School Project - Interview

[dimava]

Hi, I have to do a school project, and part of the project is to interview someone who has worked as a programmer for 2+ years. So... i thought this would be the best place to make my interview, so if you have worked as a programming for over 2 years, please take time to answer the questions below:

What programming language (s) do you work with?
With department are you in?
How many people do you work with daily?
How many hours a day do you work?
What time do you start work?
Do you sit at a desk all day?
Do you communicate with a lot of people during your work hours?
What happens if someone is sick?
How productive is your department (or company if its a small business)?
How much do you get paid (if you dont mind)?
Do you have fun at your job?
How big is your company?
What kind of computers do you use at work?
What kind of internet connection do you have?
Do you have a network inside your business?
If so, how secure is it?
Have there every been any hack attempts in the department where you work?
What kind of education or training might I need for the job you currently have?
What do you like most about your job?
What do you like least about your job?
What is a typical day in your job like?
Are you busier at some times of the year then at others?
Are there any questions that I forgot to ask?

thanks

dimava

[dimava]

I need a few 'interviews' (by the way)

[Arbiter]

Before I take ages answering all the questions, I'm a business analyst by job title, though I do write/look at vb code on occaision.

Is it still worth my while answering?

[Gaffer]

here you go:

VB6
Global Systems Development Dept (but not much longer if I stay on this site!)
On the same Project, none. In the development team, 7
Anything from 9 to 14 hours per day
Anything from 7 to 9am
Yes
Yes, around 10-15 per day
If I'm sick, I get called at home.
Very productive. Tight deadlines
£690 per day ($1000)
half fun, half stress
Worldwide, massive. London, 500
Compaq P800MHz, 128Mb RAM, 10G HDD, 17" Monitor
T-2 (bout 2Mb link)
yes (Novell)
Don't know - haven't tried to break it yet
None that have been disclosed
Education: Degree Based (but not essential). Training: I have no certificates, but MS courses can help. People tend to recruit people...
Like: Creativity
Dislike: Calls at home in evening and weekends
Day: Coffee, work, calls, lunch, coffee, work, coffee, calls
I'm project based, so busy periods tend to be toward deadlines

You forgot to ask what Industry I work in! (Banking, BTW)

Good luck...

[SurfDemon]

What programming language (s) do you work with?
- VB, C++, SQL-Server & Oracle (Yes I know the last 2 are db's)
With department are you in?
- IT usually. (I'm a contractor, aso I change jobs every 6 months or so)
How many people do you work with daily?
- 5 - 25
How many hours a day do you work?
- he he (I'll say 8, and thats my final answer)
What time do you start work?
- 7am
Do you sit at a desk all day?
- Not if I can get to the pub, but my day is mostly either at my desk (60%) at meetings (20%) or wandering around looking for somebody to bug (20%)
Do you communicate with a lot of people during your work hours?
- Yes
What happens if someone is sick?
- Well, it depends on the illness, some people call a doctor, others throw-up, some just sneeze a lot. Oh, I see what you're getting at. If it's short term illness then there's no real impact. If it was long term we would have to think of getting a contractor in. If I'm sick I don't get paid.
How productive is your department (or company if its a small business)?
- I find small companies very proiductive. This decreases exponentially asthe company size increases. I worked in a Nuclear power station for a number of years and they were so picky picky picky about standards that it took years to do anything. Of course many people would say thats a good thing!
How much do you get paid (if you dont mind)?
- It depends. Roughly about $125,000 Canadian a year. Thats about US$80,000 I think. It's easy to earn more in this business, but I like to take about 2-3 months off a year for family etc. and not work long hours.
Do you have fun at your job?
- Ohhhh Yessss!
How big is your company?
- The one I'm working for at present has about 20,000 employees. But I'vbe worked in companies as small as 3 people (including me).
What kind of computers do you use at work?
- Bog Standard IBM PIII 128mbRam Windows 2000 Pro
What kind of internet connection do you have?
- T1 at work, Cable at Home
Do you have a network inside your business?
- Yes
If so, how secure is it?
- I don't know.
Have there every been any hack attempts in the department where you work?
- Not that I know of
What kind of education or training might I need for the job you currently have?
- A degree is prefrable, but not essential.
What do you like most about your job?
- I work whenever I want, wherever I want, I get to spend lots of time with my family and mates, they pay me for doing something I enjoy, I don't have to work outside in the winter time.
What do you like least about your job?
Mmmm, getting up at 6am every morning.
What is a typical day in your job like?
- For the present contract. Quickly scan the Irish-Times, Glasgow Herald and ABC New headlines to see if I'm missing anything important in the world. Sigh. Work on design documentation, Go in search of somebody to annoy. Annoy somebody. Back to documentation. Lunch. Go to Meeting. Try not to fall asleep in meeting. Back to documentation. Home. (We are in the design phase of the project at present. Each phase requires a different work pattern.
Are you busier at some times of the year then at others?
- Not particularly at certain times of the year, but we do get busy towards the end of each phase of the development life-cycle. Therefore we try to avoid having too many project deadlines in the middle of summer when we should be out enjoying ourselves.
Are there any questions that I forgot to ask?
- For the first question you might want to ask them what databases they use. You probably want to ask them where they live as well, as this will make a huge diference when comparing the wages.

Good luck,

SD

[dimava]

Thanks!

[Static]

Gaffer!! You make $1000 a day? OMG!

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by geoff_xrx
Gaffer!! You make $1000 a day? OMG!

Yeah, but ask him how much a house costs in London!!!

SD

[Static]

ok...How much does a house cost in london???

[SurfDemon]

Approx. 1 arm and 1 leg when I was there. I worked in Reading (which is zillions of miles outside London) and still the house we were renting was more expensive than the entire village I grew up in in Scotland.

I'm not joking when I say that people sell houses in London, then retire to Scotland and with the money from the house they buy an Island or some such!

It's gotta be one of the coolest cities on earth to live in, but man is it expensive!

[SurfDemon]

Kensington, Kensington, London £950,000
3 Bedrooms 2 Receptions
Exceptional 3 double bedroom flat in this well maintained block, close to Holland Park. Easy access to all the shopping and transport facilities of Kensington Hight Street. The flat is on the third floor in this quiet residential location. The property is very bright and spacious, benefiting from views of the surrounding trees and light pouring in from three sides of this third floor corner flat. Currently let to a multinational corporation.



or if thats a bit pricey how about this hovel



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Queens Gate Terrace, London £220,000
1 Bedroom 1 Reception
A compact ground floor one bedroom flat at the rear of the building with nicely proportioned rooms. the flat is presented in good order. Service Charge to include sinking fund 1900 pa Ground rent 100 Lease 85 years Price 220,000


You can look for yourself on http://www.londonproperty.co.uk/findsale.html

It'll give you a laugh. I'm not sure what the exchange rate is between the pound and the US Dollar, but if you multiply these prices by 1.5 you shouldn't be far off.

SD

[barrk]

Yikes!!!!!!!! No wonder your salaries are so high.....I'd still be broke even with a high salary if I lived there.

[SurfDemon]

Thats why I don't live there any more. I moved away, halfed my salary and still managed to double my standard of living!

Shame though, 'cause it is a great city! Even if it is English

SD

[cookre]

What programming language (s) do you work with?
Currently? C(3 flavors), VB, Java(2 flavors), Rexx(3 flavors), Perl, Assembly(3 flavors)

With department are you in?
let's just call it 'Special Projects'

How many people do you work with daily?
Regularly assigned to work with every day? None. I do, however, get to pick up a protege when I find someone who shows significant promise.

How many hours a day do you work?
6-12

What time do you start work?
An hour and a half after I wake up. I'm not being flip, I have no fixed hours and don't use an alarm clock.

Do you sit at a desk all day?
Good gracious, no.

Do you communicate with a lot of people during your work hours?
A lot? Hundreds? Scores? Dozens?
I probably talk to 10-20.

What happens if someone is sick?
They stay home and come back when they're better. If they're working on a critical project, they'll catch up later.

How productive is your department (or company if its a small business)? If we weren't productive and carrying our weight, we wouldn't exist.

How much do you get paid (if you dont mind)?
$80K(I do mind, but that's all I can get here - but it's loads of fun!)

Do you have fun at your job?
You betcha. I could make lots more elsewhere, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as fun. I've had the same job description for the past eleven years - think up of useful things and do them.

How big is your company?
Federal agency

What kind of computers do you use at work?
Embedded, PCs, servers, midis, and mainframes.

What kind of internet connection do you have?
T3

Do you have a network inside your business?
Yes

If so, how secure is it?
Pretty secure

Have there every been any hack attempts in the department where you work?
Attempts? Sure. Intrusions? Nope.

What kind of education or training might I need for the job you currently have?
Programming at this level requires no formal training, but a lot of practical experience. The ability to think clearly and take all the computational what ifs into account is mandatory.

What do you like most about your job?
I still get to be a programmer after 30+ years.

What do you like least about your job?
It's about 40 miles from home. Oh well, it's my own damn fault for chosing to live in the country.

What is a typical day in your job like?
Work on current project, help out folks with problems they can't resolve themselves.

Are you busier at some times of the year then at others?
No. If I'm not busy, I haven't planned ahead properly. If I'm too busy, I haven't planned ahead properly.

Are there any questions that I forgot to ask?
There are questions you haven't asked, but how could I know if you forgot them or never knew them in the first place?