Interviewee Competency Tests
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How do you change directories in VMS? Go to a parent dir? What's the syntax and how does it compare to Windows? Compare and contrast the Windows file/folder security to VMS's? Any similarities? (they should pick up on the fact that there most certainly are). How to set env symbols in VMS. What does typing "foobar.exe" in a VMS console do? What is an alternate approach/syntax to running an executable? How do you get help with the command line on VMS? And most importantly: Do you like Unix? (there's only one right answer...)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you change directories in VMS? Go to a parent dir? What's the syntax and how does it compare to Windows?
$ set default $ set default [-]Jim Crafton wrote:
How to set env symbols in VMS.
$ define foo barJim Crafton wrote:
What does typing "foobar.exe" in a VMS console do?
Not heckuva lot. Try
$run foobarinstead.Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you get help with the command line on VMS?
Would you believe...
$ help! The stuff I remember from 28 years ago... :) [Edit] Look what you made me dig up: this[^] and this[^]. :-D [/Edit] /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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We are looking to bring in some contractors as application developers, but would like to give them a competency test to be completed on site. Our environment is a mix of old and new: Windows Server 2000 and 2003 SQLServer 2000 and 2005 VB 6 ASP (classic and .NET) VS.NET 2005 COM+ Alpha VMS with Fortran and Ingres II Type of questions to ask or links to example tests would be much appreciated. (Edit to add other areas) Tim
With respect if your company is bringing them in to do work for you and you want to see if they are competent but can't think of what questions to ask...well you know what I'm thinking. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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With respect if your company is bringing them in to do work for you and you want to see if they are competent but can't think of what questions to ask...well you know what I'm thinking. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Understanding your comments, this was 'proposed' to me late last week. Oh, by the way... can you get a skill competency test ready for a candidate by the middle of next week? That is in between all of the other production issues you're currently dealing with.... I know what we need them to know, it getting to the point that they can PROVE they know it. Saying you understand something is different than showing that you understand it. Tim
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It's scary that at one time or another I've used all of these (even Alpha VMS and Ingres). Good luck with getting contractors with such a diverse set of technologies. Hmmm - Ingres, try asking them how to manage locking (hint - this is the SET LOCKMODE stuff, e.g. SET LOCKMODE SESSION WHERE READLOCK=NOLOCK). SQL Server - they should know about concurrency, and row level versioning (available in 2005). COM+ - use of Queued Components, what the different threading models actually mean, etc... VB6 - what the effects of using Variants are. What happens if you change a COM interface in VB6 with regards to COM+ (think interface forwarding)? Which is more efficient in VB6 on COM+ - the
Newoperator orCreateObject? Plus, the biggy - is VB6 Object Oriented? Anyway - those are just some of the things off the top of my head - there are a lot more you can ask.Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
Good luck with getting contractors with such a diverse set of technologies.
I was going to say, not sure if there are many people out there that can cover all of those areas. I've got a majority of them, but not ALL.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
Good luck with getting contractors with such a diverse set of technologies.
I was going to say, not sure if there are many people out there that can cover all of those areas. I've got a majority of them, but not ALL.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
It shows how much of an easy lay I've been as a programmer that I can tick all those boxes. Ho hum.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Understanding your comments, this was 'proposed' to me late last week. Oh, by the way... can you get a skill competency test ready for a candidate by the middle of next week? That is in between all of the other production issues you're currently dealing with.... I know what we need them to know, it getting to the point that they can PROVE they know it. Saying you understand something is different than showing that you understand it. Tim
Tim Carmichael wrote:
Oh, by the way... can you get a skill competency test ready for a candidate by the middle of next week?
I can do it in an hour if it's going to save me oodles of work in the long run, best of all I know *exactly* what I would want them to know so no worries. Perhaps he who proposed it can make the test. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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It shows how much of an easy lay I've been as a programmer that I can tick all those boxes. Ho hum.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
:laugh: I can take care of all, except for the Alpha VMS or Ingress II.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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:laugh: I can take care of all, except for the Alpha VMS or Ingress II.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
Paul Conrad wrote:
except for the Alpha VMS or Ingress II
Done that - also Ingres 1.2, the horror.... No row level locking in Ingres 1.2 - had to wait for II for that.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Paul Conrad wrote:
except for the Alpha VMS or Ingress II
Done that - also Ingres 1.2, the horror.... No row level locking in Ingres 1.2 - had to wait for II for that.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Well, the Alpha VMS, now that I recall, I did have a very slight intro to it at the university about 12 years ago. So slight, that I vaguely remember it :-O
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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We are looking to bring in some contractors as application developers, but would like to give them a competency test to be completed on site. Our environment is a mix of old and new: Windows Server 2000 and 2003 SQLServer 2000 and 2005 VB 6 ASP (classic and .NET) VS.NET 2005 COM+ Alpha VMS with Fortran and Ingres II Type of questions to ask or links to example tests would be much appreciated. (Edit to add other areas) Tim
Give them a blank machine with nothing but Windows installed and have them get both an ASP.NET and ASP hello world application up and running that gets users from an SQL server database that is hosted on another machine (but of course you have configured not to allow remote connections) COM+ I wouldn't be a stickler on as it is such a PITA I have forgotten all I ever wanted to know about it. Focus instead on COM, have them create a COM components from withing C++ and use it in VB6. The tests I have provided will eliminate all of your candidates unfortunately and I didn't even hit on Alpha VMS and Fortran.
Need a C# Consultant? I'm available.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -- Ernest Hemingway -
Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you change directories in VMS? Go to a parent dir? What's the syntax and how does it compare to Windows?
$ set default $ set default [-]Jim Crafton wrote:
How to set env symbols in VMS.
$ define foo barJim Crafton wrote:
What does typing "foobar.exe" in a VMS console do?
Not heckuva lot. Try
$run foobarinstead.Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you get help with the command line on VMS?
Would you believe...
$ help! The stuff I remember from 28 years ago... :) [Edit] Look what you made me dig up: this[^] and this[^]. :-D [/Edit] /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
$ set default $ set default [-]
I remember back when I was in college (12 or so years ago) I actually preferred this over unix or dos.
John
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Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you change directories in VMS? Go to a parent dir? What's the syntax and how does it compare to Windows?
$ set default $ set default [-]Jim Crafton wrote:
How to set env symbols in VMS.
$ define foo barJim Crafton wrote:
What does typing "foobar.exe" in a VMS console do?
Not heckuva lot. Try
$run foobarinstead.Jim Crafton wrote:
How do you get help with the command line on VMS?
Would you believe...
$ help! The stuff I remember from 28 years ago... :) [Edit] Look what you made me dig up: this[^] and this[^]. :-D [/Edit] /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Damn, the memories that brings up. I use to write entire applications in VMS DCL.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
Damn, the memories that brings up. I use to write entire applications in VMS DCL.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^]Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
I use to write entire applications in VMS DCL.
Fer sure! My coup de grace was
DiscMan.COM, a disk management utility written in DCL, published in The DEC Professional in 1983 for the princely sum of $50. :) /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
I use to write entire applications in VMS DCL.
Fer sure! My coup de grace was
DiscMan.COM, a disk management utility written in DCL, published in The DEC Professional in 1983 for the princely sum of $50. :) /raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
Awesome. My crowning achievement was a code generator written in DCL. We had a simulation project that was required to be written in FORTRAN-77. We wanted to use some of the VAX FORTRAN extensions, so I wrote a code generator that would convert some of the VAX FORTRAN stuff to FORTRAN-77 equivalents. We developed and debugged everything in VAX FORTRAN, ran the code generator, and then re-ran our acceptance tests on the generated code. The code generator turned 60,000 lines of VAX FORTRAN into 100,000+ lines of FORTRAN-77. Of course, it took several hours on our microVAX to do this, but it was still cool.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
Awesome. My crowning achievement was a code generator written in DCL. We had a simulation project that was required to be written in FORTRAN-77. We wanted to use some of the VAX FORTRAN extensions, so I wrote a code generator that would convert some of the VAX FORTRAN stuff to FORTRAN-77 equivalents. We developed and debugged everything in VAX FORTRAN, ran the code generator, and then re-ran our acceptance tests on the generated code. The code generator turned 60,000 lines of VAX FORTRAN into 100,000+ lines of FORTRAN-77. Of course, it took several hours on our microVAX to do this, but it was still cool.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^]Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
a code generator written in DCL.
$ DUA0:[THATS.VERY]COOL.COM ! a comment :)/raviMy new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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We are looking to bring in some contractors as application developers, but would like to give them a competency test to be completed on site. Our environment is a mix of old and new: Windows Server 2000 and 2003 SQLServer 2000 and 2005 VB 6 ASP (classic and .NET) VS.NET 2005 COM+ Alpha VMS with Fortran and Ingres II Type of questions to ask or links to example tests would be much appreciated. (Edit to add other areas) Tim
Not exactly competency related but my favorite question to ask is what project they are working on at home. In my experience most good developers have some project they hammer away at on the side for training, fun, or profit. Their best skills will often shine through in their side projects.
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How do you change directories in VMS? Go to a parent dir? What's the syntax and how does it compare to Windows? Compare and contrast the Windows file/folder security to VMS's? Any similarities? (they should pick up on the fact that there most certainly are). How to set env symbols in VMS. What does typing "foobar.exe" in a VMS console do? What is an alternate approach/syntax to running an executable? How do you get help with the command line on VMS? And most importantly: Do you like Unix? (there's only one right answer...)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Well, ya see... I have this CD.COM that hides the details... so I just type
CD somedir,CD somelogical,CD .., etc. I was asked once, when applying for an OpenVMS System Manager position, something like; "What's the syntax for changing such-and-such on a printer queue?" But of course at my previous job I not only had COM files, I had defined keys to work as mini-macroes, and I couldn't actually remember the syntax?! Have I mentioned that I have two AlphaServers running OpenVMS 8.3? -
Well, ya see... I have this CD.COM that hides the details... so I just type
CD somedir,CD somelogical,CD .., etc. I was asked once, when applying for an OpenVMS System Manager position, something like; "What's the syntax for changing such-and-such on a printer queue?" But of course at my previous job I not only had COM files, I had defined keys to work as mini-macroes, and I couldn't actually remember the syntax?! Have I mentioned that I have two AlphaServers running OpenVMS 8.3?Cool! We have a number of OpenVMS machines, from old VAX machines that amazingly still run!, to Alphas, to the newer Itanium models. It's been an eye opening experience using them, and I've even had the chance to do a bit of system programming on them.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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We are looking to bring in some contractors as application developers, but would like to give them a competency test to be completed on site. Our environment is a mix of old and new: Windows Server 2000 and 2003 SQLServer 2000 and 2005 VB 6 ASP (classic and .NET) VS.NET 2005 COM+ Alpha VMS with Fortran and Ingres II Type of questions to ask or links to example tests would be much appreciated. (Edit to add other areas) Tim
It would be helpful to know what sort of application you expect the contractors to develop, but in general, if he/she can program in any language with any level of competence, you can expect passable performance. Ask general questions, not platform/language-specific ones. If you eliminate candidates because they haven't worked in your peculiar environment, you probably will lose a few super-stars because of your own stupidity. Anyone who truly loves programming can pick up a new language or operating system in a few weeks; total immersion on-the-job training is extremely effective. I've had jobs, while a full-time employee, in which I had to master three operating systems and four languages in a span of six months. It was easy to do, because it was my job to do it and I loved what I was doing. Look for reasoning/ problem-solving skills, rather than platform-specific experience, and keep the manuals handy at the newby's desk. A history of problems solved is far more important than what environments have been experienced.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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We are looking to bring in some contractors as application developers, but would like to give them a competency test to be completed on site. Our environment is a mix of old and new: Windows Server 2000 and 2003 SQLServer 2000 and 2005 VB 6 ASP (classic and .NET) VS.NET 2005 COM+ Alpha VMS with Fortran and Ingres II Type of questions to ask or links to example tests would be much appreciated. (Edit to add other areas) Tim
How about "What is a VMS Logical Name and when do you use them?" If they don't know the answer, then they can't possibly understand VMS. Another good question -- if you were asked to develop a VB application that could talk to an OpenVMS back end, how would you do it? There's a few different ways to do it (sockets, Telnet, or Serial Communications) are the three primary ways they should think about it. Walt