[DUG] Average Salary

Wed Jul 31 13:20:41 NZST 2013

We use multiple tests.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 10:49 AM, David Brennan
<dugdavid at dbsolutions.co.nz>wrote:

> We interview more new graduates than experienced developers (just seems to
> suit us to hire top graduates and ‘mould’ them to our way of developing) so
> our tests are purely pseudocode and don’t require any Delphi knowledge. We
> are quite happy to teach Delphi and in any case we believe that learning
> our flavour of Delphi (ie all our library functions, form hierarchy, data
> models, industry jargon, etc) is a rather larger job than learning the
> standard VCL/RTL anyway so it isn’t a big deal if people don’t know it.***
> *
>
> ** **
>
> We’re fairly careful about not posting our tests anywhere because we don’t
> want them to somehow end up known by candidates (unlikely admittedly, more
> the sort of problem Google has!). They are based loosely in our field of
> expertise (ie calculating sizes and cutouts for glass structures) so for
> example the first test is to position a handle on a door given a few simple
> classes (eg THandle, TDoor, etc) and a short list of 3 or 4 rules which say
> how the handle must be positioned. Half the people who fail this appear to
> have just not read the whole question properly (despite bold warnings to
> read everything carefully), the other half can’t get their logic or
> arithmetic right.****
>
> ** **
>
> The second test is broader, it has a simple trig question, a ‘write a
> customer support email’ question (even our developers need to be able to
> communicate reasonably in English) and a couple of trickier pseudo-code
> coding problems.****
>
> ** **
>
> Cheers,****
>
> David.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:
> delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] *On Behalf Of *Jeremy North
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 31 July 2013 12:27 p.m.
>
> *To:* NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
> *Subject:* Re: [DUG] Average Salary****
>
> ** **
>
> I do a verbal (during the interview) and written test. The verbal are
> things like explain the differences between the visibility specifiers, what
> is notification used for, where is it implemented (what type). If they get
> the notification stuff (there are some other questions about it) I ask if
> they know what design pattern is used for the implementation of the
> notification system. ****
>
> ** **
>
> The written test has some short answer questions basically prodding the
> knowledge of the RTL and VCL/FireMonkey (we are using FireMonkey on a
> project atm). Then we have a larger design question where we give a
> specification and ask them to detail classes to be written to implement the
> spec. It gives us a big idea of their OO and design skills. We also ask
> thread specific questions.****
>
> ** **
>
> The written test is about an hour. (we leave for 10 mins reading and pop
> back for any questions). Test is written, no PC (although next time we
> might supply a PC).****
>
> The verbal I have about 10 questions, depending on how they answer this
> can be cut down or added to. If they can't explain the difference in
> visibility, the verbal question time is very short <g>. They are short
> answer usually (depending on the candidate trying to "wing it") so doesn't
> take long.****
>
> ** **
>
> All up, the interview would be about 1.5 hrs.****
>
> ** **
>
> I'd never ask a brain teaser or puzzle question either, in my eyes, that
> just makes you look like a tosser - leave them for the Monday morning
> meeting.****
>
> ** **
>
>  ****
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 10:06 AM, David O'Brien <Dave at iccs.co.nz> wrote:**
> **
>
> Just as a matter of interest, can you give an example of one of these
> tests?****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:
> delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] *On Behalf Of *David Brennan
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 31 July 2013 11:58 a.m.****
>
>
> *To:* 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'
> *Subject:* Re: [DUG] Average Salary****
>
>  ****
>
> Aye. We have what we consider to be a reasonably easy first test and we
> only interview people with at least an A- average from University and yet
> more than half still fail the test. Admittedly we are looking for 100%
> correct but the test is simple enough that this shouldn’t be too high a
> bar, the answer is less than a dozen logic and arithmetic expressions.****
>
>  ****
>
> After the first test we have a harder second test which has a few
> subtleties which we don’t expect anyone to get in a test situation, this
> provides a better gauge than the first test which is basically a boolean
> gate, pass or fail.****
>
>  ****
>
> Back to Steve’s question, you have to qualify what you mean as it depends
> on experience. A graduate developer worth hiring probably gets 45-55k in
> their first year I would say, and then goes up from there based on how they
> perform.****
>
>  ****
>
> David.****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [
> mailto:delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz<delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz>]
> *On Behalf Of *Jeremy North
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 31 July 2013 11:23 a.m.
> *To:* NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
> *Subject:* Re: [DUG] Average Salary****
>
>  ****
>
> If you are looking to hire, I suggest you be prepared to pay for a good
> one. Make sure you have a good test though, my experience is that there are
> a lot of "guru", "expert", "senior" Delphi developers out there that are
> absolutely useless. Drag and drop code zombies.****
>
>  ****
>
> The last time we hired (about 15 months ago) we sifted through about 50
> (sometimes questionable) resumes and interviewed 8. Three of those walked
> out of the test at various stages (one read it and left - said we wouldn't
> like the answer he would give WTF!) and the test wasn't super hard - I
> wrote it :-) (we were looking to fill a senior level position). It isn't
> always about completing the test, but having a candidate acknowledge they
> don't know something is 400% better than them trying to talk around it and
> guess.****
>
>  ****
>
> At the end of the day, I don't consider any of the people I work with
> "average" developers. I wouldn't like to work with average people.****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 6:40 AM, Steve Peacocke <steve at peacocke.net>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Everyone,****
>
>  ****
>
> I was just wondering, what is the average salary for a permanent Delphi
> developer out there in the marketplace these days?
> ****
>
>
> Steve Peacocke
> Mobile: +64 220 612-611****
>
> Linkedin Professional Profile<http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/steve-peacocke/1/a06/489>
> ****
>
>
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>  ****
>
>
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> ** **
>
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