I was about to mod this up, but I just had to stop by and comment on this discussion...
Hi, I'm from Europe. From socially liberal Scandinavia, in particular. Since the 70's, we have aired complete nudity (not just tits), sexual acts and just about any swear word in prime time public tv (yeah, we have a couple of state owned channels, omg!). Violent movies get shown on late night, very violent movies not at all. In movie theaters, violence usually gets the movie a higher rating than in the US but nudity or sexual content barely affects the age limit.
We have, let's see, lower crime rates in general, lower rates of violent crimes, lower rates of teen pregnancy and lower rates of STDs on teens. Our kids do pretty well in school. School aged children can safely walk the streets of our cities.
I'm not saying it all comes from having sex on the tv, but the attitudes of our society are pretty different.
Oh, and I'm personally an active member of the conservative party in my country. There's no discussion at all about getting that stuff off the tv. I don't know a single member in our party who would want that.
I keep being amazed at the amount of fear americans have in swear words and sexual content. What causes the huge difference between EU and US?
I installed 7.04 on my one year old laptop yesterday just to see if I could finally get away from Windows on normal daily home desktop use.
Turned out the GUI version installation CD didn't work with my hardware (ok), so I had to download the alternative install CD. It didn't recognize my dhcp during the install (ok). After the installation, Gnome didn't start because it told me I had no monitor at all (ok). After RTFM, I got the network to work by simply telling it to use dhcp in the config file and Gnome began to work with new drivers and some config tweaking as well.
So the GUI works, everything seems to be in order, I figure Windows and OSX have been able to use wlan in laptops for years so I try to turn it on here. Great, it sees my wlan, now I just enter my passphrase and select WPA2 from this menu... wait, why is there only WEP available?
RTFM tells it all: "Ubuntu does not automatically support WPA encryption"
I mean, it's 2007! Almost 2008! And this thing is telling me that in order to use Linux in my home I should remove any encryption from my wlan? And that I could try to go through a lengthy installation of WPA with tweaking config files again, but even the guide tells me that "sometimes WPA just won't work".
This is hardly universal. There's no way a job candidate can demonstrate to me their technical competence without a thorough technical interview. Resumes are worthless for this; certifications even more so, though at least they offer some entertainment value. Specific technical questions can be a different matter, if they are viewed as necessary. If someone is about to be chosen for a job we (after asking a permission) phone through their previous employers for their opinion. Making false statements in your resume is also a fraud, grounds for immediate dismissal and suing for lost time and money.:)
I have to admit though that most of the interviews I take part are not for jobs in the IT.
I want to hear your immediate answer to the question, not some mealy-mouthed creation of what you think I want to hear (the answer you gave, unlike the truth, requires a few seconds of thought. Do you really think I expect you to require a few moments to compose your answer to "What do you do every morning of your life? Please). An immediate answer to an unexpected question would be either memorized or the first thing the subject can think. A really honest answer would need one or two seconds to come up with. Besides, we are not expecting you to simply sit there quietly and think about your answer - we want to see you act like you would in a speculative future situation with your future client or coworker.
(making a quick judgement) "Well, coffee." *smile/grin/little laughter* "Yes, definitely coffee... after I have my nice, steamy cup in my hands I would..." *serious face, professional tone*
You get the idea. 4-6 seconds to form your answer and you can even be honest.
Politic bullshitting like the answer you described (not too honest) will drop you from consideration. We interview lawyers, too.;) And sales people.
And what happens the day you do get the job, and you are now starting every day under the eye of your boss? You're going to swear off slashdot and your blogs? No, instead you'll be exposed as a liar. If you have routinely been behaving badly in your previous job, you don't need to continue those habits in a new one. I doubt "what do you do first in the morning" is a kind of question where the boss is going to write your answer down and track you for your first months about breaking the pattern. Or care about the slashdot surfing if you're doing excellent job otherwise. That's the final goal in the end.
I do psychological job interviewing for client companies here in an European nanny state, but I'd like to believe we look for similar things in job applicants.
We ask questions just like this regularly and actually "coffee" would very likely be the single best way to start your answer.
If you are in an interviewing situation, it is already known that you are competent from a technical viewpoint so we don't need to hear about any cool monitoring software you'd like to install. Personality type and efficiency in work are the traits the interviewers are after, more so for manager level positions. An honest and (to some point) witty beginning for a question like this is a good way to start. Don't say you will read./ or any other news, because that would imply you will waste time at work doing something you really should be doing at home. That would be too honest. A cup of coffee is a simple pleasure and doesn't interfere with your job.
Personally I would give full points to an answer like:
Coffee - Check for any pressing emergencies - Socialize a little with coworkers for any work related things you need to know
An honest, thought-out and self-confident answers are the way to go. Questions are designed to throw you out of balance and see if you have these traits even in a surprising situation. A bit of humour one or two times in an interview is also good, it shows you are in control of the social situation. It is not so much *what* you say but *how* you say it.
If the interviewer is a random executive and it is clear he/she doesn't do interviews very often, it is good to be a little less honest and to show your technical expertise every now and then.
Slashdot Mirror
I was about to mod this up, but I just had to stop by and comment on this discussion...
Hi, I'm from Europe. From socially liberal Scandinavia, in particular. Since the 70's, we have aired complete nudity (not just tits), sexual acts and just about any swear word in prime time public tv (yeah, we have a couple of state owned channels, omg!). Violent movies get shown on late night, very violent movies not at all. In movie theaters, violence usually gets the movie a higher rating than in the US but nudity or sexual content barely affects the age limit.
We have, let's see, lower crime rates in general, lower rates of violent crimes, lower rates of teen pregnancy and lower rates of STDs on teens. Our kids do pretty well in school. School aged children can safely walk the streets of our cities.
I'm not saying it all comes from having sex on the tv, but the attitudes of our society are pretty different.
Oh, and I'm personally an active member of the conservative party in my country. There's no discussion at all about getting that stuff off the tv. I don't know a single member in our party who would want that.
I keep being amazed at the amount of fear americans have in swear words and sexual content. What causes the huge difference between EU and US?
I installed 7.04 on my one year old laptop yesterday just to see if I could finally get away from Windows on normal daily home desktop use.
Turned out the GUI version installation CD didn't work with my hardware (ok), so I had to download the alternative install CD. It didn't recognize my dhcp during the install (ok). After the installation, Gnome didn't start because it told me I had no monitor at all (ok). After RTFM, I got the network to work by simply telling it to use dhcp in the config file and Gnome began to work with new drivers and some config tweaking as well.
So the GUI works, everything seems to be in order, I figure Windows and OSX have been able to use wlan in laptops for years so I try to turn it on here. Great, it sees my wlan, now I just enter my passphrase and select WPA2 from this menu... wait, why is there only WEP available?
RTFM tells it all: "Ubuntu does not automatically support WPA encryption"
I mean, it's 2007! Almost 2008! And this thing is telling me that in order to use Linux in my home I should remove any encryption from my wlan? And that I could try to go through a lengthy installation of WPA with tweaking config files again, but even the guide tells me that "sometimes WPA just won't work".
I have to admit though that most of the interviews I take part are not for jobs in the IT.
I want to hear your immediate answer to the question, not some mealy-mouthed creation of what you think I want to hear (the answer you gave, unlike the truth, requires a few seconds of thought. Do you really think I expect you to require a few moments to compose your answer to "What do you do every morning of your life? Please). An immediate answer to an unexpected question would be either memorized or the first thing the subject can think. A really honest answer would need one or two seconds to come up with. Besides, we are not expecting you to simply sit there quietly and think about your answer - we want to see you act like you would in a speculative future situation with your future client or coworker.
(making a quick judgement) "Well, coffee." *smile/grin/little laughter* "Yes, definitely coffee... after I have my nice, steamy cup in my hands I would
You get the idea. 4-6 seconds to form your answer and you can even be honest.
Politic bullshitting like the answer you described (not too honest) will drop you from consideration. We interview lawyers, too.
And what happens the day you do get the job, and you are now starting every day under the eye of your boss? You're going to swear off slashdot and your blogs? No, instead you'll be exposed as a liar. If you have routinely been behaving badly in your previous job, you don't need to continue those habits in a new one. I doubt "what do you do first in the morning" is a kind of question where the boss is going to write your answer down and track you for your first months about breaking the pattern. Or care about the slashdot surfing if you're doing excellent job otherwise. That's the final goal in the end.
We ask questions just like this regularly and actually "coffee" would very likely be the single best way to start your answer.
If you are in an interviewing situation, it is already known that you are competent from a technical viewpoint so we don't need to hear about any cool monitoring software you'd like to install. Personality type and efficiency in work are the traits the interviewers are after, more so for manager level positions. An honest and (to some point) witty beginning for a question like this is a good way to start. Don't say you will read ./ or any other news, because that would imply you will waste time at work doing something you really should be doing at home. That would be too honest. A cup of coffee is a simple pleasure and doesn't interfere with your job.
Personally I would give full points to an answer like:
Coffee - Check for any pressing emergencies - Socialize a little with coworkers for any work related things you need to know
An honest, thought-out and self-confident answers are the way to go. Questions are designed to throw you out of balance and see if you have these traits even in a surprising situation. A bit of humour one or two times in an interview is also good, it shows you are in control of the social situation. It is not so much *what* you say but *how* you say it.
If the interviewer is a random executive and it is clear he/she doesn't do interviews very often, it is good to be a little less honest and to show your technical expertise every now and then.