A question I got in my 2nd Interview on Monday
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Your posts about interviewing and a recent round of my own prompted me to put this together yesterday: Giving and Taking an Interview[^]. I find it amazing the haphazard way in which many employers approach the interview process. The fact that one of your interviewers loves Vista has nothing whatsoever do with the interview: it should not have been rasied except if you were expected to work with or develop for Vista.
digital man wrote:
The fact that one of your interviewers loves Vista has nothing whatsoever do with the interview: it should not have been rasied except if you were expected to work with or develop for Vista.
There were two interviewers, and the one that apparently loves Vista posed the question, and the other interviewer offered the info that the first guy loves Vista. The question was aimed at developing desktop apps on Vista, and while he didn't say as much, I assumed that it was with VS2005 and writing .net apps on the desktop.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Like most people going through the interview process, I replay the interview in my mind for several days after the actual interview.
Practices like this will make you better at interviews. As a consultant, I interview more often than FT employees. As a result, I feel that I am well above average at interviews. My track record on interviews supports my findings.
I've only be rejected one time (because I couldn't remember the exact name of a Windows API function). I also flatly rejected a company who was writing software to backup data over the internet. Since I would never personally use such a service, I assumed that not many other people would either. I would have earned a 6-figure salary too, and I told them I thought their idea was stupid. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I've only be rejected one time (because I couldn't remember the exact name of a Windows API function). I also flatly rejected a company who was writing software to backup data over the internet. Since I would never personally use such a service, I assumed that not many other people would either. I would have earned a 6-figure salary too, and I told them I thought their idea was stupid. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Like most people going through the interview process, I replay the interview in my mind for several days after the actual interview. I happened to get a question that everyone here might be interested in and that (for some abstract reason) I was not really expecting: "Have you ever written an application on a machine running Vista?" I related my own personal experience with Vista, but added that I was aware that Vista was unfriendly to those who liked to skirt around Microsoft's intended use of the OS from a developer standpoint. I also mentioned that Vista required that VS2005 be run as administrator to avoid some issues. They seemed to be happy with my response. It turns out one of the interviewers loves Vista. I told him that I'd like to love it myself, but that Vista wasn't interested in the same kind of relationship, so I was waiting for the service pack to come out before I tried again. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001At my current position the first "in-person" interview was with the Director of the department and the VP of IT. The VP asked me how I would solve a problem, gave me a dry erase marker and had me stand at the white board and write my code, oh and he said "I'll leave the room for about 5 minutes while you "code" this". Talk about pressure. When he came back he was impressed with how much I had actually gotten done in the 5 minutes, he explained that he never expected me (or anyone else) to solve the problem in a mere 5 minutes but wanted to see how I worked under pressure. He then sent me home with the "homework" assignment: If you were given a DLL that determined if a day was a holiday (either national or company) how would you calculate how many business days there were in the next 90 days. Not only did I answer the initial question I also took the time to write a class that calculated whether it was a business or national holiday (explaining that I wanted to ensure the object worked the way it was supposed to so that I knew 100% that the results were correct). He said he was impressed and that no interviewee had ever done that much work and invited me back for another interview the next day, ultimately I got the job and within 6 months the VP of IT resigned.
"It's only that urgent if you have to pee." Dave Kreskowiak
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Vista isn't WPA friendly?? Well that sucks, even PCLinuxOS is WPA friendly. No this isn't a post praising Linux so no flameage required, I'm a Windows man I just find it odd that a Linux distro is more WPA friendly than is a version of Windows
"Well yes, it is an Integer, but it's a metrosexual Integer. For all we know, under all that hair gel it could be a Boolean." Tom Welch
No flame here. You don't know how much blood, sweat and tears I expended trying to get the bl**dy thing working. Curse that "early adopter syndrome". Even XP managed to cope with WPA, so I don't see why MS had so much problem with Vista.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Your posts about interviewing and a recent round of my own prompted me to put this together yesterday: Giving and Taking an Interview[^]. I find it amazing the haphazard way in which many employers approach the interview process. The fact that one of your interviewers loves Vista has nothing whatsoever do with the interview: it should not have been rasied except if you were expected to work with or develop for Vista.
digital man wrote:
The fact that one of your interviewers loves Vista has nothing whatsoever do with the interview
I agree, but in my work as a consultant I have had many, many interviews, and they all had one thing in common: the interviewer wanted to know if I was someone they could relate to.
Best wishes, Hans
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Like most people going through the interview process, I replay the interview in my mind for several days after the actual interview. I happened to get a question that everyone here might be interested in and that (for some abstract reason) I was not really expecting: "Have you ever written an application on a machine running Vista?" I related my own personal experience with Vista, but added that I was aware that Vista was unfriendly to those who liked to skirt around Microsoft's intended use of the OS from a developer standpoint. I also mentioned that Vista required that VS2005 be run as administrator to avoid some issues. They seemed to be happy with my response. It turns out one of the interviewers loves Vista. I told him that I'd like to love it myself, but that Vista wasn't interested in the same kind of relationship, so I was waiting for the service pack to come out before I tried again. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Like most people going through the interview process, I replay the interview in my mind for several days after the actual interview. I happened to get a question that everyone here might be interested in and that (for some abstract reason) I was not really expecting: "Have you ever written an application on a machine running Vista?" I related my own personal experience with Vista, but added that I was aware that Vista was unfriendly to those who liked to skirt around Microsoft's intended use of the OS from a developer standpoint. I also mentioned that Vista required that VS2005 be run as administrator to avoid some issues. They seemed to be happy with my response. It turns out one of the interviewers loves Vista. I told him that I'd like to love it myself, but that Vista wasn't interested in the same kind of relationship, so I was waiting for the service pack to come out before I tried again. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001You know if you had a hankering to document your interviews, questions and thought processes before, after and during. I bet the article you created would quickly move up the popularity chain and damn fast. Your dry humor combined with how you see the world makes for a really good read when you are writing stuff like the above. Why do I even suggest you write an article? With your experience and your zero BS tolerance your comments provide people with an unobstructed view of the entire process from interviewer to interviewee (is that even a word?). In no way am I trying to kiss your ass, even if I was I doubt you'd care. I'm just offering a suggestion for you to publish your thoughts on this whole experience because as I go back and think about each of your posts they combine to make a good read and the job-searchers here might find it of some value. Me? I've been unemployed for 3 years and have no desire to change that. But I've enjoyed reading your comments.
What I am up to: ReadyToGiveUp(Not!)[^] What friends are up to:SQLServerCentral[^]
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Like most people going through the interview process, I replay the interview in my mind for several days after the actual interview. I happened to get a question that everyone here might be interested in and that (for some abstract reason) I was not really expecting: "Have you ever written an application on a machine running Vista?" I related my own personal experience with Vista, but added that I was aware that Vista was unfriendly to those who liked to skirt around Microsoft's intended use of the OS from a developer standpoint. I also mentioned that Vista required that VS2005 be run as administrator to avoid some issues. They seemed to be happy with my response. It turns out one of the interviewers loves Vista. I told him that I'd like to love it myself, but that Vista wasn't interested in the same kind of relationship, so I was waiting for the service pack to come out before I tried again. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001I've been writing software on Vista for over half a year now and it's completely irrelevant that it's Vista once you have visual studio set up, but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that the interviewer badly worded the question and was actually fishing for your knowledge of writing applications *for* vista which is a whole other kettle of fish and something that I've found by trial and error to get working but in some cases have never fully found satisfactory info on Microsoft (or their tools are not compatible yet) for some specific areas like installation.
"I don't want more choice. I just want better things!" - Edina Monsoon
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What is it you put in that resume to get all these interviews? :suss:
I mentioned that I bring a six-pack of beer to each interview.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
