From: Stephen D. Williams (sdw@lig.net)
Date: Mon Jun 12 2000 - 08:06:46 PDT
Oddly enough, a good friend of mine went to a so-called interview with a .com
here in the DC area last Friday.
An HR type (non-technical) chit-chatted for a while and then when my friend
asked if was going to talk to someone technical, he was told that he was to
take a written test only.
He was very annoyed with the written test because there were so many ambiguous
and open-ended questions and he felt compelled to answer completely and
therefore wasn't finished after the 30-minute time limit. He was then
escorted out without talking to anyone technical. He felt extremely sure that
a face-to-face interview would have been much better and was offended that
there wasn't a real interview.
Taking tests in and of itself is a skill that grows rusty with non-use of
professionals. This is definitely an activity slanted toward younger recruits
with fresh school experience.
sdw
Bjørn Remseth wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 08, 2000 at 05:14:34AM -0500, Adam L. Beberg wrote:
>
> > some hiring rules for writing non-crap software:
> > [or, why I'll never win]
>
> ...
>
> I have a standard set of questions I usually ask:
>
> If candidate says he/she knows something about databases
> then ask candidate "Can you explain 1NF for me?".
>
> If candidate answers correctly, ask candidate which NF is usually
> his/her target when making a first attempt at a DB design.
>
> If candidate says he/she knows something about program design
> then ask candidate "What is a quadratic algorithm?"
> (the question is intentionally ambigous, and one might tell
> the candidate this, it makes no difference for the ones who
> knows the answers ;)
>
> If candidate says he/she knows something about networks
> then ask candidate "Can you explain 'Slow start' in TCP for me?"
>
> Even if these questions appear to have a textbook answer, and they do, they
> really are open ended questions.
>
> I make no secret about the fact that I regularly ask these questions, still
> I have yet to interview a -single-person- who couldn't give a reasonable
> answer to all of them that I wouldn't hire on the spot ;-)
>
> (Rmz)
-- Insta.com - Revolutionary E-Business Communication sdw@insta.com Stephen D. Williams Senior Consultant/Architect http://sdw.st 43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Jan2000
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