff. Throw away certificates and don't waste your time on too many job interviews. Let the people prove what they can do by doing it.
At that point, you could develop your own testing portfolio, invite all the applicants and conduct a thorough examination. Or you could outsource that task to people who concentrate on developing skills tests for exactly your purposes. And that's where Tests for Geeks comes into play.
With Tests for Geeks setting up an e.g.
PHP Online Skills Test is easy. Choose the right test, generate a link and send this link to your applicants. Right after they finish the test, you'll receive a report per mail telling you who did how. If you want to filter even earlier, you could make the online test part of the application test already by publishing the test link on your website. You can even have the service white-labeled to integrate your own domain and logo to it.
Are you a programmer, developer, SEO expert faced with the problem that no one believes in what your papers suggest anymore? Are you wondering why being invited to an interview is becoming rarer? Just turn the tables on your potential employers and run the relevant tests on Tests for Geeks to prove your knowledge. Attach the reports to your application and see what will happen.
Tests for Geeks: The Portfolio
Besides the bread and butter tests such as a PHP & MySQL Online Test, you'll also find lesser obvious testings such as iOS & Objective C or Python & Django. Some tests for Android as well as Ruby and jQuery developers are in the making and announced as "Coming Soon".
The tests vary in complexity and duration from 10 to 59 questions taking from 15 to 100 minutes of the applicant's time. Should you want to run the online test on PHP & HTML/CSS & JavaScript, you'll need to work through 58 questions with an approximate time consumption of 90 minutes.
As I already mentioned briefly, companies can make the service their own
by integration of their domain name and their logo. This will add to the professional impression you will want to convey.
Running the tests is easy. Just create an account and login. Then choose an appropriate test. I chose the HTML one:
Throughout the tests, you'll see a familiar environment (should anyone have ever tested you before).
A report looks like this:
Test for Geeks: Not Free But Worth the Money
Tests for Geeks is not free but able to make itself paid by saving you a lot of time through interviews you didn't have to do only to find out someone is not a fit. The pricing model is very flexible. You can buy a number of tests, or you can buy a number of months in which you can conduct unlimited tests. A one-month-subscription would cost you $99.95 while a set of three tests would amount to $ 29.95. Large discounts apply should you decide to buy unlimited tests for time spans of three, six or twelve months.
You don't need to buy a pig in a poke, however. There is a small package of two tests available for free. That should be sufficient to decide whether Tests for Geeks is a viable option for your next assessment. If you are a web programmer, the free package might be all you need. I advise you to go for PHP & MySQL and HTML & CSS & JavaScript. Good results in these two - then free - tests should open enough doors for you.
How are you managing the way to embark new developers? Is Tests for Geeks something you could imagine working with or what is the HR recipe for success from your perspective?