> If you're hiring a HR manager, do you have them take a basic English skills test?
Yes, an interview in English is an English skills test.
Programming has the odd problem where you want someone that speaks code so you need to ask them to speak it in some form or other. Yet, if you ask someone to demonstrate even the most basic form of competence some people lock up.
IMO, the best option is to give programmers the same kind of fuzzy test your giving HR managers. You don't need someone that can decode for (int i = -6; i++ < ++j; k++) ... but they need to be able to understand how to use a loop to get something done.
Yep, that's exactly my point with the HR example. The interview itself should be the programming test, not some artificial, condescending introductory literal test.
If interviewers dealt with candidates from any other professional field in the same way that software professionals are commonly interviewed, there'd be a ton more people walking out of interviews.
Yes, an interview in English is an English skills test.
Programming has the odd problem where you want someone that speaks code so you need to ask them to speak it in some form or other. Yet, if you ask someone to demonstrate even the most basic form of competence some people lock up.
IMO, the best option is to give programmers the same kind of fuzzy test your giving HR managers. You don't need someone that can decode for (int i = -6; i++ < ++j; k++) ... but they need to be able to understand how to use a loop to get something done.