When; does your CV start to speak / do you stop getting asked the basics??

**SueEllen** · 22 July 2010, 09:50

Originally posted by nfoote View Post

Do interviewers ever stop asking lame basic questions that reveal nothing about your ability as a developer but do reveal the fact they didn't believe a single thing you wrote on your CV?

The answer from the various people I spoke to and my own experience is "NO".

Unfortunately lots of people don't know how to interview.

**moorfield** · 22 July 2010, 09:54

Doing a telephone interview tomorrow. I will be seriously irritated if it becomes an exercise in how much I have memorized from a text book and can recite back to the interviewer - or mostly can't in my case.

**Scrag Meister** · 22 July 2010, 10:10

I've programmed various flavours of Basic for 23 years and for my recent contract, started 2 months ago, was still asked "What is Option Explicit", "How do you determine the size of an array", "What is the syntax to setup error handling"

So in my experience they will always start low and head higher.

**northernladuk** · 22 July 2010, 10:22

I can't comment on techie type CV's but even with Service management work they ask the basics about why do you need change management etc.. I have ITIL FFS I answered this one and got the cert so you don't need to ask.. but go along with it anyway. You can have 10+ years or 3+ years. They don't care, they want someone to do the job in hand. Lets face it, what you did 5+ years ago, even 3 years ago for us doddery old gits has been well forgotten by now and even if not is well out of date anyway. I am sure the client doesn't care if we were admin on the largest mini computer in the North West!

I am happy to pander to this as they want some that can do a particular job. Not a good guy that could do it given the chance. That is the permie way. If they want to make sure I am the man by asking me what change management in then fair enough. I don't really care if they ignore the rest of my CV to be honest.

**dynamicsaxcontractor** · 22 July 2010, 10:43

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

I can't comment on techie type CV's but even with Service management work they ask the basics about why do you need change management etc.. I have ITIL FFS I answered this one and got the cert so you don't need to ask.. but go along with it anyway. You can have 10+ years or 3+ years. They don't care, they want someone to do the job in hand. Lets face it, what you did 5+ years ago, even 3 years ago for us doddery old gits has been well forgotten by now and even if not is well out of date anyway. I am sure the client doesn't care if we were admin on the largest mini computer in the North West!

I am happy to pander to this as they want some that can do a particular job. Not a good guy that could do it given the chance. That is the permie way. If they want to make sure I am the man by asking me what change management in then fair enough. I don't really care if they ignore the rest of my CV to be honest.

Worst is when someone at the interview starts asking you detailed questions about a project you did 10 years ago.... Have now left out everything older than 3 years on my CV and only mention recent projects.

**nfoote** · 22 July 2010, 10:57

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

what you did 5+ years ago, even 3 years ago for us doddery old gits has been well forgotten by now and even if not is well out of date anyway.

Originally posted by dynamicsaxcontractor View Post

Worst is when someone at the interview starts asking you detailed questions about a project you did 10 years ago.... Have now left out everything older than 3 years on my CV and only mention recent projects.

Ha yeah thats another annoying issue that I have still being a kinda young dev and applying for kinda lower level roles, a lot of adverts/agents ask about not only Maths/Comp Sci degree but about Math/English A Levels?!? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that HIGH SCHOOL?? Even for me that was almost 10 years ago (not to mention in a different country so I've got no idea how to compare A Levels to what I did). Who cares what you did at High School???

You can safely assume anything I did 10 years ago falls into one of two categories; A) Integrated into everyday life, like speaking English or breathing, or B) Unimportant for the direction my life took since then, therefore forgotten.

**nfoote** · 22 July 2010, 11:01

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

they want some that can do a particular job. Not a good guy that could do it given the chance.

True true I see this point, just seems to me they could cut half the interview out if they spent 3 minutes on the phone to one reference;
"Hi, is John Doe a real person?"
"Uh, yes.."
"Can he code?"
"Well we didn't pay him for 3 years to do anything else..."
*click*

**XperTest** · 22 July 2010, 11:02

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

I can't comment on techie type CV's but even with Service management work they ask the basics about why do you need change management etc.. I have ITIL FFS I answered this one and got the cert so you don't need to ask.. but go along with it anyway. You can have 10+ years or 3+ years. They don't care, they want someone to do the job in hand. Lets face it, what you did 5+ years ago, even 3 years ago for us doddery old gits has been well forgotten by now and even if not is well out of date anyway. I am sure the client doesn't care if we were admin on the largest mini computer in the North West!

I am happy to pander to this as they want some that can do a particular job. Not a good guy that could do it given the chance. That is the permie way. If they want to make sure I am the man by asking me what change management in then fair enough. I don't really care if they ignore the rest of my CV to be honest.

My area, test management, is the same. Most of the times the interviewer is the project or program manager, and they have a basic understanding of testing from past experience working with test managers, but they lack the detailed knowledge because it is an area they don't want to bother about. Most interviews I do are more about whether there is a fit in personalities than about my knowledge of testing methodology, which they assume (correctly) as a given.

**northernladuk** · 22 July 2010, 12:25

Originally posted by nfoote View Post

You can safely assume anything I did 10 years ago falls into one of two categories; A) Integrated into everyday life, like speaking English or breathing, or B) Unimportant for the direction my life took since then, therefore forgotten. C) Sitting on street corner with bottle of White Lightning and harrassing old ladies

Fixed that for you

When; does your CV start to speak / do you stop getting asked the basics??