Spot on. I have interviewed many IT candidates over the years, and the three questions I am trying to answer in an interview are:
Can they do the job?
Do they want the job?
Will they fit in?
Tests can be useful for getting an answer to the first question. It's amazing how many java 'gurus' canâ(TM)t tell you when you would want to use a StringBuffer instead of a String. I would certainly use a test to filter out the chaff for a junior position, but for the more senior roles I like to just use the Resumee as a starting point to get the candidate to talk about their experience. eg. 'I see that in your last role you designed an x framework, could you describe it to me, talk me through any problems you faced and how you solved them'
Even if the candidate is clearly technically superb, the job may not be right for them. I have had several situations where the agency has mis-sold an architect into applying for a senior dev role.
Then there are the situations when I have a superb candidate who clearly wants the job, but they will not fit in with the rest of the team due to personality issues. It could be argued that Psychometric tests can help answer the 'will they fit in' question, but Iâ(TM)m not convinced.
As a senior architect with 12 years experience and a very strong resumee, if I walked into an interview and was given a written test to fill in, Iâ(TM)d leave: The employer just failed question 2.
I have been involved in the hiring of all technical people for the last couple of companies I've worked for. My approach when faced with a candidate who obviusly does not meet the grade is to continue with the interview and treat them no differently to any other candidate. I will then get in touch with the agent after the interview (not sure about over the pond, but here in the UK, pretty much 100% of candidates arrive via agencies) and have an honest discussion about why the candidate did not make the grade. For me this is the best approach because
1)The candidate (hopefully) has a positive experience
2)The agent can forward my feedback to the candidate on an unofficial basis without me worrying about legal issues.
3) The agent gets a better idea about the sort of candidate I'm looking for.
I'm a techie with an MBA. Last month I turned down the offer of a directorship at the huge corporate where I work, because it paid less than my techie job. Last week I handed in my notice in order to go back to the world of IT contracting, where my technical skills are going to pay me THREE TIMES what they were offering for the directorship.
Sure, it means i'm going to have to be one of those 'low lifes' that the business people yell at, but while the business guy is feeling smug about the number of underlings he/she has working for them, I'm laughing all the way to the bank.
Last time I looked at Jboss, it was written in Java, and as such is helping to Spread Sun's dominance.
Unles of course you meant to say Sun's application server / portal server dominance, in which case, please excuse me while I fall of my chair laughing. - Neither products are going anywhere.
Jboss is not a competitor to Sun. IBM and BEA maybe, but not Sun.
In the UK (and London in particular) the rule of thumb seems to be about two years. Much less and you run the risk of being seen as disloyal, much more and you run the risk of being labelled a plodder.
Perosnally my career has been the following:
First job - 18 months (Jumped ship because they expected me to work 14 hours a day, EVERY DAY, but didn't want to pay for it)
Second job - 9 months (Jumped ship when I was given the chance to double my salary and the current employer would not match it)
Third job - 6 years (This was consultancy, so was really about 8 different jobs for different clients). Moved because I had run out of career prospects.
Fourth job - 6 months (The job I ended up doing was not remotely like the job I accepted in the interview, so I moved on)
Current job - 18 months and counting
As someone who interviews potential employees for my company I think the odd career gap or very short time in a job is not a problem, as long as it can be explained.
I would not want to write Oracle stored procedures in PHP, I would not want to write web sites using PLSQL.
If I were writing a windows only GUI that made heavy use of the Windows API,I'd want to do it in.net rather than Java.
If I wanted to standardise my server side enterprise applications, I would want to use Java instead of.net
Standardising on one language across an entire company is a crazy idea, standardising on one language per application type is probably a good idea as long as someone is responsible for scanning the market to ensure your standard isn't becoming obsolete.
I have gained a string of technical ceritfications over the years, and I'm currently half way through an MBA that I'm doing part time.
All of those things have been directly relevent to my job. All of them have been achieved without any help from my employers.
The way I see it, I am responsible for ensuring that my skills are marketable, my employer is responsible for paying me what I'm worth. If at any time my employer thinks they are paying me too much they are welcome to cut my pay (It happened after the bubble burst, and I accepted it). The flip side of the coin is also true - If I think you're not paying me enough, I'm off.
It may not be for everyone but it's a philosophy that works for me. - My letter of resignation is already written and the minute my MBA finishes it will be used:-)
Companies need to understand that there is no such thing as employee loyalty these days, because there is no such thing as a job for life. I'm a commodity, and I accept the fact.
I'm by no means a Java luminary, but I have been coding Java professionally since 1997. I lived through the bad old 'applet for everything' days, and having to roll my own client-server communication protocols, then moved into Servlets, JSPs, and finally full blown J2EE applications. I was there at Java One in 2000 when the hype was incredible, when I honestly thought I'd be retiring at 35.
Me, I'm now riding the SOA wave. (when I'm not writing powerpoint presentations).
ROR is great, but IMHO SOA is where the J2EE hype went.
My PHB gave me the cheese book to read and I actually got a lot out of it. Yes it's incredibly patronising, but the statement "what would you do if you weren't aftaid" motivated me to resign from my dull, stresful, overworked job and move my family to a better job in another country that has a much better work/life balance.
Not sure that was the precise effect the PHB wanted...
While your average, run of the mill user may never need to receive an.exe, or.zip, some DO.
I once had to drive a cd containing the latest version of software for a client across the entire country because the local email policy was too restrictive to allow him to receive a.zip - The guy was a senior developer but the admins didn't care.
Yes he could have filled in the paperwork to release the offending file from quarrentine, but the average turn around time for such a request was 2 weeks, and this was a critical update.
Sometimes you admins with your one policy for all, why do users need to do anything than type word documents mentality drives me nuts.
WEP is secure enough imho, and anyway, it's all my router supports and I'm not going to fork out for a new one just yet. In the meantime I change the keys weekly.
Sure a MAC address can be cloned, but it's not exactly something that your average script kiddie is going to do. Hell, if someone really wanted to see what I was up to they could just tempest my CRT.
It's about an apropriate level of security, and for me, MAC filtering, not broadcasting my SSID, and changing my WEP keys is enough.
Up until two weeks ago, mine was the only SSID visible, Ok, so it's called 'home', but it's not broadcast, it's using wep and it's locked down by MAC address
last week default and sitecom appeared. Both with default router passwords, I guess someone in my neighborhood got broadband for christmas.
I feel like broadcasting my SSID and changing it to 'I'm at number 35, for god's sake please come over and speek to me about wireless network security!'
Slashdot Mirror
Spot on. I have interviewed many IT candidates over the years, and the three questions I am trying to answer in an interview are: Can they do the job? Do they want the job? Will they fit in? Tests can be useful for getting an answer to the first question. It's amazing how many java 'gurus' canâ(TM)t tell you when you would want to use a StringBuffer instead of a String. I would certainly use a test to filter out the chaff for a junior position, but for the more senior roles I like to just use the Resumee as a starting point to get the candidate to talk about their experience. eg. 'I see that in your last role you designed an x framework, could you describe it to me, talk me through any problems you faced and how you solved them' Even if the candidate is clearly technically superb, the job may not be right for them. I have had several situations where the agency has mis-sold an architect into applying for a senior dev role. Then there are the situations when I have a superb candidate who clearly wants the job, but they will not fit in with the rest of the team due to personality issues. It could be argued that Psychometric tests can help answer the 'will they fit in' question, but Iâ(TM)m not convinced. As a senior architect with 12 years experience and a very strong resumee, if I walked into an interview and was given a written test to fill in, Iâ(TM)d leave: The employer just failed question 2.
I'm in the UK, and for me the killer feature would be HSDPA. My 2year old HTC phone has 'propper' 3g, why was the iPhone crippled?
I have been involved in the hiring of all technical people for the last couple of companies I've worked for. My approach when faced with a candidate who obviusly does not meet the grade is to continue with the interview and treat them no differently to any other candidate. I will then get in touch with the agent after the interview (not sure about over the pond, but here in the UK, pretty much 100% of candidates arrive via agencies) and have an honest discussion about why the candidate did not make the grade. For me this is the best approach because
1)The candidate (hopefully) has a positive experience
2)The agent can forward my feedback to the candidate on an unofficial basis without me worrying about legal issues.
3) The agent gets a better idea about the sort of candidate I'm looking for.
I'm a techie with an MBA. Last month I turned down the offer of a directorship at the huge corporate where I work, because it paid less than my techie job. Last week I handed in my notice in order to go back to the world of IT contracting, where my technical skills are going to pay me THREE TIMES what they were offering for the directorship.
Sure, it means i'm going to have to be one of those 'low lifes' that the business people yell at, but while the business guy is feeling smug about the number of underlings he/she has working for them, I'm laughing all the way to the bank.
Last time I looked at Jboss, it was written in Java, and as such is helping to Spread Sun's dominance.
Unles of course you meant to say Sun's application server / portal server dominance, in which case, please excuse me while I fall of my chair laughing. - Neither products are going anywhere.
Jboss is not a competitor to Sun. IBM and BEA maybe, but not Sun.
In the UK (and London in particular) the rule of thumb seems to be about two years. Much less and you run the risk of being seen as disloyal, much more and you run the risk of being labelled a plodder.
Perosnally my career has been the following:
First job - 18 months (Jumped ship because they expected me to work 14 hours a day, EVERY DAY, but didn't want to pay for it)
Second job - 9 months (Jumped ship when I was given the chance to double my salary and the current employer would not match it)
Third job - 6 years (This was consultancy, so was really about 8 different jobs for different clients). Moved because I had run out of career prospects.
Fourth job - 6 months (The job I ended up doing was not remotely like the job I accepted in the interview, so I moved on)
Current job - 18 months and counting
As someone who interviews potential employees for my company I think the odd career gap or very short time in a job is not a problem, as long as it can be explained.
I would not want to write Oracle stored procedures in PHP, I would not want to write web sites using PLSQL.
.net rather than Java.
.net
If I were writing a windows only GUI that made heavy use of the Windows API,I'd want to do it in
If I wanted to standardise my server side enterprise applications, I would want to use Java instead of
Standardising on one language across an entire company is a crazy idea, standardising on one language per application type is probably a good idea as long as someone is responsible for scanning the market to ensure your standard isn't becoming obsolete.
I have gained a string of technical ceritfications over the years, and I'm currently half way through an MBA that I'm doing part time.
:-)
All of those things have been directly relevent to my job. All of them have been achieved without any help from my employers.
The way I see it, I am responsible for ensuring that my skills are marketable, my employer is responsible for paying me what I'm worth. If at any time my employer thinks they are paying me too much they are welcome to cut my pay (It happened after the bubble burst, and I accepted it). The flip side of the coin is also true - If I think you're not paying me enough, I'm off.
It may not be for everyone but it's a philosophy that works for me. - My letter of resignation is already written and the minute my MBA finishes it will be used
Companies need to understand that there is no such thing as employee loyalty these days, because there is no such thing as a job for life. I'm a commodity, and I accept the fact.
It's meant for beginners who don't need serious resolution and fine detail which is only available in larger formats
Cartier-Bresson was a beginner? Wow, you learn something new every day.
I'm by no means a Java luminary, but I have been coding Java professionally since 1997. I lived through the bad old 'applet for everything' days, and having to roll my own client-server communication protocols, then moved into Servlets, JSPs, and finally full blown J2EE applications. I was there at Java One in 2000 when the hype was incredible, when I honestly thought I'd be retiring at 35.
Me, I'm now riding the SOA wave. (when I'm not writing powerpoint presentations).
ROR is great, but IMHO SOA is where the J2EE hype went.
My PHB gave me the cheese book to read and I actually got a lot out of it. Yes it's incredibly patronising, but the statement "what would you do if you weren't aftaid" motivated me to resign from my dull, stresful, overworked job and move my family to a better job in another country that has a much better work/life balance.
Not sure that was the precise effect the PHB wanted...
"I've yet to meet a RUP "expert" who recommends something lightweight or tailored to the development team's specifics"
I used to work for a 'boutique' RUP consultancy. We did.
I will never forget what my Systems Analysis lecturer told me at UNI - A good analyst tailors the methodology to the project
Looks to me like you need to find some better experts.
While your average, run of the mill user may never need to receive an .exe, or.zip, some DO.
.zip - The guy was a senior developer but the admins didn't care.
I once had to drive a cd containing the latest version of software for a client across the entire country because the local email policy was too restrictive to allow him to receive a
Yes he could have filled in the paperwork to release the offending file from quarrentine, but the average turn around time for such a request was 2 weeks, and this was a critical update.
Sometimes you admins with your one policy for all, why do users need to do anything than type word documents mentality drives me nuts.
WEP is secure enough imho, and anyway, it's all my router supports and I'm not going to fork out for a new one just yet. In the meantime I change the keys weekly. Sure a MAC address can be cloned, but it's not exactly something that your average script kiddie is going to do. Hell, if someone really wanted to see what I was up to they could just tempest my CRT. It's about an apropriate level of security, and for me, MAC filtering, not broadcasting my SSID, and changing my WEP keys is enough.
Up until two weeks ago, mine was the only SSID visible, Ok, so it's called 'home', but it's not broadcast, it's using wep and it's locked down by MAC address last week default and sitecom appeared. Both with default router passwords, I guess someone in my neighborhood got broadband for christmas. I feel like broadcasting my SSID and changing it to 'I'm at number 35, for god's sake please come over and speek to me about wireless network security!'