Would you accept a software developer job offer if...
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From my experience, 'technical' interviews can only serve to eliminate candidates, not approve them. If you ask questions and the person screws up the answer badly (or worse, tries to fake it), then that tells you they don't know what they say they know. If they answer all the technical questions correctly, that just tells you they know certain things. It doesn't tell you what they will be like to work with. It doesn't tell you about their habit of watching porn on work time. You don't get to hear how they backstabbed and ass-kissed their way onto the 'hot' project at their last job. Probably most importantly, it doesn't tell you how they named their children using Hungarian notation, because it was the right thing to do.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
...it doesn't tell you how they named their children using Hungarian notation, because it was the right thing to do.
How else are you going to know what type of child each is?
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
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The hardest thing for me to test would be someone's problem solving ability. Ofcourse things that have already been done can be looked up, but in software we hardly ever build the same thing twice, otherwise we wouldn't be building it. So one needs to be creative in solving these new problems. And honestly I would not know how to get that above the table in an interview...
Wout
wout de zeeuw wrote:
but in software we hardly ever build the same thing twice
lol... what a nice little thought :)
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
...it doesn't tell you how they named their children using Hungarian notation, because it was the right thing to do.
How else are you going to know what type of child each is?
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
DavidCrow wrote:
How else are you going to know what type of child each is?
If i ever have kids some day... His name is SO going to be bBobby or if its a girl gSarah
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there was not even a technical interview just an informal one asking about professional experience? (Assuming that every other factor is reasonable)
I am a SysAdmin, I battle my own daemons.
Sure, but you need to ask a few questions yourself. Based on my personal experience whenever I deal with potential customers/employers I always ask something like these questions if it hasn't been explicitly stated during the interview process. 1) What RCS system is being used? 2) How are projects documented and managed? 3) What will be my interaction with the end users? 4) What dev tools do you currently use, and what are you looking to use? Basically, I just want to try and determine the work environment and if I will end up bootstrapping the dev process. I don't necessarily mind that but, sometimes it gets a bit tiresome to be the "programmer" and have a parade of users outside of your office when you are trying to get some work done. good luck -- modified at 9:55 Wednesday 15th August, 2007
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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wout de zeeuw wrote:
but in software we hardly ever build the same thing twice
lol... what a nice little thought :)
Yeah, I'm a deep thinker, lol.
Wout
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there was not even a technical interview just an informal one asking about professional experience? (Assuming that every other factor is reasonable)
I am a SysAdmin, I battle my own daemons.
Yes because they probably already have seen your code or know where you work etc etc. Unless you are a complete nobody. Smarter companies always head hunt for talent, they don't just hire people off the street, in a case like that they already know everything they want or need to know about you before you walk in the door.
"I don't want more choice. I just want better things!" - Edina Monsoon
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there was not even a technical interview just an informal one asking about professional experience? (Assuming that every other factor is reasonable)
I am a SysAdmin, I battle my own daemons.
Just make sure they know what you're worth.
Todd Smith
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Here's how technical my internship interview was:
Him: So, do you know what polymorphism is? Me: Yep. Him (without skipping a beat): OK, well, let me take you over and introduce you to Dave...
Of course, this was back in the heyday of 1999, so jobs were easy to come by, even for starving college students. ;) To answer your question, yes, I did take the job, and I'm glad I did, because it turned into a fine full-time job after I graduated.
Jon Sagara Mike3285: wtf is a palindrome MaroonSand: no its not dude -- Bash.org .NET Blog | Personal Blog | Articles
The last place I worked (a department for a major corporation) would have hired you if you'd said yes and explained it. And that was just last year. You wouldn't believe the crap that was sent their way. Most of the interviewees did not know what polymorphism is, or said they did but couldn't explain it and had padded their resumes significantly! I'm actually pretty impressed they asked you about polymorphism back in '99. I seem to remember most employers were fine if you could switch a computer on ;)
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
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there was not even a technical interview just an informal one asking about professional experience? (Assuming that every other factor is reasonable)
I am a SysAdmin, I battle my own daemons.
Yes; my current job had no technical interview because they didn't have any other software engineers (and still don't). It's great: I write all the software, so it's all done right. No more maintaining some idiot's incompetently-written framework.