Jonah:
IN GENERAL
Jonah is a very experienced software developer who has spent the most recent part of his career running a team as well as programming. His breadth of experience is vast and relevant to any position he would be deployed to. The screening was very conversational and (in addition to covering the stipulated subjects) we exchanged views about various technologies. All of Jonahs views and opinions were well expressed and defensible in the light of modern software development practices. On the down side, some of Jonah's knowledge and experience was not as up to date as it could have been, possibly due to his recent managerial position, but given his clear ability and wealth of relevenat (if not up to the minute) experience, this should not be a problem. Jonah would fit in with the senior developers at DWP or HMRC without any issues. I think Jonah would do excellently on the MEAN course and I would not hesitate to recommend him.
JAVA & OBJECT ORIENTED PRINCIPLES
He was very well aware of the basics. I was struck by how elequently he was able to explain some of the principles and theories behind why we use certain technologies: Answers that most candidates struggle with. For example to the question what is a framework he answered "It's a library that calls your code". This is the most accurate and elequent answer to this question I have had so far. He was able to explain design patterns and was able to decisively answer the most dificult question I ask (about the persistence of singletons). Here however, Jonah did point out that although he has extensive experience of spring, he doesn't use it in the most up to date way. This made me think that the MEAN course would be an excellent progression for him. Agile transpired to be his weakest area, followed by CI, but the other areas were outstanding.
JAVASCRIPT
He has extensive experience of Javascript but this experience fits into the "old fashioned" way of using Javascript. This provides a good foundation for using javascript in the more modern way (that the MEAN course will teach).
BASIC TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT (TDD)
Jonah has touched test driven development and is familiar with it, being able to identify what is meant by red-green-refactor, but does not have extensve experience of it. This should not be a problem. In terms of testing in general, Jonah was very knowledgeable and has used all of the relevant technology. We discussed at lenght the terminology of modern testing and exchanged legitimate views.
AGILE METHODOLOGY
This was the one question Jonah answered incorrectly on the pre-screening. Jonah pointed out he had never been on any agile training course but that he was aware of the agile principles and uses many of them on a daily basis. He was aware of the "You Aint Gonna Need It" principle and we discussed the history of the methodology. For a candidate like Jonah I don't believe this lack of experience comercially should be a significant hinderence given Jonahs vast and relevant knowledge of this and related areas.
RESTFUL WEB SERVICES
Jonah knows this and has used it extensively. We discussed it in detail and it was clear Jonah uses this extensively at a senior level. No issues here at all.
SOURCE CONTROL MANAGEMENT
CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION (JENKINS OR EQUIVALENT TOOL)
BUILD AUTOMATION (ANT, MAVEN, GRADLE)
Because of Jonah's vast knowledge and the conversational style of the screening, the three above subjects were discussed together. Jonah was able to go through each of the subjects and explain how they were related. He was asked several questions and was able to give detailed answeres. He understands Maven and ant and uses them regularly, same with GIT and SVN. However, Jonah has not done a lot of CI, he knows what it is, understands where it is used and what it is for. This should not be a big issue given his clear extensive experience of related areas.
CSS + HTML5
Jonahs knowledge of CSS and HTML was good. He has not done HTML5. This puts him on a par with most other candidates on this - a good basis for the course.
Jonah is a very experienced software developer who has spent the most recent part of his career running a team as well as programming. His breadth of experience is vast and relevant to any position he would be deployed to. The screening was very conversational and (in addition to covering the stipulated subjects) we exchanged views about various technologies. All of Jonahs views and opinions were well expressed and defensible in the light of modern software development practices. On the down side, some of Jonah's knowledge and experience was not as up to date as it could have been, possibly due to his recent managerial position, but given his clear ability and wealth of relevenat (if not up to the minute) experience, this should not be a problem. Jonah would fit in with the senior developers at DWP or HMRC without any issues. I think Jonah would do excellently on the MEAN course and I would not hesitate to recommend him.
JAVA & OBJECT ORIENTED PRINCIPLES
He was very well aware of the basics. I was struck by how elequently he was able to explain some of the principles and theories behind why we use certain technologies: Answers that most candidates struggle with. For example to the question what is a framework he answered "It's a library that calls your code". This is the most accurate and elequent answer to this question I have had so far. He was able to explain design patterns and was able to decisively answer the most dificult question I ask (about the persistence of singletons). Here however, Jonah did point out that although he has extensive experience of spring, he doesn't use it in the most up to date way. This made me think that the MEAN course would be an excellent progression for him. Agile transpired to be his weakest area, followed by CI, but the other areas were outstanding.
JAVASCRIPT
He has extensive experience of Javascript but this experience fits into the "old fashioned" way of using Javascript. This provides a good foundation for using javascript in the more modern way (that the MEAN course will teach).
BASIC TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT (TDD)
Jonah has touched test driven development and is familiar with it, being able to identify what is meant by red-green-refactor, but does not have extensve experience of it. This should not be a problem. In terms of testing in general, Jonah was very knowledgeable and has used all of the relevant technology. We discussed at lenght the terminology of modern testing and exchanged legitimate views.
AGILE METHODOLOGY
This was the one question Jonah answered incorrectly on the pre-screening. Jonah pointed out he had never been on any agile training course but that he was aware of the agile principles and uses many of them on a daily basis. He was aware of the "You Aint Gonna Need It" principle and we discussed the history of the methodology. For a candidate like Jonah I don't believe this lack of experience comercially should be a significant hinderence given Jonahs vast and relevant knowledge of this and related areas.
RESTFUL WEB SERVICES
Jonah knows this and has used it extensively. We discussed it in detail and it was clear Jonah uses this extensively at a senior level. No issues here at all.
SOURCE CONTROL MANAGEMENT
CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION (JENKINS OR EQUIVALENT TOOL)
BUILD AUTOMATION (ANT, MAVEN, GRADLE)
Because of Jonah's vast knowledge and the conversational style of the screening, the three above subjects were discussed together. Jonah was able to go through each of the subjects and explain how they were related. He was asked several questions and was able to give detailed answeres. He understands Maven and ant and uses them regularly, same with GIT and SVN. However, Jonah has not done a lot of CI, he knows what it is, understands where it is used and what it is for. This should not be a big issue given his clear extensive experience of related areas.
CSS + HTML5
Jonahs knowledge of CSS and HTML was good. He has not done HTML5. This puts him on a par with most other candidates on this - a good basis for the course.