SharePoint Impostors

It is really frustrating when I am the third interview of a SharePoint person and I ask 3 basic technical questions and they have no idea on all 3. I just interviewed someone with 5 years of SharePoint experience and besides knowing the technical aspects of SharePoint understood the business analysis side. She was also very skilled with SP Designer. 

Here is how the questions went...

Me: assume I have a user named John Smith that has access to a SharePoint site. He has a user level permission of Read and he is part of a SharePoint group with Full Control access. Which permission level does John Smith have on the SharePoint site?

Interviewee: 

Me: are you still there?

Interviewee: yes. Sorry. You would need to interview that person to ensure the application they are tied to and the workflow has the correct authentication.  Normally this is done in the business analysis area. 

Me: uh... Ok. That was nice but it didn't answer the question. (I repeated the entire question). 

Interviewee:

Long pause. 

Me: ok. Lets try something else. We currently have a SharePoint server enterprise edition, I have a excel chart on a workbook in a document library. If I wanted to display the chart on a site page, what web part would I use?

Interviewee: you could make a web part in visual studio and add it to either a wiki page or a web part page. I find that web part pages are not as flexible as a web part page. 

Me: uh... Ok. How long have you been working with SharePoint Designer?

Interviewee: 5 years. 

Me: oh good. And you worked with CSS during those years?

Interviewee: yes. 

Me: good. If I wanted to change the color of just the title area, what attribute would I adjust?

Interviewee: 

More crickets. 

Me: well, thank you very much for you time. I am sure the company will be getting back to you. 

Really, 5 years and can't answer 2 questions about out of the box functionality? 5 years designing and doesn't know off the top of their head which CSS attribute to change for the title area?

If you can answer all of these questions and want a good job, please leave comments and I will make contact with you. Easiest done through twitter @n8ivwarrior. 

#frustrating. 


Comments

CVD said…
I seen that many times when I ran a SharePoint practice. Now I see it from the partner side as well.
4:51 PM
CVD said…
Oh and I am going to go with full access and the chart web part for $100.
4:53 PM
Unknown said…
Hmm, Sorry, can't agree with you on this one. In my situation, being that the Platform is so large. "You either inately know the specific answer to question "you" know the answer to, OR, your experience enough with the product to know WHERE to get the answer. Smart is stored in silos, I know things you don't know. You know things I don't know. Neither one of us is stupid because of this
7:49 AM
John Burkholder said…
I understand that very well Paul. I am interviewing someone to be in my silo specifically. The questions were specific to someone in my silo for someone who has a resume to fill a position in my silo. All of the buzzwords needed to fill the position were in the resume'. Keywords on the resume included "user permissions (in 3 different places), web parts (in 8 different places), custom design and css (in 8 different places). BTW... this resume looked amazingly like two other resumes' that were hired from the same vendor to fill two other positions that I had to train the people over 3 months to do the jobs they already "knew" before being hired. I did not interview the other two. That is when our interview process changed.
8:16 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Rare Political Statement...Illegal Immigrants

This is a long post. However, it addresses BOTH sides of the immigration issue. The actual bill as it was received in the Senate from the House. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h4437rfs.txt.pdf In a nutshell, here is what the bill provides (ref: Wikipedia ): · Requires up to 700 miles (1100 km) of fence along the US-Mexican border at points with the highest number of immigrant deaths. (House Amendment 648, authored by Duncan Hunter ) · Requires the federal government to take custody of illegal aliens detained by local authorities. This would end the practice of "catch and release", where federal officials sometimes instruct local law enforcement to release detained illegal aliens because resources to prosecute them are not available. It also reimburses local agencies in the 29 counties along the border for costs related to detaining illegal aliens. (Section 607) ·
Read more

What is it About Shoes?

I just have to know. What is it about shoes? I own five pairs of shoes and I can tell you where they are located at any given point in time. Each of them has a purpose. I have a black pair of tie-up shoes used for work and only work. In fact, they stay in my locker at work. The second pair of shoes are basically a backup for the first pair. They are slip on Dexter loafers in black and brown. Multifunctional and works with nearly every outfit. Third are my Nike Air Monarchs. I use these for nearly everything casual including my daily trip to work. After arriving at work, I put on the shoes mentioned first. Next are the mowing sneakers. They are plain white New Balance and were the predecessor to the Monarchs. I use them when I am mowing. They are green. Lastly are my bowling shoes. Dexter bowling shoes. They cannot be worn outside of a bowling alley, so they stay in my bowling bag (lately without any usage at all). This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Why in the wor
Read more

Moving on and moving out

I have made an executive decision in my life today. MomofJenMatt is right about a very sensitive issue and I have been running it through my mind for most of the night. I am strongly against the support of child pornography and to be honest, Xanga could be considered as contributing to the distribution of child pornography. Therefore, this is my last post with Xanga. I am moving to http://www.blogger.com/ . Blogger.com is tied to/owned by Google. It is a little more complicated to use, but I figure I will get used to it. This is my new blog site: http://n8ivwarrior.blogspot.com/ I welcome you to join me, although anyone can read and comment on my blog. You do not need to be a member. I hereby resign the Viewer's Choice to LarsThunder. Thank you for viewing and good luck to you all.
Read more