Reply to: Technical Interview

[DimPrawn]

Does this mean I am a bad developer and shouldn't be hired?

Come on Suity, we have known you long enough to know you are not a bad developer.


Absolute tulip, yes, but not bad.

[greenlake]

Update on suity's job options. Belgian Air Component or Belgian press.

Only if he can pass the technical test....

[jamesbrown]

Crap reporting.

Update on suity's job options. Belgian Air Component or Belgian press.

[vetran]

Are you in marketing?

No he would have said it was a beautiful name meant to capture the essential wonder of the product.

[vetran]

Crap reporting.

The aircraft caught fire and caused the onboard ammunition to explode, damaging another aircraft close by and the hearing of a couple of ground crew.

ah that makes sense. I sort of assumed all the firing controls are disabled on the ground?

[Zigenare]

There's always the Belgian Air Component, suity.

Crap reporting.

The aircraft caught fire and caused the onboard ammunition to explode, damaging another aircraft close by and the hearing of a couple of ground crew.

[Zigenare]

That's the way to do it. I try to keep up with the jargon, but nine times out of ten it's a case of finding out that somebody has given a fancy name to something blindingly obvious, presumably to make it sound more impressive than it is, or possibly because they only learned about it in some purely academic setting rather than by writing code in the real world

This.

In the early days of C++ I was interviewed for an ICL project where they'd decided to implement in C++.

I'd done objected oriented courses, had plenty of experience with the Glockenspiel development environment - the C++ was precompiled to "C" and then recompiled using a "C" compiler.

Anyway, sat opposite me was the Project Manager and a Techie they'd hired from Finland.

The Techie started asking some really esoteric questions - Stroustrup might've struggled with some of these. I answered to the best of my ability in a way that the PM would understand. The Finnish guy was practically screaming at me by the end of the interview "No, you are not correct! It says here..." and that is when I turned to the PM and said "I am answering the questions in a manner that proves I understand the question, not as someone who has the C++ bible open in front of me. I am obviously wasting your time and to be quite frank, you're wasting mine. I'll show myself out!"

It happens.

Suck it up, move on.

But - and this is very important, don't piss on your shoes!

On a serious note, good luck with the next one.

[vwdan]

I had a technical phone interview last year. They asked a really open ended question (which I've now stolen) along the lines of 'Explain x and y in as much detail as you can' so I took a deep breath and imparted my knowledge onto them into excruciating detail.

Ten mins later I've got the agent on the phone sorting me a start date. Guy who asked it later admitted he was struggling not to laugh as I took the piss out of his question and left no doubt I knew my tulip.

So maybe try that?

[jamesbrown]

There's always the Belgian Air Component, suity.

[jamesbrown]

And that one time, it's a term dreamt up by Marketing that doesn't mean anything at all

Are you in marketing?

[vetran]

You have to take a marble statue (1000 kg) from one side of a swimming pool to the other using a rowing boat.

half way across, the statue falls out and sinks to the bottom. At the point the statue falls out of the boat, does the water level in the pool rise or fall ?

supplementary question What do you do after this?

Call the interviewer a muppet & leave the room.

[suityou01]

What is the surface area of the hull that was submerged before the statue fell, the dimensions of the boat, the total dissolved solids measurement of the pool water and does the leisure centre have fernox in its radiators?

You have to take a marble statue (1000 kg) from one side of a swimming pool to the other using a rowing boat.

half way across, the statue falls out and sinks to the bottom. At the point the statue falls out of the boat, does the water level in the pool rise or fall ?

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Contractor UK Forum mobile app

[TestMangler]

Second one I've had where it's an endless barrage of esoteric technical questions, the likes of which I honestly don't believe anyone I have ever worked with or anyone in my network would be able to answer.

I got around 80% of them right but the remaining 20% were in serious wft territory.

Seems to be the new norm, in which case studying up on deliberately arcane interview questions is a must for survival.

Anyone else had this?

Flame away, you can't make me feel worse.

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Contractor UK Forum mobile app

You have to take a marble statue (1000 kg) from one side of a swimming pool to the other using a rowing boat.

half way across, the statue falls out and sinks to the bottom. At the point the statue falls out of the boat, does the water level in the pool rise or fall ?

[NickFitz]

And one time out of ten it isn't.

And that one time, it's a term dreamt up by Marketing that doesn't mean anything at all

[jamesbrown]

That's the way to do it. I try to keep up with the jargon, but nine times out of ten it's a case of finding out that somebody has given a fancy name to something blindingly obvious, presumably to make it sound more impressive than it is, or possibly because they only learned about it in some purely academic setting rather than by writing code in the real world

And one time out of ten it isn't.