Menu
I am wondering if the ability to hand-code HTML a rare skill and if the HTML test I give prospective assistants is too difficult? I ask because I work for a university and my department employs graduate assistants to help with the Web site. It's an extremely easy and well-compensated job that involves only rudimentary HTML, SQL, and ColdFusion which is our server-side scripting language. I wouldn't describe any of those languages as particularly challenging to use, yet every semester, I have such trouble finding candidates who can code basic HTML. I give them a very simple HTML exam and hope that at least one will do well enough on it for me to have confidence in their ability, but I'm always dissappointed. I am wondering if my HTML test is too difficult?
So below is my test, which I designed specifically to check their HTML skills, not necessarily because it's the best way to render this output. I give the applicants a printout of the HTML test as rendered by a browser. I explain that the image resides in the same folder as the file they are creating, so just use a relative image path. I tell them not to worry about meta tags, not to use font face tags, just let the default system fonts render, and not to worry about matching the colors exactly with hex codes. I also tell them that there's more than one way to render the HTML and to use the simplest, plain HTML 4.0 way, not CSS, XHTML, etc.
I'm looking for something along these lines, but variations are acceptable. I am also expecting that it will take anywhere from 10-30 minutes on the outside: EDIT: here is the image that I give them as a printout, with identifying aspects blocked out as I don't want to embarrass any of the applicants who might stumble across this. I also took out the HTML that was here earlier since everyone was so distracted by how terrible it was that the comments on the horror of the HTML were more numerous that those about the difficult of the test:
alt text http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh319/_MissViolet_/ebay/HTMLTest2.jpg
But I always get back something like this, which is maybe not outrageously wrong, but demonstrates that the applicant does not follow directions, is not neat nor meticulous, and does not produce HTML that I'd consider correct, especially considering it took more than an hour. That seems rather slow for a file that isn't much more than 30 lines of code. This test has never been completed without the candidate asking me if they can use Dreamweaver (no) or look up information on the Internet (yes, after they've failed to do it on their own). These are people who have HTML listed on their resume as a skill, who claim to have created Web sites in the past. So I am wondering if my test is too difficult or if it's just that our CS grad majors aren't very capable? Should I make the test easier, if possible, or just accept that our applicants are not particularly skilled?
BTW I am not asking about the correctness of the HTML test itself or whether CSS is a better way to render the same output, just about whether it's too hard for someone who has listed HTML on their resume.
<html>
<body>
<table border="10" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" width="50%"
bordercolor = gray>
<tr>
<th COLSPAN="1" ALIGN=CENTER bgcolor="blue">
<span style="FONT: bold 13px Arial,Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; COLOR: #00337f; ">
This is our companys HTML test</SPAN></th>
<th COLSPAN="1" ALIGN=CENTER bgcolor="red" >
<span style="FONT: bold 13px Arial,Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; COLOR: #00337f;
TEXT-DECORATION: none;">This is a<a href="http://www.notourcompany.com">
hyperlink to company`s Home page.</a></SPAN>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="3" ALIGN=center bgcolor="black">
<a href="http://www.ourcompany.com">
<img src="c:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\HTMLTest\OurImage.jpg"
border="0" alt="logo" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan = "3" ALIGN=CENTER bgcolor="black">
<a style="FONT: 13px Arial,Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; COLOR: white;
TEXT-DECORATION: none;" >This is the end of our company`s HTML Test</a>
</tr>
</table>
</table>
</html>
</body>
216
While I, honestly, get goose bumps when I see both the template and the test result (CSS is really here to stay, and it's good!) I don't think this is particularly difficult a test for someone who claims to speak HTML on their frigging resumé.
I would not pay an hour's wages to get that kind of HTML. If it's a core requirement, and people give you stuff like this, don't hire them. Wait for the person who does it right. I dare say anybody who knows their stuff can do a clean, beautiful rewrite of the layout shown in 15-30 minutes.
Access to the Internet to look up things is a must IMO - I couldn't for the life of me write down a doctype declaration off the top of my head, I have to look it up every darn time, and I'm not the least bit ashamed of it. Also, being able to validate the test results before turning them in is a must as well.
110
Html doesn't really get any easier than that, i can't image how you could possibly make a html test any easier.
Having said that, I don't think HTML is a good way of assessing skill. It's perfectly possible to produce excellant sites without an intimate knowledge of all the syntax, which is fairly verbose and not always intuitive. You would be much better off asking questions about the box model or some pseudo code logic in my opinion.
I know you said this isn't about the correctness of your "answer, but table based layouts and no css is bad, if you do ever get a good candidate and you show them that as a model answer they will likely walk out!
36
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
