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Dan Roberts wonders: <<I'm about to start interviewing for a couple of
positions... I'm a bit of a "under the hood" kinda guy - sloppy or
inefficient HTML, manual formatting in Word, that sort of thing - drives me
nuts.>>
Given that most people now use visual authoring tools (Dreamweaver,
FrontPage, etc.) to produce HTML, it wouldn't be fair to critique them for
the HTML they produce using these tools. Critique the design, yes; the HTML,
no. In this case, it really is appropriate to blame the tools, not the user.
Moreover, it's not fair to ask users to edit HTML tags manually unless
that's going to be part of their job; it may be a bonus if they can do this,
but it shouldn't eliminate them from consideration if it's not a skill
they're ever going to use. Of course, if they code badly in a text editor
and that's their only authoring tool, then you've got a serious concern.
Same thing applies if your company only uses text editors to produce HTML:
they might be a Dreamweaver ace, but if you don't use DW...
Manual formatting in Word is a more complicated issue. If the candidate
creates headings by manually changing the fonts and indents, then they
really don't know how to use Word's styles, and that should probably
eliminate them from consideration unless they're such a good writer they
stand out from the crowd. But on the other hand, I'll wager that about 90%
of us (myself included) use Control-I to italicize a word within a paragraph
rather than creating a custom character style for this. That kind of
approach shouldn't eliminate someone from consideration.
If you're going to insist on this level of coding with someone who's
reasonably competent with styles, perhaps because you foresee generating XML
from Word, then it would be fair to ask them how they'd change their
approach to using styles to accommodate a more structured approach to
formatting. If they understand the basic concept, learning to use character
styles is just a matter of practice--and of breaking old habits.
<<when I interview candidates, I'd like to see the code underneath the
writing samples they provide. I think this will help me estimate their
"technical" expertise <sp?> in the tools we use here.>>
That's a reasonable request, provided you don't apply it blindly. (See my
comments above.) I've worked with a DTP "expert" who created tables and
notes in their own text boxes rather than anchoring them to the text. You
can imagine the grief I had when we had to update the manual (adding and
removing sections) and all the text boxes failed to move with the text.
<shudder> She changed her behavior when I explained the problem, but if
you've got a candidate who already knows how to do it right and doesn't have
to be taught to change...
<<I'm sure there would be some hesitation for a candidate to do this -
intellectual property rights, the risk that I might see a particularly cool
way of handling code or solving a problem that could allow me to solve some
of our problems, w/o hiring the candidate.>>
The easy solution is to warn candidates in advance what you plan to do. Then
ask them to provide samples. Sure, they may clean up their act rather than
showing you their worst work, but the real goal is to know that they're
capable of doing the job right.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett
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