How To Show Code Samples?

Todd writes "I've been looking around at 'help wanted' advertisements for programming jobs, and almost all of them demand that you not only have professional experience, but also that you show samples of your work. This got me wondering; with the work product, trade secret, and non-disclosure laws/agreements, how exactly can you show work that you've done in a professional capacity to a prospective employer without violating the privacy of the company for which the code was written? For instance, I can't say I've written many BASH scripts (at least, not large ones) for myself personally, but the assortment of such scripts written for my current job is wide and varied indeed. I can't very well just deliver these scripts, or even small portions thereof, to third parties to help demonstrate my scripting prowess. With that in mind, what am I supposed to show them?"

Comments

Be smart

[snoyberg]

what am I supposed to show them?

Someone else's code

Good Point

[Dallas Caley]

Like the other day, i was interviewing for a job and i said, "Well you know i did all the coding for Amazon.com right? but you see i can't show any of it to you because of the non-disclosure agreement"

For some reason i still haven't gotten a call back...

Re:Good Point

[hedronist]

Not to one-up you :-), but we use to have the NSA as customers (not something I'm particularly proud of, but they were about the only people that understood the need for similarity-based full-text retrieval in 1987, so ...) Anywho, they are the perfect no-comment referral customer because they will neither confirm nor deny that they even know you, let alone use your software. The funny thing was that people would take our word for it because they knew the NSA wasn't going to say anything.

1000 lines of good code

[Animats]

I used to ask applicants for 1000 lines of C++ they were proud of. Sometimes you get something really beautiful. Something that's at least decently designed and looks reliable is essential.

I've been known to send such samples back with "Your first buffer overflow is on line 42. Thank you for your interest." I couldn't afford to deal with sloppy coders in a hard real time environment.

Dress and accessorize for your interview

[tomhudson]

Standing up there shaking while sweating in a suit

Show some confidence - don't wear a suit to the interview.

A good-quality shirt if you're a PC, a turtleneck if you're a mac, a T-shirt if you're linux, or a leather jacket if you're *bsd.

Slacks if you're a PC, black jeans if you're a mac or *bsd, blue jeans if you're linux.

Dress shoes if you're a PC, loafers if you're a mac, runners if you're linux, boots or sandals if you're *bsd.

No hat if you're a PC, a kepi if you're a mac, a ballcap if you're linux (a red one if you're Fedora/RHEL), and a shaved head if you're *bsd.

A briefcase if you're a PC, a leather portfolio if you're a mac, a softsider if you're linux, and a pull-behind carrying a 4u server if you're *bsd.

A crackberry if you're a PC, an iPhone if you're a mac, any flip-phone if you're linux, Chuck Norris if you're *bsd.

Your resume in Word if you're a PC, as a video clip if you're a mac, in openoffice if you're linux, and 7-bit clean ASCII if you're *bsd.

Hide your Zune if you're a PC, subtly show off your iPod if you're a mac, wow them with streamripper if you're linux, and run a script to make the sound of the drive heads seeking play "Take this job and shove it!" if you're *bsd.

A business card if you're a PC, a mini-dvd if you're a mac, a bootable distro dvd with customized splash screen, borwser, etc., if you're linux, your phone number and email address on the back of a beer coaster if you're *bsd.

Coca-cola if you're a PC, bottled water if you're a mac, real beer (not that 5% piss) if you're linux, shots if you're *bsd.

Re:brainfuck?

[moosesocks]

If you really want to throw them in a tizzy, do it in Whitespace (BF implemented using spaces, tabs, and carriage returns.)

Of course, turn it in as a printed copy.