0 PHP-specific questions would you ask in a job interview

First, I wouldn't be worried about asking questions that are too specific or asking too many of them.
As an example of why specific questions are important, when I was interviewing for my current position the bulk of the interview (at least an hour) was spent going over various programming questions.
I was asked to write the following code examples on a white board for scrutiny or answer these questions:

• What is POST, GET, SESSION and how do they differ
• Simple Select Statement
• Select Statement with Joins and a Where Clause
• Example of recursion (specifically removing slashes from $_POST)
• Example of connecting the database, executing the query, and then outputting the result

Now when I interview I also ask questions like these:

• What is inheritance? polymorphism? encapsulation?
• Show an example of inheritance
• Are you familiar with Model-View-Controller
• What data abstraction patterns have you employed? Please demonstrate
• What frameworks are you familiar with? What did you like / not like about each

At the same time I was interviewing, my old boss was interviewing applicants to take and my place and he did so without a programmer present at all. As a result they ended up with a guy that didn't know how to separate his php code from his html tags.
The more specific you are during the interview, the more pleased you'll be later. As someone once said regarding marriage, "during courtship keep your eyes wide open." And I believe that the same is absolutely true when looking to hire a new programmer.

There are a few similar questions on StackOverflow:

• What PHP-specific questions would you ask in a job interview?
• PHP job interview questions?
• PHP Interview questions

The accepted answer on the first one is the one I like the most, but make sure you browse through all of them. To add to that:
Code

• Ask the candidate to write code
• Ask the candidate to read code

If you do ask the candidate to write code make sure that:

• The code is non trivial but small
• You allow access to the manual and the internet

If you do ask the candidate to read code make sure that:

• The code has some trivial errors
• The code has some non trivial errors
• The code works fine, but it can be easily optimized

You can use three or more different pieces of code, start from the simpler one and only advance to the next if you see that the candidate copes with ease. Throw in some recursion, to spice things up.
Resources
Ask for a detailed list of PHP resources the candidate uses. Books, blogs, forums, magazines, etc. That's how my current employers found out about StackOverflow.
If the candidate mentions StackOverflow or Programmers, you should NOT ask or try to find out their username. If they wanted to advertise their reputation they would have included a Careers 2.0 link on their resume.
Frameworks
Every PHP developer should know of the most popular PHP frameworks:

• Zend Framework
• CodeIgniter
• Symfony
• CakePHP
• Yii

and be fluent in at least one of them. You can have a few code samples ready for each one and ask the candidate to read and explain them, after they tell you which one they are more familiar with.
Debugging & Profiling
I've always felt that PHP developers are lacking debugging and profiling skills (perhaps only the PHP developers I've worked with). If during the discussion you find out that the candidate actively uses xdebug, don't bother with the rest of the interview and just hire them. ;)
Input sanitization
This is important. You can start with a discussion on why it's important and then ask for the most common methods to achieve it. This discussion will help you on what to ask.
Some hints:

• mysqli_real_escape_string is good
• magic quotes are bad

PHP snafus
You can find a lot of PHP snafus in this excellent discussion. If you are interviewing for a senior position you should definetaly ask on some of those. Some examples:
PHP's handling of numeric values in strings:

"01a4" != "001a4" // true
"01e4" == "001e4" // also true

Valid PHP code:

System.out.print("hello");

In PHP, a string is as good as a function pointer:

$x = "foo";
function foo(){ echo "wtf"; }
$x(); # "wtf"   

Unit testing
Need I say more?
Conclusion
A good PHP developer should combine a variety of skills & talents:

• A good understanding of HTTP
• A good understanding of Apache configuration (Even if you use a different web server at your company)
• At least a basic understanding of JavaScript
• A great understanding of HTML / CSS

The list goes on and on. Make sure you tailor the interview to the specific needs of the job opening, you don't want to hire just a good developer but a good developer that's great at what you immediately need him / her to do.

0 9 Things A Boss Should Never Say To An Employee

There’s been a fair amount of discussion recently in the media on the worst communication mistakes employees make, and the negative comments employees should never say to a boss. This week, I’d like to turn the tables. There are likewise expressions a manager should never proclaim to an employee.  Today’s article will benefit all thoughtful bosses and be a reminder of good management principles as well. Based on the comments I have received from both managers and employees, combined with a report from U.S. News, here’s my own list of things a supervisor should never say to an employee.

#1 Don’t Say -“I pay your salary. You have to do what I say”.  This statement is dictatorial.  Threats and power plays are not the way to inspire loyalty or great performance from the individual workers. Great executives lead by inspiring, teaching, encouraging, and even serving their employees. Good leaders do not need to threaten.

#2 Don’t Say -“You are very lucky to receive this bonus. Other companies are only giving their staff a frozen turkey”. A wise boss recognizes it’s his employees that produce profits and is never condescending to them. A bright manager should always be happy to reward industrious employees who contribute to the well being of an organization.

#3  Don’t Say -“I was here late last night, and on Saturday morning. Where were you?”  Expressing veiled pressure that an employee should be on duty 24/7 is erroneous and a sure path to dissatisfaction and low morale for workers.  Just because a manager works seven days a week doesn’t mean that faithful employees should do the same.

#4 Don’t Say – “You should stay here because we won’t discriminate against you for being a woman”. This insensitive remark was delivered to a female executive by her boss; an exemplary woman who had been the recent recipient of a Women in Technology award.  She left this thoughtless supervisor and is now embarking on a new career path after serving as a regional sales lead and general manager of one of the nation’s largest telecomm firms.  A great boss will never discriminate, and will never make an employee feel vulnerable, directly or indirectly, as the result of their gender, religious or political affiliation or race. Behavior such as this, if not illegal, is boorish.

#5 Don’t Say – “We’ve got to cut costs” (at the same time the manager is buying a new desk). When times are difficult, employees respect supervisors who are empathetic to the challenges employees must face. They resent any leader who lives a different standard.  In challenging times, managers should lead by example.

#6 Don’t Say – “I don’t want to listen to your complaints”. As a boss you should actively seek feedback, even negative comments.   I suggest a leader listen with an open mind and fully consider an employee’s issues.  Even in the case of a problem that can’t be helped, allowing an employee to vent for even a minute or two can go a long way toward building loyalty and high morale.

#7 Don’t Say – “We’ve always done it this way”. This statement is a sure way to squash innovation.  A better statement is to ask “What do you suggest we do to improve?”  In all likelihood, employees do know what can and should be done to enhance any task.  Our job as managers is to encourage workers to find creative solutions to age old problems and to reward them for their clear thinking.

#8  Don’t Say – “You’re doing a terrible job”.  Managers need to communicate expectations clearly. They should give employees the resources, budgets, deadlines, training and support they need to complete an assignment with distinction.  Managers should ask workers to repeat the instructions they receive to insure they fully understand the assigned tasks.  If employees make repeated mistakes, perhaps the task doesn’t match the employee’s competency or they have been given unclear instructions.

#9 Don’t Say -  “You’re stupid, the worst (expletive) worker ever”.  Anger, profanity and belittling are a spear through an employee’s heart. Bosses should behave with civility and professionalism.  A fellow Forbes columnist noted recently that while it is inadvisable for a boss to swear in front of an employee, it is absolutely unacceptable to swear at an employee.
In summary, a great manager should keep his or her word and strive to set a good example. A good boss will praise in public and if a constructive reprimand is necessary, provide it sparingly, privately, and with benevolence.  Allowing failure is a key of true delegation.  Lessons are learned from missed goals.  Learn to listen, and when employees provide feedback, do your best to consider their thoughts with an open mind.   If leaders follow these points, they will experience loyal and engaged employees who truly enjoy their assignments and contribute to the well being of the organization.
[Via:-forbes.com]

1 Make Money Online with Chitika

Chitika is a free service which displays revenue-earning ads to your website visitors featuring different types of ads for different types of traffic. It is very similar to Google AdSense but it's a bit different so the best news is that you can have both on the site at the same time. Google AdSense and Chitika can work friendly and don't violate Terms of Use of each service.

Chitika is the only ad-network which knows when not to show an ad, helping to preserve your user experience.

Chitika charges advertisers to be featured alongside your site's content. At the end of every month you are paid based on the previous month's earnings (Net 30). Payments are sent after your account earns at least $10.00 (USD) for PayPal payouts or $50.00 (USD) for checks.

Contents at a Glance

1. Join Chitika
2. Why Chitika?
3. Squidoo and Chitika
4. Chitika Videos
5. Chitika Poll

0 Start Making Money Every 60 Seconds Right NOW !

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0 Search For Adsense Ads by Image using Ad Review Center Tool

Have you ever considered grabbing more control over your AdSense ads through, say the AdSense Ad review center? The Ad review Center is a really powerful tool that lets you tweak the settings, and control ads that appear in your site's ad units. Following a set of changes and improvements from Google earlier this year, that gave this useful tool even more power and reliability, Google has now introduced another remarkable feature - image filtering. This new feature will let you find ads, and review them very easily and effectively, hence saving your time.

Recommended for you: How to Block annoying AdSense Ads using Publisher Toolbar?

What's the use?

This new feature makes use of the same technology as Google Image Search. You can upload an image from your computer. And this tool will then use the technology to search for similar images, and will return ad banners that have a similar image in them. You can then review such banners, and take an appropriate action.

This comes real handy when you want to not display an ad banner that has, let's say, the logo of a competitor of your site. Seems logical? You can simply take a screenshot or image of your competitor's logo, and then upload it to this tool. You will then see all ad banners that have that logo in them. You can then block those banners. Simple!

To use this feature, simply log into your AdSense account. Then go into the 'Allow and Block Ads' tab. There, you will see this feature, with an option to upload an image etc.

Limitations

Currently, you can only upload an image of maximum size 2 MB, and a max dimension of 1024 pixels. Also, this feature for now only returns image ads. More functionality will be added later on, and we'll keep you posted about it :)

We'd recommend you use this tool rarely, and with care. Only block content that you absolutely don't want to appear, because blocking ads is generally not a very good idea. It isn't a good revenue generating practice, and can reduce your revenue. So be careful! Good luck :)

[Via:- Mybloggertricks.com]