Ext Certified Developer

[tobiu]

hi team and community,

i am not sure if this topic came up already. in germany, some companies are searching for developers, who have skills in developing apps with your framework. but since there is no official certified test or an education for this, it is not easy to determine who is a good choice and who is not.

i am not only interested to get such an certification, but i am willing to help to build up something like this in germany.

kind regards,
tobiu

[jay@moduscreate.com]

Some folks have asked about this in the past and I don't recall the exact response, but I believe it was not favorable.

How you determine who is a good choice is by asking techinical questions during an interview. Questions that Only an Ext JS developer with the proper experience can answer.

For instance (it took me only a minute or two to generate these):

Q: What are the three phases of the component lifecycle?
Q: What is the lowest component class that can participate as a child in a layout?
Q: What is the lowest component class that can manage other child items?
Q: What does the Data Reader class provide for the Data Store class?
Q: Name five layouts in the framework.
Q: What layout allows for multiple children, each taking 100% of the parent's available body space but only allows one child to be shown at a time
Q: What do Fn.createDelegate, Fn.createInterceptor and Fn.createSquence do?
Q: Explain what Ext.Element's role is in the framework

I think you get the point

If the interviewer does not know the framework, they can create questions from Learning Ext JS (http://learningextjs.com) or Ext JS in Action (http://extjsinaction.com)

[Condor]

Q: What is the lowest component class that can participate as a child in a layout?

That's a trick question (it depends on the kind of layout)!

[jay@moduscreate.com]

No ballgame is not complete without its curveballs dude.

[Condor]

No ballgame is not complete without its curveballs dude.

Really off-topic, but this is a good example of a trick question (I still can't believe I didn't see the answer and tried to calculate it).

[azuroff]

Really off-topic, but this is a good example of a trick question (I still can't believe I didn't see the answer and tried to calculate it).

I got it right away. (but probably only because you mentioned it being a trick question)

[Mike Robinson]

I never cottoned to "interview questions" like that. Nor, of course, to "certifications."

My "question" has always been: "show me a sample of your work."

Then: "give me the names of three good references who have been your former clients." Pick up the phone, preferably while they're there, and just see if you can talk to them. A good workman's reputation follows him. So does a bad one's.


If the person has built a web-site, then by going to that site I will be able to see the source code that runs it. (It's actually fairly unlikely that the builder bothered to compress it.) Get this person actively involved in conversation about how they did it, and what they did. You can sniff out a fake pretty readily, i-f you know the stuff yourself.


Then, just make it clear (in writing) from the start that there will be a 30-day probationary period. Anyone who can "get on their feet" will get on their feet within such time.


In my experience, quite frankly,"certifications" are worthless. They're just a product. When all is said and done, whoever is cranking them out has such an extraordinary incentive to do just that, that it renders their little pieces of paper utterly useless as a discriminating factor. Your mileage, of course, may vary...

[mystix]

It's actually fairly unlikely that the builder bothered to compress it.

that's already a big fat -1 in my book.

[jay@moduscreate.com]

I never cottoned to "interview questions" like that. Nor, of course, to "certifications."

My "question" has always been: "show me a sample of your work."

Then: "give me the names of three good references who have been your former clients." Pick up the phone, preferably while they're there, and just see if you can talk to them. A good workman's reputation follows him. So does a bad one's.


If the person has built a web-site, then by going to that site I will be able to see the source code that runs it. (It's actually fairly unlikely that the builder bothered to compress it.) Get this person actively involved in conversation about how they did it, and what they did. You can sniff out a fake pretty readily, i-f you know the stuff yourself.


Then, just make it clear (in writing) from the start that there will be a 30-day probationary period. Anyone who can "get on their feet" will get on their feet within such time.


In my experience, quite frankly,"certifications" are worthless. They're just a product. When all is said and done, whoever is cranking them out has such an extraordinary incentive to do just that, that it renders their little pieces of paper utterly useless as a discriminating factor. Your mileage, of course, may vary...

The problem with your method is that developers who are under strict NDAs cannot show you their work. Testing their knowledge in a particular technology is the best way to see whether or not they know their stuff.

Asking for examples of their work is secondary. Any monkey can go out there and copy someone's code. Hell many developers here do that with the Ext JS Examples, where they build entire applications with the ExtJS Copyright and Ext.example namespace written all over it.

The original post was about an Ext JS certification, which does nothing to display one's ability to effectively and efficiently use the product.

[VinylFox]

that's already a big fat -1 in my book.

LOL - So true!

Ill add another -1 to that.