Interviews - The other side...

[vetran]

Does it help me get my truck from A to B.

nope but unlike sat nav its not responsible for lowering your IQ to the point you like parking on train tracks.

[XTC]

Most people "big" their CV a bit. There is nothing hard in programming providing one has the mindset and the interest. It is much more important that the guy has the right attitude. These skills can be picked up easily if one has experience of general programming.

Have you ever wondered why at school or university the teacher just doesn't test you on what *they* know ?

Yeah I agree and I think that overly technical interviews sometimes don't bring the best out of people that work in IT. I've flunked certain interviews because I didn't answer a couple of bonehead questions which I knew the answer to but panicked, but I know I could have done the job standing on my head with my thumb up my @rse. However I think in this instance the guy blantantly lied and was found out. Sure embellish your CV a little, but if you are going to put down out and out b/s make sure you can talk your way out.

[tim123]

what the compiler direct PASCAL is used for

That's a bit unfair. I don't think I've ever used this in 20 years of using C, it was probable de facto obsolete at least 10 years ago and someone who's only claiming 10 years experience could easily not know.

tim

[XTC]

That's a bit unfair. I don't think I've ever used this in 20 years of using C, it was probable de facto obsolete at least 10 years ago and someone who's only claiming 10 years experience could easily not know.

tim

Very valid point Tim

CUK folk 2 Churchill 0

[tim123]

The guy has lied on his CV and been found out.

I don't think that you can make this assertion at all.

Just because someone's knowledge of a lanugaue doesn't enable him to pass your little test, doesn't mean that he lacking the experience that he claims, just that he lacks the experience that you need.

How broad is your test?[1] How much of it is based upon obscure features that many development shops ban the use of[2]? How many questions did he get right?

[1] I recently did a test where almost 50% of the questions were about the specifics of parameters of C library functions. I don't carry that information around in my head. If I want to use a library function, I look its parameters up in the book. Does that mean that I don't have (nearly) 20 years experience of writing C? This test seemed to suggest so

[2]. I was once asked a (paper) question on the comma operator. I replied that I considered the comma operator a confusing unnecessarity (except inside a for statement) and would not wish to work in an environment that didn't actively discourage their staff from using it and as such had no idea what the answer was, and even less intention of finding out.

tim

[XTC]

I don't think that you can make this assertion at all.

Just because someone's knowledge of a lanugaue doesn't enable him to pass your little test, doesn't mean that he lacking the experience that he claims, just that he lacks the experience that you need.

How broad is your test?[1] How much of it is based upon obscure features that many development shops ban the use of[2]? How many questions did he get right?

[1] I recently did a test where almost 50% of the questions were about the specifics of parameters of C library functions. I don't carry that information around in my head. If I want to use a library function, I look its parameters up in the book. Does that mean that I don't have (nearly) 20 years experience of writing C? This test seemed to suggest so

[2]. I was once asked a (paper) question on the comma operator. I replied that I considered the comma operator a confusing unnecessarity (except inside a for statement) and would not wish to work in an environment that didn't actively discourage their staff from using it and as such had no idea what the answer was, and even less intention of finding out.

tim

Well I was going on Churchill's post and he implied that the guy had lied. I have no idea as I haven't seen the guys CV.

[tim123]

This message is hidden because TheOmegaMan is on your ignore list.

so unhide it then, you lazy idiot.

tim

[Churchill]

That's a bit unfair. I don't think I've ever used this in 20 years of using C, it was probable de facto obsolete at least 10 years ago and someone who's only claiming 10 years experience could easily not know.

tim

It's not obsolete. Think Win32!

Would you expect someone who has 4 years of developing software in a Win32 environment to know what the PASCAL keyword does?

The guy said he had experience of developing software under Win32. When tested he couldn't back up the assertion.

[TheOmegaMan]

All this proves is that you are not "fit" to judge other people. You believe obscure technical features are the key to success in software development. Your mentality seeks elitism through trivia and in the process you make software that is unmaintainable, obscure, and overly complex.

[tim123]

It's not obsolete. Think Win32!

Would you expect someone who has 4 years of developing software in a Win32 environment to know what the PASCAL keyword does?

Is it still required to write win32 code? Even if it is, I don't see why it is expected that someone should know any more than, "it's required to make win32 code work".

And surely this should have been optimised out of windows development, in the same way that having to export all of your new windows was. If it hasn't been, why not? IIRC all it achieves is something compiler optimisation can do?

BTW, if you're having such a problem recruiting, can I have the job?

tim