how can I judge a job applicant's internet skills?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi

I am recruiting for an office administrator for our company, and the person needs to have extensive internet knowledge to do a good job in our company. Of course we say that in the ad, and everyone say they know how to use the internet anyway (“oh yeah, I have a hotmail address…”). We have been burnt many times before on this and similar issues, so I am especially wary this time.

They don’t need to have a highly (or even moderately) technical knowledge (say, the difference between SMTP and POP), but they should appreciate the difference between google and yahoo, for example. They should know that “web browser” != IE, and that MSN or AOL isn’t the internet - that sorta stuff.

So I guess what I am after is a series of questions I can ask them in a non-harassing way, that will get them to talk about the interent, so I can get a feel for how much they know.

Help?

2

Off the top of my head, here are a few samples. Your post seems to be looking for an advanced user instead of a tech, so clear expression of the applicant’s understanding would be more important than technospeak.

How would you find <some info> using Google?
Answer should include using quoted phrases to narrow the search, or more/different terms to broaden it.

What about Yahoo?
Mention the heirarchy of subjects. Extra points for mentioning about.com or other portal sites!

What Web browser do you use? Why? What else could you use?
1. Mozilla/Firefox. (OK, I’m prejudiced.) 2. Reasons for M/F could include tabs, better security, maybe even avoiding MS, if he can rationalize that. If he uses IE, compatibility with MS-oriented sites, and convenience. 3. Mozilla again, and there are others.

What are email, IM, LJ, message boards?
Layman’s explanation of the differences. Extra points for mentioning SDMB!

3

Totally making this up here.

Start by asking them what type of internet things they do every day. Look for answers that involve web mail, IMing, and/or information look up.

Ask how many hours a day or week they spend on the net.

Ask if they have dial up, cable, or DSL.

Ask if they ever set up a home network. If so, what kind, and was there any troubleshooting necessary. This can get people talking about whether or not they know what an IP is, what a network is, and the basics of how one connects to the internet. Ask if they ever had to share a printer.

Ask if they have any favorite web sites. (If they say the SDMB, hire them!) Ask for a few examples from their bookmarks or favorites. That right there will tell you if they use Netscape or Firefox, which will tell you they knew enough to download an alternate browser.

Or just ask if they have a favorite web browser. Easiest way to find out if they know what one is without asking directly.

Ask if they have any cool internet shortcuts to share. Like using the history to find a web page you didn’t bookmark, or using the backspace key to go to the previous page.

On the Firefox/Netscape front, ask what they think of tabbed browsing. An honest internet enthusiast who only uses IE would most likely ask “what’s that?” and be genuinely interested.

I can’t think of any way to actually ask, but find out if they know the difference between .com and .org Or if they know that https:// is a secure page while http:// isn’t.

Ask what they think of the ongoing lawsuits over file sharing. Throw out names like Kazaa and Napster (of old) to see if there’s any recognition. See if they know what P2P file sharing is. Anyone trying to impress may talk about decentralized servers and such. Bit torrent and News Groups may come up too. That’d be a plus.

Some of those are weaker than others. The conversational ones are best, most likely, since you won’t be flat out giving a multiple choice test. Mix and match as you please.
Also, I may be able to come up with more if I knew the nature of the job, and the expected responsibilities.

If you wanted someone working remotely from the states, you could always just hire me.
:smiley:

4

I just realized that there are lots more info sites I should have mentioned. See, for example, wikipedia.org, dictionary.com, newspaper sites, and so on. In fact, I think it would be best to keep the questions more open-ended than the ones I’ve given. For example, those first two could be replaced by several “How would you find <some info>?” questions looking for different kinds of information, so you can see what resources the applicant comes up with.

You should probably also ask about security, looking for an answer including virus checkers, passwords, and firewalls.

5

Once apon a time I did technical interviews for DP/MIS/IS/IT contractors.

Tips:

First never ask a question you can’t answer yourself - a clever candidate can trip you up, then dance around the question before you realize it - “If you can’t wow 'em with knowledge, buffalo them with BS” is the expression.

Do not venture into areas out of your expertise unless you can anticipate and deflect all questions. I used canned Q’s for specific areas in which I did not have expertise, but I knew enough about what mainframes could or could not do that I could detect BS.
Example: a common bit of processing involves posting transactions to a direct-access master file - be it IMS, IDMS, VSAM, DB2 (of which SQL is a subset, btw), PL-SQL, Access, whatever (think: posting debits, credits to a bank account). There is a point at which it is more efficient to sort the transactions by the primary key and run a sequential update (2-file match) - if more than roughly, 10% of the master file/database records will be updated, it is more efficient to do sequential posting; below that direct-access is more efficient. This has been known (at least for mainframes) since about 1970. I once got a guy (1986) with great personality, and all the signs were “we’re going to hire this guy, give him your blessing”. I asked him which would be more efficient if 20% of the records were to be updated. He hesitated (up Intel then, his responses had been immediate), and then blurted "I’d test it!". From there, I asked some Q’s about things equivalent in terms of system design - he disintegrated right there before me. When asked my opinion, I responded “I have never seen it piled so high before”. No offer was forthcoming.

Points - ask graduated questions, and have a couple which nobody could answer - when you get to a plateau, explore horizontally - see if the previous answers were solid or were ‘winging it’ and coming up with the correct answers.
Always be ready to dig deeper - if something flunks the ‘sniff test’, you can explore, if it passes the ‘sniff test’, escalate to the next level.

Most important - know enough to evaluate the answers - do NOT rely on simply a bunch of questions for which you have the “correct” answer - life does not fit in a binary model, and asking questions blindly helps neither you nor the candidate,

I’ve posted this in another thread, but I just love it. I do not, nor have I ever known, IDMS (do your own search - it’s pretty much dead now), but we got an interesting resume from someone who claimed IDMS experience, When asked questions on the lowest level, he had no idea what I was talking about (my canned lists were prepared by knowledgeable geeks on the team, and consisted of 20 questions, divided into 4 levels), and eventually confessed that his expertise consisted of possession of a technical manual from “_________” company - the company had changed its name a few years (and release levels) earlier, but he didn’t even know that. Even I knew that much.

As to the internet (or anything else) - as always, start with giving them free range in which to define themselves - NEVER say “We need someone with advanced internet skills - is that you?”. Ask “So (name), how well do you know the internet?” - if the candidate is forthright enough to say, “I’ve used a bit, but I’m not an expert”, you are going to want to take a different tack (sailing term) than you would if the response was “I know all about it - what do you want to know?” - the former is worth questioning, the latter should hear “I’m sorry, you would probably not be happy with the work - we don’t really need someone with that level of expertise; best of luck in your search”.

Then start with the increasing levels of questioning, At some point you will have a good idea of just where they rank on the skills assessment.
Technical Q’s can be answered in several, equally valid ways - if all you can do is a word-for-word match of A to Q, you’re not ready to do this kand of interview.

For the record: the only Q I’ve been asked and could not answer: “What is the maximum length of a JCL parameters?” A: X(128) (COBOL), 128 bytes for the non-COBOL’ers out there. I then stumped him with “What is/was UPSI?” (you have to go back to the 60’s to have even the foggiest (or work for a certain (unnamed) shop in the mid 1990’s).

6

First, make a list of what you expect the person will have to do on the internet on a regular basis. Then decide what internet skills the person needs in order to carry out those tasks. Finally, formulate questions that will reveal the depth of the person’s familiarity with similar tasks.

Some good general questions:

Have you ever tracked down “lost” friends or relatives on the internet? (familiarity with search tools)
Do you shop or bank on the internet? (sense of safety and security)
How often do you run your virus checker? (having it “on” is not enough)
Do you use a pop-up blocker or other online spam controls? (safety-conscious)
What privacy and security settings do you use on your browser? (technical knowledge)
How do you override security settings for specific websites? (technical knowledge)
How do you set up “rules” for e-mail handling (efficiency)

7

If they have done any CGI (Perl, ASP, etc.) programming, they probably know enough about the Internet for your purposes.

Q: Tell me what you know about CSS, XML and Apache.

8

Ask some questions about the different uses the Internet is put to, and find out if the applicant thinks the Internet is just the Web or if he knows the Internet is a common protocol used by many different other protocols, each with its own use. Well, maybe knowledge of protocols as such might not be within your position’s domain, but an understanding of the Internet beyond the Web will demonstrate a technical understanding of the whole place that goes beyond the average Hotmail-and-IE flunky.

For example, ask the person if he could still use the Internet without a Web browser. If the applicant mentions Usenet, ask him what his favorite newsreader is. (The clueless will give you a blank stare or mumble about Google Groups, the clueful will mention something like trn or Pan.)

Asking about the history of the Internet might be a bit much, but if the applicant mentions that before the mid-1990s the Web was nonexistent but the Internet has been around since the 1970s that would be a big plus.

9

Q: Does embedded Javascript execute on the client-side or server-side?

Q: What Microsoft software system is similar to Sun’s J2EE?

Q: What does an ISP do?

Q. What is FTP used for?

Q. How do radio buttons differ from checkboxes on a website?

Q: What does PGP mean?

Q: What is a cookie?

Q: What can you say about a file that has the extension JPG, BMP or GIF?

Q: What can you say about a file that has the extension MPG or AVI?

Q: Does PHP run on the client-side or server-side?

Q: Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

10

This is what I came up with. It’s very telling.

11

roflmao… if that’s your idea of “basic internet knowledge” I’m scared to see what you think of as advanced! :smiley:

12

Trick question:
[ul]
[li]ASP does not run as a CGI process. They are equivalent server interfaces but not the same.[/li][li]Knowledge of Perl does not imply knowledge of CGI. A huge number of Perl programmers use it for administrative scripts, not server-side code.[/li][li]You can write ASP in Perl[/li][/ul] The last is one of my personal favorite interview questions for ASP programmers. It exposes a lot of people who think ASP == VBScript and can’t tell me under what circumstances they might choose to write ASP in Perl. Of course, that’s not the kind of thing the OP’s candidate needs to know.

13

Both. With extreme prejudice. But only once it’s out of bed.

MS J3Ee ™ (C) Patent Pending. All Right Reserved. Our lawyers are working on it.

Fills out the vowels and an ending to a lisp.

Being extermely rude to law enforcement officers and the head of the catholic church.

The former change station and the latter are where you do all your online banking.

Please Go Politely?

What the Cookie Monster eats. Duh!

The caps lock key was on.

They forgot to turn the caps lock off.

Depends what lane it’s allocated at the start of the race.

Wasn’t he married to the Baywatch women?

These questions are really techie for a job that isn’t technical. I had to really think about some of them! I would ask the applicant if they had written any webpages themselves. It doesn’t require any really technical knowledge, but does indicate a better than basic understanding of how the web works.

14

Thanks, I needed a good laugh today :smiley:

15

It seems to me that what you want is a self propelled individual with brains. The rest can be taught.

16

The same could be said about almost any job.

Most businesses don’t like to take the time for on-the-job training when you can hire someone with the skills you need. In my company, we train a lot when we want to promote from within but if we’re hiring it’s simpler to just hire the skill set we need. There’s always a lot of training on company-specific issues, but why start from scratch when you don’t have to?

17

Even better. You want this job? Translate this:

wtf were u thinking trying to apply h3r3. lmao i’m afk til youstfu and transl9. ymmv.

18

What exactly are you looking for?

Someone that can click the big blue e/COLOR] on their desktop and find your company’s website without needing to call the helpdesk?

Someone that understands the difference between plugging [COLOR=green]straight dope, “straight dope” and straight dope -marijuana into Google?

Someone that knows how to set up a streaming server on their home PC using SlimServer so they can listen to their MP3 collection anywhere?

Someone that set up a home network and knew how to put that streaming server in a DMZ so it’s accessible by anyone?

Someone that creates and edits their personal website using WordPad?

Someone that can recognize “do you want to install Super Smileys and Personal Information Stealer” as an attempt to load spyware and click NO?

19

What exactly are you looking for?

Someone that can freehand code HTML or vBulletin styles? :smack:

Someone that can click the big blue e on their desktop and find your company’s website without needing to call the helpdesk?

Someone that understands the difference between plugging straight dope, “straight dope” and straight dope -marijuana into Google?

Someone that knows how to set up a streaming server on their home PC using SlimServer so they can listen to their MP3 collection anywhere?

Someone that set up a home network and knew how to put that streaming server in the DMZ so it’s accessible by anyone?

Someone that creates and edits their personal website using WordPad?

Someone that can recognize “do you want to install Super Smileys and Personal Information Stealer” as an attempt to load spyware and click NO?

20

Ask them if they know what Usenet is and which client they use. If they can answer, you’ve got someone with some net savvy.