Posted by Ancestry Team on July 25, 2013 in CSS/HTML/JavaScript

Hiring awesome people who are also talented developers is often times easier said than done. Having grown tired of sifting through endless resumes and conducting countless mind numbing interviews with unqualified applicants, our team has uncovered the filtering power of a FED (front-end development) specific assessment test. While some like to schedule time during the onsite interview to complete coding tests, it’s worked best for us to email our assessment to potential candidates and allow them to complete and return it on their own time frame before scheduling an interview. This helps avoid wasting everyone’s time by bringing in people who aren’t qualified to handle the technical requirements of the position.

Our assessment test provides candidates with a layered .PSD (PhotoShop) file, as well as a simple list of requirements to consider:

  • Pixel-perfect quality level (Mac and Windows)
  • All text to be real text
  • Optimize page and improve performance where possible
  • No inline styles unless absolutely necessary
  • All containers must be vertically expandable
  • Cross browser compatibility
  • Utilize latest technologies (CSS3, HTML5, responsive design, etc.)

pixel_perfect

An experienced developer should be able to code the page in a few hours, which is enough of a time commitment to filter out those that aren’t truly interested in the job. The page also contains a wide variety of front-end challenges including a modal overlay, a form, multiple images, customized buttons, unordered lists, and overlapping elements. We can compare the code structure, CSS styling, and choice of JavaScript frameworks used in meeting the assessment’s requirements, which allows us to evaluate each candidate on a level playing field prior to scheduling an interview. We can also look at how they optimized their code to consider performance, requests, and load time of the page.

Our team reviews the tests and gives each assessment an overall rating from 1 to 10, with candidates scoring a 7 or better being considered worthy of an interview. That way, we’re only meeting with the best of the best and can more easily make a decision on who would be the best fit for the position and team. In addition, the assessment serves as a talking point during the interview, allowing the candidates to walk us through their thought process and providing us a chance to ask questions and give feedback about the coding choices they made.

In the end, when candidates are given a coding test comes down to personal preference and what works best for you and your team. Some might prefer to meet candidates first, then assess their technical skills to see if they can do the job. For our team, finding out whether they can do the job before ever meeting them in person has proven successful and allowed us to assemble a talented group of 18 front-end developers in just a few short years. If you’re interested in potentially being one of them, check out all of our current job openings at Ancestry.

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