As Indians, each one of us must be proud to see fellow Indian origin people as CEOs of top technology companies like Microsoft, Google etc. There is no doubt that all of us dream of being in their shoes someday. However, the ground reality is that many of us even fail to address is the level of competency that an average technical graduate in our country possesses. We live in a world of make belief that success comes with luck. Throughout our lives, rather than focusing on our technical skills we just try to rush through things.

Some of the recent surveys have concluded that only 4% (or even as low as 2.5% in some cases) of technology graduates are technically sound for a job in IT product companies. This despite the fact that India is touted at the IT capital of the world.

Download National Employability Study pdf
can be taken as an example.

I have been conducting interviews in AblySoft Pvt Ltd (web development department) for more than 6 years and have a very low selection rate, probably 2-3%. Many times, during the interviews a feeling emerges that we expect more from candidates. Why is our selection rate so low?  Nevertheless, when we consider the conclusions of such surveys, probably we understand where the fault lies.

A typical job type for a software developer

Let us take a closer look at this situation to understand the crux of the problem. A typical Web development department comprises of different types of jobs:

• Working on ready open source systems like WordPress, OpenCart, Magento etc. Theming, installing plugins, in some cases making small changes in those plugins and in some very rare cases developing your own plugins.
• Developing and maintaining your own plugins/modules for some open source systems.
• Working on improvements and enhancements of a product already built by the company. Alternatively, developing a product from scratch in product based company.
• Developing custom applications/websites/portals for clients and/or products for own company.

Each of these jobs has its own requirements. In the first scenario, you need to work harder juggling through many projects simultaneously but overall the challenges involved are low. You just need to stay in sync with upcoming versions of the system as well as the plugins/modules related to it.

When we look at the second scenario, the job type requires you to have a sound technical knowledge; however, the overall pressure on a regular basis is on the lower side.

The third type of job necessitates you to possess advanced analysis and technical skills; however, there is ample availability to resources and time.

Then comes the fourth case, where you need the intelligence and competence of a product developer. You have to follow coding standards, handle security loopholes in the code and above all, you have to plan for and handle the problems, which may arise, when there is a sudden surge in the users beyond a few thousand and sometimes millions.

Each job mentioned above requires a particular skill set and level of competency. I do not mean to say any of these jobs is superior or inferior to the other. Additionally, the points I mentioned here, there would surely be exceptions in some cases as every analysis has. So what is the reason behind this elaboration? To make candidates understand what it requires, to land a job at Ablysoft.

At Ablysoft, we fall in the fourth category. We are mainly in service domain and the majority of our projects are custom developed. Therefore, one thing is for sure that we require competent software developers, who are good in problem analysis and developing an algorithm to solve it. In the last 6 years, hardly 5-6% of candidates (with less than one and a half years of experience), whom I have interviewed, were able to write a code to sort an array on their own. This despite the fact that this small code is taught in their academics as well. This means, it was not a new problem for them; they have been told the solution many times before. Is this not an irony?

More than technical knowledge, it is about Problem solving skills

While developing web applications, one common thing that every programmer has to encounter every day is – storing the data provided by the user (or admin user) in the database and then displaying it on other web pages when required. To achieve this, you need to insert/update the data in the database and then retrieve it.

•    About 50% of candidates (in 2-4 years’ experience group) are not able to write correct queries with simple joins between two tables. (Please mind that I am not talking about syntax errors here).

•    About 30-40% of computer science graduates do not know what a 30% + 20% discount means.

•    If the price of a product is US $100, including 15% VAT, how much is the price of that product without VAT? Hardly 10% of candidates can solve this seventh standard math’s question.

Once I interviewed a candidate who had a reference of my friend and I asked her such questions. Later her father complaint to my friend, “She is looking for a job in web development. Why the hell was that interviewer asking her those mathematics questions?”

Experience does not account for level of competency

Another weird situation arises when candidates with four or more years of experience come for the interview. A lot of them are working as team leaders or project coordinators. They say they guide their team to fix the problems. However, they are not able to write a simple SQL query that they would always need to write or make their programmers write. I believe a senior/team leader/technical project manager must be in a position that – when a junior is stuck with a problem, the senior should be able to confidently say, “let me try”. However, most of the senior developers on emphasize on their years of experience rather than their level of competency.

How to make yourself competent for Ablysoft

A few days back, one of the HR consultants wrote to HR head of our company, “I checked with my team for PHP Candidates and got the feedback like 90% Mohali has applied for job in ABLY and rejection rate is quite high, is it true?”

The reason behind the above statement might already be clear from the scenarios mentioned by me. Now the question that arises is how to crack an interview here at Ablysoft? It would already be clear from this article, what we expect from a candidate. Nevertheless, let me go ahead and try to summarize:

•    We need good aptitude and problem-solving ability. This cannot be developed overnight, nor can this be prepared/developed so quickly. Therefore, do not bother about it. Just relax and face your interviewer with confidence as far as this point is concerned.

•    You must be good in handling databases mainly with MySQL. Yes, for this point you can brush up your skills and prepare. So, please put some efforts on this.

•    Every programmer knows the syntax of conditional statements, loops, operators etc. Even if you make a mistake, your IDE will help you fix it. Learning a programming language is useless if you do not know what and how to program. It is the same thing like learning good English, but you do not know what to say or talk. So, develop your logics to perfection.

•    Having good knowledge of OOP always give you an advantage.

These were some the points, related to technical interview for PHP web developers. Of course, good communication and pleasant personality along with the general interview cracking ideas apply here too. In the end, it all boils down to convincing the interviewer that you possess all the capabilities required by them. If you manage it, then there is nothing stopping you from getting your dream job – be it with AblySoft or any other reputed company in Mohali/Chandigarh.