Strange phone interview

[Batcher]

I get the impression you've just done an A level ICT student's homework, rather than had an interview.

Or a client who couldn't find the answer to a problem on Google so set up a phone interview with an expert to sort it

[northernladuk]

IMO the client heard you had a Welsh accent so not wanting to be rude and slam the phone down he asked you some questions... and then slammed the phone down.

[TheFaQQer]

I get the impression you've just done an A level ICT student's homework, rather than had an interview.

Possibly not even as high as an A level.

[vwdan]

My first contractor tech interview was with a bob agency (Lesson learnt) and consisted of me being bounced round a bunch of people while they asked deep technical questions about old technology. I got bored by the end and ended up having a row over the last question because how they asked it made no sense.

The last tech interview I had couldn't have been any more different - conducted by a techie who asked some really interesting architectural questions and then threw in a fun one that noone would ever actually do, but could be answered if you knew how things worked underneath the "Next next next" stuff.

I'm pretty crap at tech interviews overall, though - I'm not good at remembering facts and figures.

What I'm seeing on LinkedIn recently though is people going to groups pages and asking "Can I have some interview questions for [tech]?" and then a bunch of people bend over backwards to outdo themselves with totally impractical questions. It's pretty sad and I feel for those on the receiving side.

[jmo21]

I've had a mix since I started contracting.

Some really low level questions, and some general chat type interviews.

current contract was a pleasant 40 minute phone chat with the dev manager about the high level development process, what we thought worked, didn't work, some things we agreed on, others we didn't, and finally some questions about what I did on my last contract.

[SpontaneousOrder]

It does make me laugh I was talking to one of the permies here who is leaving Friday to become a contractor and he told me in the interview for the role they asked him what polymorphism was. The guy is a Dev-in-Test so basically you use a more limited subset of any language to automate and the thing is if you're self taught you could basically be using something without knowing it's technical name or terminology. Suffice to say he got the role but the fact they even asked that baffles me and makes me wonder if anyone clearly knows what they are on about.

I don't see how you could be a dev in test without knowing what polymorphism is. That sounds more like a tester who is a bit technical and can do some automation - but that's often how the automated tests end up a a complete nightmare of a tangled mess.

Dev in test is a proper developer who focuses on test automation for that role.

[Pondlife]

IMO the client heard you had a Welsh accent so not wanting to be rude and slam the phone down he asked you some questions... and then slammed the phone down.

<cough>

[7specialgems]

Had some strange ones but this really was weird.

Did not want to even discuss CV, past work or anything like that. Just had a set of 50 technical questions. All along the lines of 'whats the command for xyz'..

You took an API quiz instead of an interview?

These sort of "interviews" do make me laugh. I was offered the job over the phone once and had a good 18 month stint off the back of one of these.

In my experience, if a client's measure of a good contractor is to see how much of an API you've memorised, I think you're in for a soft gig.

The question becomes...is that what you want?

[tomtomagain]

The question becomes...is that what you want?

And the answer is ..... depends what the daily rate is.

[7specialgems]

And the answer is ..... depends what the daily rate is.

That was my conclusion when I was in this situation as well

As it was, the rate was fantastic, the permanent talent was not, I put a shift in and invested early-on in big fat headphones to block out the utter superstars that interviewed me whilst I kept them happy and made sure that I didn't lose my market edge at the same time.