Pointless tech interview questions again!

[TestMangler]

Here we go again.

Phone interview (least it wasnt face to face time waster!). Small company, turns out to be more of a junior role than I've done but hey ho.

Guy asks me loads of specific (to them) tech questions. Really in depth stuff.

Must admit I was a bit put out. I really don't see the point in asking patronising questions when, as you can see from my CV, I've done more senior roles for 15-20 years for large household names. Surely if I was clueless I wouldnt have been around for this long?

Im sure this has been done before - so I dont know the command off the top of my head. So what? I can google it in 3 secs.

Best thing was the rate seems to have taken a dive for the worse since I first spoke to agency Im sure. Waste of time.....

You are clueless and you're still around. Go figure !!

[CloudWalker]

Had an interview once and the guy asked me What is USB ?
"true story"

[northernladuk]

Not me anyway. Not really my thing. But as you suggest, I dont think I'm what they're looking for anyway.

Yep, they were looking for someone professional and capable that can do the job.

[original PM]

You will find this in some companies

1) If a permy ends up bringing in the wrong contractor on £500 per day he /she will be in trouble with big boss so they need to do some ass covering in terms of ensuring they have asked all the right questions at interview.

2) Nowadays you will find that more and more people rise to be middle management on account of the pole choking skills and not because they are good in their field thus they may be good at managing and motivating people but have no idea how to actually do the job of the staff that work for them.

3) You will always get some tool who gets a power trip from interviews and loves showing others how knowledgable they really are...

either way if you want the gig just suck it up dude.

[northernladuk]

Had an interview once and the guy asked me What is USB ?
"true story"

I hope to god you didn't give them the Urban Dictionary descriptions..

USB

USB

[northernladyuk]

I hope to god you didn't give them the Urban Dictionary descriptions..

USB

USB

It worked for you in your last interview.

[vwdan]

I hate technical interviews because I fluster and, to be honest, I suck at remembering the 'facts and figures' questions that people love to ask when they're trying to prove themselves - "What port is xxx" or "How many connections can [x] support" etc. But I had a good one recently - a bunch of nice "Easy if you really know it, impossible if you don't" general architecture questions but then he threw in a real corker. He asked me about doing something that I'd never ever considered and had never seen or heard of anyone doing it. I admitted outright I was making it up and explained my theory on how I'd do it, but I said I wouldn't recommend it. The interviewers laughed - "That's spot on. I like that question because it's unusual and sorts the blaggers from the engineers". Couldn't argue with it, really. (Got the job, of course)

[northernladuk]

It worked for you in your last interview.

Giving a USB or describing it?

[mudskipper]

Last time I was interviewing, I saw 5 people who claimed to know SQL Server well. Only one could tell me what the wildcard character was. None could tell me where you'd use the having clause.

No doubt they all thought my interview was pointless.

[original PM]

I hate technical interviews because I fluster and, to be honest, I suck at remembering the 'facts and figures' questions that people love to ask when they're trying to prove themselves - "What port is xxx" or "How many connections can [x] support" etc. But I had a good one recently - a bunch of nice "Easy if you really know it, impossible if you don't" general architecture questions but then he threw in a real corker. He asked me about doing something that I'd never ever considered and had never seen or heard of anyone doing it. I admitted outright I was making it up and explained my theory on how I'd do it, but I said I wouldn't recommend it. The interviewers laughed - "That's spot on. I like that question because it's unusual and sorts the blaggers from the engineers". Couldn't argue with it, really. (Got the job, of course)

This also

Often people are looking to remove the cocky smart a**es from the equation and you generally find that those people get the most upset when they are put on the spot and told to show their knoweldge.

You find what they do is take one conversation and keep twisting it until is about their niche skill and then try and make out they know more than veryone else.