Code Samples for a Job Interview
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Simply point them to the articles you have written for CP. Or tell them that you sell your code - how much are they willing to pay for it?
I did that,:thumbsup: got the job!:cool:
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
In this case I think I would * try to find code from my current job unrelated to business logic, more like library utilities, print it, and say that you cannot leave it with them * talk to the interviewer on the phone about my predicament. Chances are, you are up against hordes of kids with github repos galore. It could happen that they are spoiled with easily comparable candidates... I was 52 when I got my current job, I think without my github I wouldnt be here.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
- Create a repo on GitHub 2) Upload the following project
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
}
}- Include it in your application 4) Profit
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Do not, under any circumstances, give any code for a previous employer. Doing that is asking for trouble and may even be a trick question to see if you are reliable security person. If they cannot assess your abilities from the interview ,this does not speak highly for the company you applied to. If the interview went without anyone fron the SW Dept. being present is also a bad indicator. all in all, probably a bad employer.
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Munchies_Matt wrote:
I only do it if someone is paying
Me too. Coding at home would be like a dentist going home every night and practicing on his family and friends. I don't deal with clients. I have never worked for a code-for-hire shop (and don't plan to start now). I code for the needs of the company I work for, their web site, their intranet, their windows services, and now, their Salesforce implementation (yuck, and one of many reasons I'm leaving after 17 years here).
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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That's probably what I'll end up doing, though. I'm not a horrible programmer, I don't think I would have lasted 30 years in the biz if I wasn't at least decent at it (15 years is just how long I've been doing .NET).
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Unless the potential hire has been self-employed, I think most employers are going to find that there aren't too many people who have any code samples that they can legally show to anyone. Here's a thought: maybe it's an ethics test. If you actually do show them code that you wrote for your current employer then you fail.
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
TNCaver wrote:
Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company
Put it on a stick, show it during the interview. No copies, they don't need the entire code-base to judge your skills - a minute worth of browsing would do. Then ask them if you should keep their code on a public github :)
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Heh... I'm looking at this site and see the following at the bottom of the thread list.
Quote:
Last Visit: 31-Dec-99 19:00 Last Update: 8-Feb-18 3:29
With that, the forum code also cutoff the "La" of "Last" when I block quoted and I had to correct it. Perhaps if people spent a little more of their own time learning the trade that pays them, these types of silly mistakes wouldn't happen. And that brings us back to the subject of the original post. While I do whole heartedly agree that your job shouldn't be your entire life (especially if you have kids or are married), you DO need to spend some time learning your trade and that's what employers want to see because they're tired of people that can't even get a bloody date right. While I also agree that you shouldn't have to keep up a web-presence or list your code on the likes of Git-Hub, you should be prepared for an interview especially if you have 15 years experience like the OP does. It will also show them good common sense and respect on your part if you tell them that you respect the proprietary nature of a previous company's code but don't let that be a barrier to showing your stuff. After all, you're on an interview to determine if you have the skills to do your job. And, no... the stuff you put on your resume isn't enough. That's just the proverbial "knock on the door". Too many people either exaggerate their knowledge or flat out lie on resumes. During one run of interviews of both experience web developers (with good knowledge of T-SQL) and DBAs (all claimed at least 10 years of experience on their resumes), 20 out of 22 couldn't answer the simple question of how to get the current date and time. I had originally started asking the question as a simple ice-breaker question to help the candidates relax. Little did I know it was going to me the litmus test for how the rest of the interview was going to go. Out of that same batch of people, only 1 DBA knew anything about how to do native backups and restores (and no... I do NOT ask for the precise syntax). One of the people also claimed to be an expert T-SQL performance tuner (again, with more than 10 years experience). When I asked him about clustered indexes (and, no, I didn't make this up. It's just too silly to even think of such a thing) he told me that he never worked with them because he had never worked with clustered servers. Employers are sick and tired of wasting time on people that don't actually have
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
I have always had a code portfolio that shows examples of my code and documentation. All of it comes from code I have written and various places I have worked and none of it reveals company information. Just pull a method from some class that shows how you have solved a problem such as transposing data from object to another or filling a list box. It should be the kinds of things you would do regardless of where you work.
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Tell them you would show them after they showed you some examples of people they hired in their hobby time. If you have to prove how much you like your job outside of work hours, then HR should at least do the same for you.
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
I would let them know those 2 facts, and ask if there is something else you can bring. They may simply want to see your coding standards in action. To me, the appearance of your code tells me a lot about the quality of your code. It also tells me a lot about how you communicate. Simply be prepared to find other ways to communicate. Also be prepared to discuss your code review processes, and your bug fix ratios. We strive for ZERO defects after release. But 1 defect in 3-6 months is acceptable. We can guess the stability based on the number of lines of code changed in the stabilization/test period before we go live. And I find it RUDE to ask for code that belongs to another client!
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Never share previous employers code -- I testified as an expert witness against a programmer that did share code and he got one yr and a felony charge. Also, as far as writing your own code I made the mistake of writing a working piece of code to solve their problem that they used and did not get hired. I will take their tests but provide no new code unless I get paid. The company was obviously looking for a code fix and not interested in hiring. I was not the first one they pulled this on I later found out.
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Tell them you would show them after they showed you some examples of people they hired in their hobby time. If you have to prove how much you like your job outside of work hours, then HR should at least do the same for you.
:laugh: While that would be satisfying, I don't think it would win me any points. Besides, I am being contacted by the head of the IT department I'd be working for, and arranging the interview with his assistant. Looks like HR isn't involved for this one.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Unless you're going to throw together some code quickly for them to peruse, why not just tell them the truth -- you don't have a GitHub repository because your hobbies don't include programming, but rather you have hobbies that get you physically and mentally away from work as you find it yields a better work/life balance for you and helps keep you from getting burned out. Whatever you do, don't steal code from work and pass it off as yours, even if you're the only one who ever had a hand in writing it. Fact is, you sounds like you're currently employed, so you don't actually need their job. If they can't work with you on this point, are you sure they're someone you want to work for?
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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- Create a repo on GitHub 2) Upload the following project
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
}
}- Include it in your application 4) Profit
-
Do not, under any circumstances, give any code for a previous employer. Doing that is asking for trouble and may even be a trick question to see if you are reliable security person. If they cannot assess your abilities from the interview ,this does not speak highly for the company you applied to. If the interview went without anyone fron the SW Dept. being present is also a bad indicator. all in all, probably a bad employer.
-
Heh... I'm looking at this site and see the following at the bottom of the thread list.
Quote:
Last Visit: 31-Dec-99 19:00 Last Update: 8-Feb-18 3:29
With that, the forum code also cutoff the "La" of "Last" when I block quoted and I had to correct it. Perhaps if people spent a little more of their own time learning the trade that pays them, these types of silly mistakes wouldn't happen. And that brings us back to the subject of the original post. While I do whole heartedly agree that your job shouldn't be your entire life (especially if you have kids or are married), you DO need to spend some time learning your trade and that's what employers want to see because they're tired of people that can't even get a bloody date right. While I also agree that you shouldn't have to keep up a web-presence or list your code on the likes of Git-Hub, you should be prepared for an interview especially if you have 15 years experience like the OP does. It will also show them good common sense and respect on your part if you tell them that you respect the proprietary nature of a previous company's code but don't let that be a barrier to showing your stuff. After all, you're on an interview to determine if you have the skills to do your job. And, no... the stuff you put on your resume isn't enough. That's just the proverbial "knock on the door". Too many people either exaggerate their knowledge or flat out lie on resumes. During one run of interviews of both experience web developers (with good knowledge of T-SQL) and DBAs (all claimed at least 10 years of experience on their resumes), 20 out of 22 couldn't answer the simple question of how to get the current date and time. I had originally started asking the question as a simple ice-breaker question to help the candidates relax. Little did I know it was going to me the litmus test for how the rest of the interview was going to go. Out of that same batch of people, only 1 DBA knew anything about how to do native backups and restores (and no... I do NOT ask for the precise syntax). One of the people also claimed to be an expert T-SQL performance tuner (again, with more than 10 years experience). When I asked him about clustered indexes (and, no, I didn't make this up. It's just too silly to even think of such a thing) he told me that he never worked with them because he had never worked with clustered servers. Employers are sick and tired of wasting time on people that don't actually have
Jeff Moden wrote:
While I do whole heartedly agree that your job shouldn't be your entire life (especially if you have kids or are married), you DO need to spend some time learning your trade and that's what employers want to see because they're tired of people that can't even get a bloody date right.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't wan't to show anyone the code I write when I'm learning something. Its typically code of the worst sort because it is one time use throw-away code. Maintainability and elegant design are not the focus, learning is. I find that maintainability, elegant design and polish are my value add -- they're what I can bring to the table beyond simple mastery of the topic, but they don't really kick in until the third project I do, and by then, I'm typically doing it for an employer and don't retain any rights to that work.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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I've received an email from a prospective employer inviting me to set up a job interview. A note at the end requests a link to my GitHub code repo or sample code/projects prior to the interview. I don't have a personal GitHub repo or code samples because, unlike probably most here, I no longer do programming as a hobby on my own time. Everything I've done in the last 15 years that the interviewer would be interested in is proprietary code I've written for my current employer, and I don't feel comfortable sharing that outside the company, even though the two industries are not related by any stretch of the imagination, so they wouldn't be able to benefit. What would you do in this situation? Rewrite some of your code to remove any hints of its purpose or value to your employer? Write new code?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Ask them for a problem, and solve it in front of the interviewer. If the interviewer doesn't praise your idea, don't even consider applying for such a company.
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Jeff Moden wrote:
While I do whole heartedly agree that your job shouldn't be your entire life (especially if you have kids or are married), you DO need to spend some time learning your trade and that's what employers want to see because they're tired of people that can't even get a bloody date right.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't wan't to show anyone the code I write when I'm learning something. Its typically code of the worst sort because it is one time use throw-away code. Maintainability and elegant design are not the focus, learning is. I find that maintainability, elegant design and polish are my value add -- they're what I can bring to the table beyond simple mastery of the topic, but they don't really kick in until the third project I do, and by then, I'm typically doing it for an employer and don't retain any rights to that work.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
Yeah... strongly agreed. You mistook what I said. It's not the "learning" code that they want to see. They want to see that you're taking the time to learn. Once you've learned how to do something, then turn it into a formal but still personal bit of code and use it as an example of your work. I totally agree on the ideas of maintainable code, elegant design, and polish will set folks well apart from those that don't practice those ideas. Again, the chance to shine in those areas is the demonstrable code you send them when they request it. Of course, this should be YOUR code... not the code that an employer has proprietary rights to or anything else that would violate an NDA, Covenant not to compete, or ethics in general.
--Jeff Moden