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Where Should I Get My Job Interview Code Samples?
crlove asks: "I'm preparing for an upcoming job interview and my interviewer will want to see some code samples. Unfortunately, all of the coding I've done work-wise since college is not only proprietary, but often classified. To be honest, with long days at work and a busy life outside of it, I haven't had much time to code on my own. So, what should I show my interviewer? Should I start working up some code samples? If so, what would be considered sufficiently complex to take to an interview?"
Tell your employer that it is all classified. There is really nothing that you can do about it. It would be a breach of contract and could leave you in legal jeopardy if you showed any of it to him...
But the TSP has a solution. Tell him that you will code for him if he can give you a terse, yet challenging assignment. This will let him see what he wants to see (i.e., what he wants to test you on), and you're willing to take out a bit of your time just to show him that you're a hard worker. This strategy worked for me and landed me a job in the upper 80's!
I prefer to write a snippet of code on the board myself and ask the interviewee to interpret it. It can be difficult for people to come up with something on the fly during the pressure of an interview, but they should be able to follow the logic of a program written for them if they know the language (at least somewhat) and if they know anything about computational logic. I basically ask them to walk through the logic of whatever routine I put up on the board, and then ask them something specific about it (what will it print at the end, what is the value of variable x after execution, etc.).