My Perl isn't particularly strong, but this looks like it works. That doesn't mean you have the job just yet because I have other questions to ask, but it looks like an answer that works. All I'm really looking for is evidence that you actually can write a computer program. There's more to the job, though.
You need to have good enough social skills to make me want to work around you and you also need to be able to talk to customers on occasion and provide support. I've still got to ask if you know enough Linux to fix a problem with the server because our sysadmin only does Windows which means everything that isn't our DB backups, e-mail, or network is in my hands. It's actually kinda funny since he's a die hard Apple user that doesn't understand anything about UNIX, but claims his OS is so much better than Windows even though he doesn't really know how to use it and he can only administer Windows systems.
It doesn't actually evaluate programming skill, it just checks to see if it exists. It's not the most important part of my interviewing. Basically the only role it plays for me is that if someone can't solve the problem, they probably can't solve any problems. If they pass, I've got plenty of open-ended non-code questions that should reveal more about their abilities.
They didn't hate the job, they hated the software. It's a nice place to work and is too small to have a reputation bad enough to drive people away. In fact, I don't know why someone wouldn't want to write software here except that the software itself is mundane and cumbersome. We have no dress code, decent salaries, plenty of paid time off, a boss who is easy to deal with, and a foosball table. I'm beginning to think that our HR person just does a terrible job at finding resumes for me, but it's just a hunch.
I'm just looking for a guy who can solve the problem at all and explain how he solved it. You know, just trace it by hand and tell me why he decided to approach the problem the way he did. I tend to go for "no wrong answer" types of questions. I count this question in that group since the only wrong answers are "I can't do it" or the interviewee writes an obviously wrong solution and can't trace his own code well enough to know that it's wrong even after having it explained to him.
That's a very good answer, but any good answer would be one that didn't involve declaring an array of all the number between 0 and 100 and then iterating over the array. Yes, that's a typical solution.
Any language (or pseudocode) he cares to use. If he picked something really odd (nobody did), I'd ask him to explain how it works. Explaining how it works counts for just as much as a good section of code.
Well, I started with the questions that I was asked in the interview for my own job. A lead developer should be able to fulfill the required abilities of his junior developer, shouldn't he?
"Write a function to sum all the numbers from 0 to 100"
Every code question I ask is about that simple. The solutions I get to EASY questions are almost always really stupid, incorrect, or get answered with "I don't know how to do that"
After working 3 months at my first programming job, the other two developers quit which left just me. I felt inadequate until I started interviewing other programmers to fill in the gap. Apparently lead developers with 10 years of experience can't solve the simplest programming problems, explain how databases work, or explain OOP. I'm convinced that most software sucks because most people writing it have no idea what they're doing and shouldn't be allowed to touch a computer. I'm currently in my 5th month at the same job and we've got someone good who will start soon, but it took a long time to find even one competent developer.
I don't mean to sound rude, but you probably won't do anything anyone would care to steal (aside from another student) while you're in school anyway.
If you are doing something really interesting, use your own computer to do it. You could still discuss it with your professors and fellow students, but maybe it would be harder for them to take your work.
Yeah, but just one man alone was able to take out 10% with just a few keystrokes! Such horrific power! Which of the remaining 90% will be next?
After he had access, that is. Yeah, this would be written better if it simply said: "...he was able to take control of the computers. With said control, the computers did everything he told them to do including delete stuff."
My work sounds alot like your work and I could see this getting too boring after a while, but I imagine there's a whole other world out there of software in the categories of CAD, art, video games, embedded, scientific, and other boxed software that don't need all those forms and databases.
I just got my BS in CS in May and have been writing code all day for the last 4 months. It's really not bad (at least where I work) and it's nowhere near as difficult as doing real CS. CS homework is hard, but implementing business rules after you already "get" CS is no problem.
One thing to keep in mind when job hunting is that recruiters don't know what they're looking for in a developer. They ask for all kinds of scary qualifications that don't mean shit. Bluff your way through a phone screening and keep in mind that 9 out of 10 people they're interviewing can't write a simple factorial function, let alone do it recursively.
If you've never used a relational database before, learn about those. It's not difficult, but you need to know about it because you will use it.
They should probably use that radar to tell people when they're tailgating. Make it obnoxious enough that people will back off. I'm willing to believe most tailgaters are just shitty drivers rather than aggressive assholes.
But hiring pump attendants creates jobs! Jobs for people that are specially trained to dispense DANGEROUS flammable liquids! Not just anybody can do that!
Lots and lots of special jobs that pay less than a living wage, that is...
It seems to be that a major difference between TV and internet is that there's no good way to tell what "raunchy" means. At least with TV the set of content is so small that censorship can work somehow.
Also, using public airwaves to broadcast infomercials or Jerry Springer is as bad to me as clicking a goatse link. Such a waste!
On a semi-related note, I'll use this space to mention that I enjoy using my antenna more than extended cable because I get 3 channels of PBS instead of one. Those 3 channels of free television are far more interesting than the shit that was on cable, and they don't cost me an extra $60 per month, either.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm beginning to realize that I chose a terrible sample question to post here.
My Perl isn't particularly strong, but this looks like it works. That doesn't mean you have the job just yet because I have other questions to ask, but it looks like an answer that works. All I'm really looking for is evidence that you actually can write a computer program. There's more to the job, though.
You need to have good enough social skills to make me want to work around you and you also need to be able to talk to customers on occasion and provide support. I've still got to ask if you know enough Linux to fix a problem with the server because our sysadmin only does Windows which means everything that isn't our DB backups, e-mail, or network is in my hands. It's actually kinda funny since he's a die hard Apple user that doesn't understand anything about UNIX, but claims his OS is so much better than Windows even though he doesn't really know how to use it and he can only administer Windows systems.
It doesn't actually evaluate programming skill, it just checks to see if it exists. It's not the most important part of my interviewing. Basically the only role it plays for me is that if someone can't solve the problem, they probably can't solve any problems. If they pass, I've got plenty of open-ended non-code questions that should reveal more about their abilities.
They didn't hate the job, they hated the software. It's a nice place to work and is too small to have a reputation bad enough to drive people away. In fact, I don't know why someone wouldn't want to write software here except that the software itself is mundane and cumbersome. We have no dress code, decent salaries, plenty of paid time off, a boss who is easy to deal with, and a foosball table. I'm beginning to think that our HR person just does a terrible job at finding resumes for me, but it's just a hunch.
I'm just looking for a guy who can solve the problem at all and explain how he solved it. You know, just trace it by hand and tell me why he decided to approach the problem the way he did. I tend to go for "no wrong answer" types of questions. I count this question in that group since the only wrong answers are "I can't do it" or the interviewee writes an obviously wrong solution and can't trace his own code well enough to know that it's wrong even after having it explained to him.
That's a very good answer, but any good answer would be one that didn't involve declaring an array of all the number between 0 and 100 and then iterating over the array. Yes, that's a typical solution.
Any language (or pseudocode) he cares to use. If he picked something really odd (nobody did), I'd ask him to explain how it works. Explaining how it works counts for just as much as a good section of code.
Well, I started with the questions that I was asked in the interview for my own job. A lead developer should be able to fulfill the required abilities of his junior developer, shouldn't he?
"Write a function to sum all the numbers from 0 to 100"
Every code question I ask is about that simple. The solutions I get to EASY questions are almost always really stupid, incorrect, or get answered with "I don't know how to do that"
After working 3 months at my first programming job, the other two developers quit which left just me. I felt inadequate until I started interviewing other programmers to fill in the gap. Apparently lead developers with 10 years of experience can't solve the simplest programming problems, explain how databases work, or explain OOP. I'm convinced that most software sucks because most people writing it have no idea what they're doing and shouldn't be allowed to touch a computer. I'm currently in my 5th month at the same job and we've got someone good who will start soon, but it took a long time to find even one competent developer.
feeling up every woman in the security line is nothing but fantasy.
-jcr
Not even a very creative fantasy at that!
every other country where superstition has taken the place of logic and education.
Fixed that for you! I'd be happy to edit your newsletter if you have a copy available; your website is surprisingly free of updates.
I welcome Muslims to America, especially if they bring shawarmas and hashish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Haramein
If so I can see why the government would want to wiretap them.
Then they should get a warrant, even a bullshit retroactive FISA warrant.
I don't mean to sound rude, but you probably won't do anything anyone would care to steal (aside from another student) while you're in school anyway.
If you are doing something really interesting, use your own computer to do it. You could still discuss it with your professors and fellow students, but maybe it would be harder for them to take your work.
Someone throw me a bone, here.
Jimmy hat?
Yeah, but just one man alone was able to take out 10% with just a few keystrokes! Such horrific power! Which of the remaining 90% will be next?
After he had access, that is. Yeah, this would be written better if it simply said:
"...he was able to take control of the computers. With said control, the computers did everything he told them to do including delete stuff."
So...employee discount?
My work sounds alot like your work and I could see this getting too boring after a while, but I imagine there's a whole other world out there of software in the categories of CAD, art, video games, embedded, scientific, and other boxed software that don't need all those forms and databases.
I just got my BS in CS in May and have been writing code all day for the last 4 months. It's really not bad (at least where I work) and it's nowhere near as difficult as doing real CS. CS homework is hard, but implementing business rules after you already "get" CS is no problem.
One thing to keep in mind when job hunting is that recruiters don't know what they're looking for in a developer. They ask for all kinds of scary qualifications that don't mean shit. Bluff your way through a phone screening and keep in mind that 9 out of 10 people they're interviewing can't write a simple factorial function, let alone do it recursively.
If you've never used a relational database before, learn about those. It's not difficult, but you need to know about it because you will use it.
They should probably use that radar to tell people when they're tailgating. Make it obnoxious enough that people will back off. I'm willing to believe most tailgaters are just shitty drivers rather than aggressive assholes.
But hiring pump attendants creates jobs! Jobs for people that are specially trained to dispense DANGEROUS flammable liquids! Not just anybody can do that!
Lots and lots of special jobs that pay less than a living wage, that is...
So what you're saying is that you've tried to RTFA before?
I see the 7 digit UID and figure you must be new here.
It seems to be that a major difference between TV and internet is that there's no good way to tell what "raunchy" means. At least with TV the set of content is so small that censorship can work somehow.
Also, using public airwaves to broadcast infomercials or Jerry Springer is as bad to me as clicking a goatse link. Such a waste!
On a semi-related note, I'll use this space to mention that I enjoy using my antenna more than extended cable because I get 3 channels of PBS instead of one. Those 3 channels of free television are far more interesting than the shit that was on cable, and they don't cost me an extra $60 per month, either.
Every college with a CS department has a server that does that. The only catch is that the faculty doesn't know about it!