[ale] [SEMI-OT] Skills for programmers/engineers?

[Jim Kinney]

On Jan 28, 2014 5:28 PM, "John Heim" <john at johnheim.com> wrote:
>
> On 01/27/14 14:00, Jim Lynch wrote:
>>
>> On 01/27/2014 12:16 PM, Rev. Johnny Healey wrote:
>>>
>>> When I have done interviews in the past, I usually would expect the
candidate to be able to implement a short algorithm (in their language of
choice or pseudocode) and express the runtime in Big-O notation.
>>
>> That's the interview I'd walk out on.  Give me a week to perform and
then judge my work on a REAL problem, but don't try to make a monkey out of
me.  Thanks, but no thanks.
>>
>> Jim
>
> >>>>
>
> I pretty much agree. Well, Rev  did say he'd take pseudocode which would
be a basic test of your understanding of programming. My department once
hired a guy who had a BS in Comp Sci but had never written a line of code
in his life. He couldn't even write HTML. The guy had a Comp Sci degree and
it never even occured to me that he didn't know how to program at least a
little. We never even thought to ask that.
>
> Once I was asked in a job interview to write some RPG. I had RPG on my
resume as one of the languages I knew but it had been a few years and I
couldn't remember a thing. I didn't get that job which may have been a good
thing.
>
> Another time  I was asked in a job interview which languages I knew. I'm
not sure I'd have the bravado to give this answer today but the guy doing
the interview said it was  my answer to this question that got me the job.
I said, "Well, I know all of them. Once you've learned three or four, you
know them all. Give me an afternoon  with a new language and I'll be able
to produce working code. Give me a week and i'll be fluent."
>
> Really, depending on how much time you have to let  an employee develop,
it doesn't matter what they know.  I suppose you can't take someone fresh
out of college and say, "Okay, build us a web site where people can sign up
for health care."

I spit beer out my nose laughing over this. I was just discussing how
likely it was the healthcare site was subbed out and built by fresh grads
with little experience.

But if you're hoping your hire will be around for five or six years, it
probably doesn't matter what they know at the time of the interview.
>
>
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