Testing with real data is not necessarily a good practice. Consider sensitive data, such as social security numbers. Auditors may ding your development practices for providing developers access to information they do not need. You need realistic data, not necessarily the real data. If you're bringing real data from prod back to test and dev, consider having something scrub the data.
I thought a Bedazzler was one of those things sold on TV that lets girls add rhinestones to clothing, so when I read the summary I was really curious what the Dept of Homeland Security was doing with them.
Get the Masters. You're used to living like a student -- poor and with homework. After you've been working for a few years you'll be used to living with money and free time.
You're still used to taking tests. You still remember the mathematics.
I found it is very hard to go back to school after you have been working. Getting my masters involved working full time and taking classes, so I spent a huge chunk of my free time doing homework and writing a Thesis over a period of years.
The only advantage I had by working first and returning to school was that I had a much better view of why school was important and what I wanted to get out of it. Being an older student also gave me an advantage understanding the perspective of my professors.
As far as your career goes, if you ever plan to get a masters, getting it earlier is better than getting it later.
By the way, when I review resumes, I count a masters degree as two years of experience towards any time we required for the position.
When I worked in a secure facility in the Air Force, we wanted a tape player so we could have music, but we could not have a tape recorder. We bought a boom-box, removed the recording head and the record button and then agreed the boom-box was to become Air Force property and that it would never leave the office.
Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, His name is my name too. Whenever we go out The people always shout, "There goes Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg."
I disagree. A pressure situation such as an interview, an unfamiliar environment, and a lack of supporting resources is not a place conducive for all programmers to be effective when you ask them to stand at a board and compose. I think you're likely to weed out some strong programmers with this approach.
Asking for a code sample I think is better. I'm not sure what everybody looks for when they ask for a code sample, but I think it is a great way to initiate a discussion about code. I think it is better than asking them to site-read some code that I might provide. When we discuss their code I'm the one doing the site-reading and they should be the expert. There are some things I look for, such as a maturity when handling pointers/references, but mostly the code provides fuel for discussion.
Some people agonize over what code to bring. I don't think it has to be much. You don't have to knock people's socks off with complexity. You could bring me an implementation of a bubble sort or the soundex algorithm, for instance. Some people bring in 1000's of lines of code - an entire applications - and I just have to pick a random spot down deep. That just means they get to be an expert for that much more.
Now if a person tells me they cannot bring code, I understand. Many people don't get a lot of time to prepare. Some people want to bring in real work rather than a contrived sample, but they are not legally allowed to show code they wrote for someplace else. That's fine. I provide the code then. If a person refuses to bring code because they think it's dumb, then it's probably an indication were not going to get along.
As to if they downloaded the code. Maybe that doesn't matter too much. I mean they're going to have to answer questions about it. If they downloaded the code then we'll both be site-reading it. I still got a discussion which is what I'm really going to use for a hiring decision. The person takes on some risk that it might become obvious the code wasn't theirs. If I find out, then it's not going to look good. If a person told me they didn't have a sample and brought somebody else's code to discuss, I would find that unusual, but could work with it.
So my advice to the original topic... bring some code. I don't think it has to be much. I think 2-3 pages is fine. You should be able to ask them how large a sample they'd like to see and what you will be doing with it.
If they want email addresses, give them some. Give them all they can handle. Fill their database with junk.
Write a dynamic page which randomly generates a large list of bogus email addresses. Within the page, put anchors to random page names in the same directory. Use a URL rewrite rule on your web server to map all requests to that directory to that page so that the program responds to any page name.
There's no way to know other than to work for both for a year and then deciding, which you probably cannot do. There's so many factors that are involved and the interview process gives you very little information. Do you like the "mission" of the teams you would be joining? Will you get along with your co-workers? It may be that the real answer is that neither company is the best fit for you. There are bright people and good teams all over the world in all sorts of companies.
I always turn the rumble feature off anyways. I'm not going to miss it. It's not like it enhanced play any. In a football game it would shake when you got hit. Oh yeh, it feels like the NFL now because my hand is shaking. In driving games it shakes when you go off the road. A rumble chair might be a more accurate experience, but I'd still turn that off.
Everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. You have to look at many factors when hiring. You could try to hire somebody to bring strengths to a team to cover for some weaknesses in existing members. You wouldn't want to hire just folks who work well when writing code on a white board. For one thing, why are we writing code on a white board in the first place? I usually use white boards to express ideas; quasi-pseudo code at the most.
I don't ask folks to write code in an interview. It's not natural and I think it's a waste of time. I ask them to bring in some code they wrote. Hopefully they'll bring in some of their best code that they took the time to properly research, written in an environment they find conducive to development.
Discussing an algorithm or doing some design work is better for an interview. It's the kind of thing you'll do together on the job after all.
I've not exactly been watching the corporate search market, but the first name I would have thought of if I were looking for such a service would have been Google then Yahoo, not Microsoft.
Open Office is 10 years behind? So what if it is? In my present day word processing I use features that were available in 1984 through MacWrite 1.0. Open Office could be 20 years behind and still be a great product.
I found that even if your employer is willing to send you to training for a week a year, it's not enough to keep up. For me, it's been better to make sure I spend around 5 hours a week figuring out something new or experimenting with things we already use. It's definitely easier to buy your own books and keep your own library then it is to convince an employer to maintain a library. In some cases, it makes life easier to supply your own computers.
Years ago there was a report of an entire team, that also had been layed off, being placed at a new company by a headhunter, errr placement service. Regretably, I don't recall any details so I cannot cite a reference.
I've seen a fired person treated like that, but not someone who gave notice.
I'm suprised, really. I'd think they'd want you to spend the two weeks making notes and documentation about projects on which you were working, perhaps training up a replacement if there was one already. I think a good company would want to have an exit interview or two to understand why you were leaving. Finally I'd think they'd want to take you to lunch as both thanks for all your hard work and to give you a nice send-off to whatever you plan to do next.
If they were worried about you sabataging their systems, they should have fired you long ago.
How does it know it's me? Sure, via RFID, but where is this RFID kept? Do I need to carry around an ID card for my PVR? If so, I'll probably just tape it to the side of the PVR.
Quote: "1.a Get a test application server and production application server. Yes, you need both. The development server would be the developers workstation."
Get a development server, test server, and production server. You'll need all three. The seperate development and test servers allow your staff to be working on bugs while folks are testing a release. I think it's completely acceptable for each developer to have their own development server assuming a desktop machine is capable of the load. It may be that was already assumed by those giving the earlier advice.
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Testing with real data is not necessarily a good practice. Consider sensitive data, such as social security numbers. Auditors may ding your development practices for providing developers access to information they do not need. You need realistic data, not necessarily the real data. If you're bringing real data from prod back to test and dev, consider having something scrub the data.
I thought a Bedazzler was one of those things sold on TV that lets girls add rhinestones to clothing, so when I read the summary I was really curious what the Dept of Homeland Security was doing with them.
Or, improve to the point where a modest, two-seat, electric, commuter car will cost $10,000.
I would say "bash" is my IDE, and "vim" is my editor.
Awesome.
Some dice vendor should get one made to show at game conventions.
Get the Masters. You're used to living like a student -- poor and with homework. After you've been working for a few years you'll be used to living with money and free time.
You're still used to taking tests. You still remember the mathematics.
I found it is very hard to go back to school after you have been working. Getting my masters involved working full time and taking classes, so I spent a huge chunk of my free time doing homework and writing a Thesis over a period of years.
The only advantage I had by working first and returning to school was that I had a much better view of why school was important and what I wanted to get out of it. Being an older student also gave me an advantage understanding the perspective of my professors.
As far as your career goes, if you ever plan to get a masters, getting it earlier is better than getting it later.
By the way, when I review resumes, I count a masters degree as two years of experience towards any time we required for the position.
When I worked in a secure facility in the Air Force, we wanted a tape player so we could have music, but we could not have a tape recorder. We bought a boom-box, removed the recording head and the record button and then agreed the boom-box was to become Air Force property and that it would never leave the office.
That satisfied the security office.
Real programmers use butterflies.
You'll have to pry my Monarch from my cold, dead hands!
Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg,
His name is my name too.
Whenever we go out
The people always shout,
"There goes Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jacob_Jingleheimer_Schmidt
How about handing in a notebook full of doodles and tic-tac-toe games?
I disagree. A pressure situation such as an interview, an unfamiliar environment, and a lack of supporting resources is not a place conducive for all programmers to be effective when you ask them to stand at a board and compose. I think you're likely to weed out some strong programmers with this approach.
Asking for a code sample I think is better. I'm not sure what everybody looks for when they ask for a code sample, but I think it is a great way to initiate a discussion about code. I think it is better than asking them to site-read some code that I might provide. When we discuss their code I'm the one doing the site-reading and they should be the expert. There are some things I look for, such as a maturity when handling pointers/references, but mostly the code provides fuel for discussion.
Some people agonize over what code to bring. I don't think it has to be much. You don't have to knock people's socks off with complexity. You could bring me an implementation of a bubble sort or the soundex algorithm, for instance. Some people bring in 1000's of lines of code - an entire applications - and I just have to pick a random spot down deep. That just means they get to be an expert for that much more.
Now if a person tells me they cannot bring code, I understand. Many people don't get a lot of time to prepare. Some people want to bring in real work rather than a contrived sample, but they are not legally allowed to show code they wrote for someplace else. That's fine. I provide the code then. If a person refuses to bring code because they think it's dumb, then it's probably an indication were not going to get along.
As to if they downloaded the code. Maybe that doesn't matter too much. I mean they're going to have to answer questions about it. If they downloaded the code then we'll both be site-reading it. I still got a discussion which is what I'm really going to use for a hiring decision. The person takes on some risk that it might become obvious the code wasn't theirs. If I find out, then it's not going to look good. If a person told me they didn't have a sample and brought somebody else's code to discuss, I would find that unusual, but could work with it.
So my advice to the original topic... bring some code. I don't think it has to be much. I think 2-3 pages is fine. You should be able to ask them how large a sample they'd like to see and what you will be doing with it.
If they want email addresses, give them some. Give them all they can handle. Fill their database with junk.
Write a dynamic page which randomly generates a large list of bogus email addresses. Within the page, put anchors to random page names in the same directory. Use a URL rewrite rule on your web server to map all requests to that directory to that page so that the program responds to any page name.
They should disclose. It will leak out anyways and then it will be both a scandle and a security incident.
There's no way to know other than to work for both for a year and then deciding, which you probably cannot do. There's so many factors that are involved and the interview process gives you very little information. Do you like the "mission" of the teams you would be joining? Will you get along with your co-workers? It may be that the real answer is that neither company is the best fit for you. There are bright people and good teams all over the world in all sorts of companies.
Could somebody make a driver that offers a consistent interface to other drivers?
I always turn the rumble feature off anyways. I'm not going to miss it. It's not like it enhanced play any. In a football game it would shake when you got hit. Oh yeh, it feels like the NFL now because my hand is shaking. In driving games it shakes when you go off the road. A rumble chair might be a more accurate experience, but I'd still turn that off.
Everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. You have to look at many factors when hiring. You could try to hire somebody to bring strengths to a team to cover for some weaknesses in existing members. You wouldn't want to hire just folks who work well when writing code on a white board. For one thing, why are we writing code on a white board in the first place? I usually use white boards to express ideas; quasi-pseudo code at the most.
I don't ask folks to write code in an interview. It's not natural and I think it's a waste of time. I ask them to bring in some code they wrote. Hopefully they'll bring in some of their best code that they took the time to properly research, written in an environment they find conducive to development.
Discussing an algorithm or doing some design work is better for an interview. It's the kind of thing you'll do together on the job after all.
I've not exactly been watching the corporate search market, but the first name I would have thought of if I were looking for such a service would have been Google then Yahoo, not Microsoft.
Lost creator J.J. Abrams writing for the James T. Kirk character?
Excessive dramatic pause meets excessive commercial breaks. Excellent!
Open Office is 10 years behind? So what if it is? In my present day word processing I use features that were available in 1984 through MacWrite 1.0. Open Office could be 20 years behind and still be a great product.
I found that even if your employer is willing to send you to training for a week a year, it's not enough to keep up. For me, it's been better to make sure I spend around 5 hours a week figuring out something new or experimenting with things we already use. It's definitely easier to buy your own books and keep your own library then it is to convince an employer to maintain a library. In some cases, it makes life easier to supply your own computers.
Years ago there was a report of an entire team, that also had been layed off, being placed at a new company by a headhunter, errr placement service. Regretably, I don't recall any details so I cannot cite a reference.
I've seen a fired person treated like that, but not someone who gave notice.
I'm suprised, really. I'd think they'd want you to spend the two weeks making notes and documentation about projects on which you were working, perhaps training up a replacement if there was one already. I think a good company would want to have an exit interview or two to understand why you were leaving. Finally I'd think they'd want to take you to lunch as both thanks for all your hard work and to give you a nice send-off to whatever you plan to do next.
If they were worried about you sabataging their systems, they should have fired you long ago.
How does it know it's me? Sure, via RFID, but where is this RFID kept? Do I need to carry around an ID card for my PVR? If so, I'll probably just tape it to the side of the PVR.
Just one change...
Quote: "1.a Get a test application server and production application server. Yes, you need both. The development server would be the developers workstation."
Get a development server, test server, and production server. You'll need all three. The seperate development and test servers allow your staff to be working on bugs while folks are testing a release. I think it's completely acceptable for each developer to have their own development server assuming a desktop machine is capable of the load. It may be that was already assumed by those giving the earlier advice.