Pasvorto: When you are I graduated from college (I also graduated in 1977) there was no computer science majors, or for that matter, classes. :lol:
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Pasvorto: When you are I graduated from college (I also graduated in 1977) there was no computer science majors, or for that matter, classes. :lol:
You're probably right. I never paid attention. But, there were programming classes. I took 3 of them.
I get the feeling that most VB & .NET programmers are not trained with classes in schoool but are schooled by sites like ours and other various means like books, videos and demo projects.
The degree'd programmer usually is focused on the C languages as they learned in school. Perhaps this is also why C programmers make more money too.
True dat.... :-)
I always thought the CS majors wanted to write operating systems, not solve business problems.
I dislike interview questions like this. It's just not the way I organize my thoughts about programming. If you had asked me this question, "What are the 3 major classes of ADO Classic?", I probably would have stumbled over it too, at least at first as I tried to figure out exactly what you were looking for. But if you had asked, "Tell me the difference between the ADO Classic Command and Recordset objects.", I could have talked your ear off about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
I prefer open ended questions over one liners in interviews, both when I'm interviewing and when I'm being interviewed.
We have other questions for that.... I've got a pretty extensive list of questions that I use in interviews. They range from the simple "do you know what you are using" to digging down into their personality. Because of our environment, personality is extremely important. We've had people that, while they know their stuff, they just didn't click with the rest of the company.
BTW - the fact that you would have asked additional questions to find what I'm looking for (how to connect to a database, run a query and return the results) is a +1.... we're looking for analytical thought process too.
-tg
A good fit personality-wise is important but this is something that's hard to gauge in an interview sometimes. I know I'm a lot more reserved in an interview than I am in regular work life. Also, the 'fit' tends to change when stuff happens at a company, like when a new manager comes in.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
The interview process kind of applies to the question of this thread. Some interviewers will ask and look for computer science textbook answers to their questions. For someone without formal classroom experience this can pose a challenge. For example, in one interview I had some database design questions thrown at me. I thought I answered them well by briefly describing how I had approached the design in some applications I wrote. It turned out that the interviewer wanted a more abstract, textbook, answer.
It is very hard. But we're getting better at it. Our last four hires have worked out in that respect. Even though they were slightly less caliber than we would have liked, that can be easily overcome with training. In our shop of 12, personality is important. And since we promote within, in a way I am the "new" manager - and I've been here nearly 10 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by bgmacaw
In all fairness.... If I had to go through the barage of questions I have in my list - I'm not sure I'd hire myself!
But then, I don't ask all of the questions of everybody all the time. I'll pick and choose which ones to ask based on their CV, answers to other questions by the others (we do committee interviews, saves time on every one's part), and answers to some of my other questions. Generally, out of the 40+ I have, I'll ask 15 or so.
There are three that I make sure I ask of everyone.
1) Every developer has learned various tricks and techniques that they put in their "toolbox" or "toolkit". If we were to look in your toolbox, what sort of things would we find?
2) Why programming? What drives you to do it?
3) Why are manhole covers round?
Those three questions alone reveal a lot about our candidates, more than some realize.
-tg
I love it! That is great :DQuote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Those are some good questions.
A Swiss Army Knife. I like dynamic coding so I've built several templates around this concept.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
A SQL Server Screwdriver. I've got a set of database routines that I've been improving and updating for 10 years now.
I don't sing or play guitar well enough to be a rock star. That means programming is a creative activity for me that some will actually pay me to do well enough for me to make a living. Unfortunately, as with being a rock star, age has limited my options when it comes to programming, at least in the eyes of the audience.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Do you mean African or European manhole covers? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Why not, eh? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Round is the only shape that will prevent the cover from falling in when tipped on it's end. They used to be square. But when tipped up, the distance of the hypotenuse allows the square cover to fall in. Being round, the radius never changes, and so isn't suseptable to falling into the hole accidentally, and striking workers below.
-tg
Here's a follow-up one for you: Why are septic tank lids square? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
@tg - you weren't supposed to give it away...
As for septic tank lids - no one goes under them :D
At least I didn't reveal our other question we like to ask.... it's fun to watch their wheels turn as they think it over - right after they give us the deer caught in the headlights "are you kidding me?" lool.
-tg