Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

«‹›728 »

double sulk: Jul 2, 2010

Ithaqua posted:

Well, he's claiming to know 6 languages, and nothing on his resume is showing any experience with 4 of them, so he must have learned them somewhere and done some sort of substantive project with them. As a resume reader, I'd like to see some evidence of competency with those languages or else I'm going to assume he's just padding his resume.

All resumes are padded to some extent. Your average developer doesn't really know more than a couple languages at an advanced level, and if you have enough passing familiarity with it to do something minor, it's better than listing only 1-2. Anyone doing the filtering who's remotely competent should be able to see what you're most experienced with based on your job history.

It's also inappropriate to assume that someone's spending a lot of their personal time outside of work writing code, if they currently have a job as a developer. A lot of people have hobbies outside of work and writing more code is the last thing they want to do when getting home, and at the same time it's illegal to share private code that you work on in the day-to-day. Most of the time you just have to take someone's word for something, and that's what the interview process is for.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 17:53

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 8, 2024 15:59

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

HondaCivet posted:

OK, here is my resume with personal info removed, submitted for your harsh verbal lashings. Let me know if the link doesn't work or something.

My reactions:

You made this in Microsoft Word? It not being in LaTeX is strike 1 against you. P.S. thanks to some metadata you didn't wipe out, now I know your name and I'm putting it into my goons.txt file.
HTML is not a programming language.
ASP.NET is not a programming language. Nor is ASP.NET Razor. Or if I'm wrong and it is, it doesn't count.
HTML is not a programming language.
C/C++ is not a programming language. Some reader might sperg and think (probably correctly) that you don't know either of them. Why are they combined like that, separated by a slash?
Knowing frameworks and libraries is fine I guess, but who cares? You don't know the most important library/framework which is the product I'm hiring you to work on. What's good is that you mention these in the work experience section. (Don't read this as suggestion that you remove the section, it's a good intro to what you've done. Idk, that's just my spergacious reaction.)
There's no such thing as "Boost C++".
Nobody cares about your claims about development "methods" and development "patterns" (which is, as far as I know, not an actual notion that exists). It's not like it takes more than 10 seconds to pick up whatever development methodology/whatever your team has, so nobody cares that you "know" Agile, Lean, and/or Test-Driven development, i.e. know what they are. Knowing what they are (or even using them) doesn't make you a better programmer or candidate. People want to know approximately one thing: is there a decent chance they won't be disappointed with your coding abilities on the phone screen? (Sometimes they also want to know how much experience you have, and what it's in -- and that's in regard to stuff like C++ or ASP.NET.)
I don't even know what Model-View-ViewModel is. It would take like 1 minute to explain it to somebody. The fact that you listed it as some news-worthy skill implies that it would take you like a week to learn it.
Who doesn't know how to do object-oriented programming? All that stuff isn't worth listing.
The "Analytic" section: WOW! You're good at problem investigation and troubleshooting! That's falsifiable. Are we just going to trust your opinion that you "know" code review??? What does that even mean? Just drop that whole line.
It makes you look like a scrub to say you're skilled in quality assurance when last I checked you've had one real programming job and didn't mention anything about QA on it.
Applications and Environments: Are there really employers that think you'll have a hard time getting up to speed on some IDE? After all, in your short career you've learned about 7 of them. But you are missing a comma and a space between Apple iWork Suite (WTF) and Adobe Photoshop. This suggests that you're actually a bad programmer, because you lack attention to detail.
Also you mention LabVIEW but didn't list G under programming languages (despite listing HTML, which is not a programming language). That's ok. The same goes for Matlab. Another programming language you apparently don't have the skill in (but you're skilled in its environment?)
Also nobody gives a gently caress that you can use Microsoft Office or Apple iWork or that you choose to call them "Suite". Maybe you think that's sweet, nobody else does.
And wow you know both VS 2008 and 2010, I've definitely met C++ devs that were good C++ programmers for which their inability to use Visual Studio was a show-stopper (not!)
Basically of the entire technical skills section, the only things to keep are "programming languages" and "software frameworks and libraries", but I might have more comment on that. Like, you mentioned ASP.NET twice. And Microsoft .NET one more time. And C#.

On to Work Experience!

I don't know what to make of this job title "IT Specialist, Software Engineer - Associate". What's the "Associate" mean?
Is that two separate job titles? Would it be a lie to say that you were a "Software Engineer"? Just listing the last job title you had? There's no reason you have to use the company's electric company job title scheme instead of just saying what you were.
Your problem is that you suck at English. You can't put a basic sentence together. I can only conclude that you're mentally retarded and not worth hiring. Don't put failed attempts at making actual sentences on your resume. For example you mix tenses in your second bullet point under PacifiCorp.
You say you made a software "for an electric utility corporation." *Googles PacifiCorp.* *Finds that PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the northwestern United States.* Uhhh, so you're saying you made it for PacifiCorp? This is just a stupid sentence, you're saying who you made it for, in wavy generic terms, when you already said who the employer was. I don't get this.
You say you iteratively collected feedback throughout development process. That's redundant. If you're doing it throughout the development process, you're doing it iteratively, no? Also, it's the development process. Don't you know your articles? For future reference, see Corner Gas, S01E03 (or was it S01E02? Better watch both).
Also, while at PacifiCorp, you worked on some team to produce releases of primary applications. That says nothing. Say what you did, say what you used, say why you didn't suck.
At Xolve, Inc, you say you used nanomaterials. Since everybody's heard of nanomaterials, what you say sounds like you're bullshitting (it has been this way ever since Docker's had nanomaterials). Isn't a nanomaterial just a material? The Wikipedia page for nanomaterials says it's a field of study.
You set up computer "workstations" (read: computers) for "several" staff members. So you set up computers. That was, what, 1% of your job? I don't know. Who cares? Tell us more about this coating technique, or just remove the sucky bullet points and make this section shorter. You've worked so long at PacifiCorp, surely there's much more interesting stuff that you can say about that. You've been there for over 2 years!
Nobody cares that you used an Arbin BT2000 battery testing device. And it's weird that you split these two Li-Ion things with something that's so lame.
And now we have your Engineering Systems Research Intern job. Another job worthy of three bullet points, exactly the same number for this summer job as there were for your 2 year long job.
YOU WROTE A C++ APPLICATION. Good job! TELL US MORE! (loving Christ, why did I have to read lines about business requirements and Windows XP before I got to this?)
"Set up a TCP server and client pair usingc Boost C++ la.bitteh" what? No, that's not what you did. You did client/server programming in C++. You did network programming in C++. You did network programming for making various devices send information to each other. Tell us more! What happens when you expand that section?

And also, what Ithaqua said in response to me: How the heck do you know Ruby or Java?

I don't expect you to have a Github profile since that's not really something most people have. I don't think I've ever actually seen a person we've interviewed and hired that had a real Github profile. People generally don't actually have Github profiles of any worth -- it's just useless junk -- the one person who I remember that did, it turned out he wasn't that bright. Anyway, a Github profile is useful if you have no experience or worse yet, no degree, but I don't think it's necessary or would be of particular use for you.

shrughes fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 8, 2013

# ? Nov 8, 2013 17:56

Suspicious Dish: Sep 24, 2011; 2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro; Fun Shoe

shrughes posted:

I don't even know what Model-View-ViewModel is. It would take like 1 minute to explain it to somebody.

So, you don't know what it is, but you're sure it would take a minute to learn? Please spare a minute and tell me what it is, then, since I've been trying to figure it out for two years now.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 18:02

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

Just read the Wikipedia page, it seems to do a half-decent job of relating it to similar concepts.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 18:07

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

Suspicious Dish posted:

So, you don't know what it is, but you're sure it would take a minute to learn? Please spare a minute and tell me what it is, then, since I've been trying to figure it out for two years now.

In mvvm you don't bind the view to the model, but to a projection of the model into something more useful called the viewmodel. You still have controllers floating around doing logic but the views are coded against the ViewModel rather than the model. It's a subtle distinction but still useful.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 18:14

HondaCivet: Oct 16, 2005; And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know

Ithaqua posted:

-As a .NET guy, the fact that you call MVC "ASP .NET Razor" in the first section is a yellow flag. You've used ASP .NET MVC, but you don't know what it's called? Not a good sign.
-Remove the "Analytical" section. You've debugged software before? Wow!
-Remove the "Applications" section. No one cares that you've used Office and Photoshop.

The work experience section needs a lot of fleshing out, espsecially the most recent job (which is what you want to be putting emphasis on if you want to write software professionally). Talk about how you contributed to the effort. What specific cool, employable things you do? You say you do TDD -- talk about how you introduced TDD to the team, and that by writing comprehensive unit tests you helped reduce the number of regressions introduced. (for example).

Where's the link to your stack overflow and github profiles? You say you know 6 programming languages... where's some evidence? I'd expect a Github packed with examples of things you did in Ruby and C# and C++. If you don't know any of those languages well enough to actually write software in them, don't list it. Listing every programming language you've ever read about for 15 minutes on Wikipedia is a huge red flag. I wrote some Java and C in college, but that was a decade ago and I haven't written anything significant in either language since then. I don't list those languages.

The reason you're not getting any responses to this is because you're not selling yourself well enough. I look at your resume and see a guy who's had one relevant job (for over 2 years, which is good!, but still only one) and can only come up with three very terse bullet points for two years of work.

Thanks a lot for the feedback. For the "Razor" part, I was referring to the Razor view engine/syntax, not MVC itself, but if listing HTML is dumb then listing Razor is also dumb I guess?

Regarding a lot of the derpier things like the Analytical section... I thought recruiters, HR people and screening bots wanted to see stuff like that even if it's stupid for an actual engineer to read through? I had a professional resume service help me with it and they seemed to think stuff like that was important.

I'll try to rewrite it a bit this weekend and see if I can improve it.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 18:51

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

HondaCivet posted:

Thanks a lot for the feedback. For the "Razor" part, I was referring to the Razor view engine/syntax, not MVC itself, but if listing HTML is dumb then listing Razor is also dumb I guess?

It might make sense to mention Razor in a different section (the other one?) with an appropriate section name. If you mention HTML, it similarly should be in that section (though I don't know how useful it would be to mention, if you're not trying to get through some really bad resume filter).

# ? Nov 8, 2013 19:02

UnfurledSails: Sep 1, 2011

If you are an undergrad and have no previous work experience whatsoever, is it a good idea to talk about your major class projects? I mean large projects that take the entire class to complete, like designing and implementing an OS in an OS class, or a compiler in a compilers class. Or are those projects pretty much worthless because everyone will have done them by the time they graduate?

# ? Nov 8, 2013 19:46

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

UnfurledSails posted:

I mean large projects that take the entire class to complete, like designing and implementing an OS in an OS class, or a compiler in a compilers class.

Sure.

quote:

Or are those projects pretty much worthless because everyone will have done them by the time they graduate?

Not everybody will have done them, lots of CS graduates and CS programs lack that stuff.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 20:07

boho: Oct 4, 2011; on fire and loving it

This resume talk has prompted me to ask for some goon advice (I never learn).

I redid my resume recently and discovered I was more a Game Designer (go ahead, I'll be here when you're done laughing) with a Computer Science degree, not a Computer Scientist with a side game project that showed off my ~soft skills~ and ~creative thinking~.

That said I'd like to actually be employed and making a living wage. When it comes to Junior Design, the former is hard enough and the latter is a cruel joke. I'm trying to find a way to leverage my CS degree into an Engineering role.

I know enough to answer babby's first programming interview questions and have a solid grasp of at least entry level concepts (plus I guess I've got code samples from classes), but I don't program in my free time (or want to) so I figure I'm probably not going to be a Software Engineer when I grow up. I interviewed for an Ops position and a decision about that is slated for early next week, but I'm still looking for other types of positions in the Software Engineering spectrum. Customer-facing or high-communication roles are fine, maybe even preferred. I looked into UX but they seemed way more Art Degree/Photoshop than Engineering. Any suggestions? Oh, and QA sounds dreadful for what that's worth.

UnfurledSails posted:

If you are an undergrad and have no previous work experience whatsoever, is it a good idea to talk about your major class projects? I mean large projects that take the entire class to complete, like designing and implementing an OS in an OS class, or a compiler in a compilers class. Or are those projects pretty much worthless because everyone will have done them by the time they graduate?

In the admittedly few entry-level interviews I've done, it's mandatory. Bonus points if it was a group project and you can clearly explain your role in it without getting goonlord about the other members. That's definitely something my college did right: A two-semester project that started with a real live not-technical client all the way through release (or as far as you could get in your circumstances).

boho fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Nov 8, 2013

# ? Nov 8, 2013 20:14

Hyperman1992: Jul 18, 2013

HondaCivet posted:

OK, here is my resume with personal info removed, submitted for your harsh verbal lashings. Let me know if the link doesn't work or something.

Do people mind if submit mine here for the verbal lashings? or should I just go to the resume thread? (can't remember what its called atm...)

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:03

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

Hyperman1992 posted:

Do people mind if submit mine here for the verbal lashings? or should I just go to the resume thread? (can't remember what its called atm...)

Post it. That's what the thread is here for.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:21

Kumquat: Oct 8, 2010

Ithaqua posted:

Post it. That's what the thread is here for.

I disagree, only HondaCivet and 2banks are allowed to get actual meaningful advice from this thread. Everyone else must learn by trial and error.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:22

Sarcophallus: Jun 12, 2011; by Lowtax

Hyperman1992 posted:

Do people mind if submit mine here for the verbal lashings? or should I just go to the resume thread? (can't remember what its called atm...)

Either or both is fine - you will not be the first or the last. Just bear in mind that apparently if you post it in this thread you might have shrughes turn into a sperg-lord about it.

Not that (most of) your comments are incorrect, shrughes, I just would never want to work with you; especially given your first comment is about the dude not using LaTeX of all things. Christ that's dumb.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:22

Suspicious Dish: Sep 24, 2011; 2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro; Fun Shoe

Malcolm XML posted:

In mvvm you don't bind the view to the model, but to a projection of the model into something more useful called the viewmodel. You still have controllers floating around doing logic but the views are coded against the ViewModel rather than the model. It's a subtle distinction but still useful.

Can you give a quick example?

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:24

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

Suspicious Dish posted:

Can you give a quick example?

Pretend we had something that displayed a bunch of users, and had a "GO" button. So, for the purposes of our discussion, our model is a collection of Users.

Should the "GO" button be enabled or disabled? That's not part of your model -- your model is a bunch of users. It's definitely not something that should be part of your view... what if you wanted to unit test the conditions under which the "GO" button is disabled? So instead, you put that logic in a viewmodel -- the VM contains a property or method for determining whether the "GO" button is active, a collection of users, and probably a method to execute when the "GO" button is actually clicked.

The controller routes you to the correct view. The viewmodel expresses the current state of the view, and the view is "glued" to various properties on the viewmodel. The viewmodel makes sure that a correctly-shaped model is provided to the view as necessary.

Viewmodels are pretty frequently client-side in the web world (i.e. backbone.js).

Does that make more sense?

# ? Nov 8, 2013 21:46

Gazpacho: Jun 18, 2004; by Fluffdaddy; Slippery Tilde

Removing ASP.NET and C/C++ from a list of programming languages might get you points for sperg-correctness but it really has nothing to do with getting through the HR/manager gauntlet to an interview. I would note that Microsoft refers to ASP.NET frequently as a programming language and if some random Joe disagrees it's his problem.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 22:27

Fuck them: Jan 21, 2011; and their bullshit

http://learn.knockoutjs.com/#/?tutorial=intro

This helped me 'get' viewmodels pretty fast.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 22:28

HondaCivet: Oct 16, 2005; And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know

Hyperman1992 posted:

Do people mind if submit mine here for the verbal lashings? or should I just go to the resume thread? (can't remember what its called atm...)

Having actual devs look at your resume is way different than having an HR person try to help you with it so I'd post it both places at some point.

LaTeX is cool and Word is lame but non-nerds aren't going to be able to help you work on your resume very easily if you use it.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 22:47

Suspicious Dish: Sep 24, 2011; 2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro; Fun Shoe

Ithaqua posted:

Does that make more sense?

Yep. And I had a suspicion it would be something like this. I don't normally write MVC-separated code, although I clearly should get better. I've seen a lot of bugs in code like this:

JavaScript code:

var userList = loadFromServer();
var button = new Button();

function addUser(user) {
    userList.push(user);
    button.sensitive = true;
}

function removeUser(user) {
    userList.remove(user);
    if (userList.length == 0)
        button.sensitive = false;
}

The bug here is that it's not initialized properly if the server returns an empty user list initially. (I just fixed one like this two days ago, too)

I've started a new pattern in all code I write, which I name "the sync pattern", that looks like this:

JavaScript code:

var userList = loadFromServer();
var button = new Button();

function syncButton() {
    button.sensitive = (userList.length > 0);
}

function addUser(user) {
    userList.push(user);
    syncButton();
}

function removeUser(user) {
    userList.remove(user);
    syncButton();
}

syncButton();

Now, the condition for when the button should be sensitive is clearly visible in the code, not the artefacts how to change it. Obviously, there's still a bit of cruft here in that I have to manually call syncButton when userList changes. I believe one of the front-end JS frameworks (Angular, Backbone, Knockout, Ember, whatever) can do the tracking of the array manually and apply the postcondition automatically when it detects the length changed, but all the JavaScript code I write is desktop JavaScript, I can't use those.

Would this style be ViewModel-ish? Or not?

# ? Nov 8, 2013 22:55

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

HondaCivet posted:

Having actual devs look at your resume is way different than having an HR person try to help you with it so I'd post it both places at some point.

LaTeX is cool and Word is lame but non-nerds aren't going to be able to help you work on your resume very easily if you use it.

I just export my resume to PDF before I send it. That has the added bonus of not letting unscrupulous recruiters make "tweaks" to it, which I had problems with once upon a time. I can just imagine the recruiter's thought process... "Well, it says 'C#', so that must just be a more advanced form of 'C'! I'll just search and replace all of the '#' symbols and remove all references to .NET."

The moment of mutual confusion that you and the interviewer share about 3 minutes into the interview is just priceless.

New Yorp New Yorp fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Nov 8, 2013

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:03

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

Ithaqua posted:

I just export my resume to PDF before I send it.

You think that hides the fact that you used Word?

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:17

HondaCivet: Oct 16, 2005; And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know

Yeah I export to PDF before handing it out to recruiters or applications. I have been keeping it in Word format for editing but I don't send that version to people that aren't helping me edit it for the reasons you mentioned.

Hey shrughes, since you dug around for my name I fully expect you to buy me a beer if you ever run into me. :colbert:

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:23

Strong Sauce: Jul 2, 2003; You know I am not really your father.

Who the gently caress cares if you're using Word or LaTeX? I honestly can't tell if this is a serious discussion or not.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:24

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

It's a trick question, the PHP site from 2003 you're submitting in requires plaintext anyway.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:25

air-: Sep 24, 2007; Who will win the greatest battle of them all?

HondaCivet posted:

Yeah I export to PDF before handing it out to recruiters or applications. I have been keeping it in Word format for editing but I don't send that version to people that aren't helping me edit it for the reasons you mentioned.

Hey shrughes, since you dug around for my name I fully expect you to buy me a beer if you ever run into me.

Talking about versions in a different context - I know a few people who have more than one resume, one to get past HR bullshit and one that is more technical. They'd just bring different versions depending on what type of interview they'll be doing.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:32

Tres Burritos: Sep 3, 2009

JawnV6 posted:

It's a trick question, the PHP site from 2003 you're submitting in requires plaintext anyway.

No loving poo poo, some of the career websites that companies use are loving atrocious.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:32

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

Strong Sauce posted:

Who the gently caress cares if you're using Word or LaTeX? I honestly can't tell if this is a serious discussion or not.

Generally speaking there exists a subset of people reading resumes who will read it in a more charitable light if it was made in LaTeX. There are big grains of truth in this:

HondaCivet posted:

Hey shrughes, since you dug around for my name I fully expect you to buy me a beer if you ever run into me.

I didn't even have to dig around, it was displayed in the title bar.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:36

SurgicalOntologist: Jun 17, 2004

-1 for Ph.D? ...oops.

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:51

Don Mega: Nov 26, 2005

The biggest grain of truth is that Latex is more impressive than starting your own company. The only subset of people who care what you create your resume in are huge sperglords that any sensible person would avoid at all costs.

Don Mega fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Nov 9, 2013

# ? Nov 8, 2013 23:57

Notorious b.s.d.: Jan 25, 2003; by Reene

Ithaqua posted:

I just export my resume to PDF before I send it. That has the added bonus of not letting unscrupulous recruiters make "tweaks" to it, which I had problems with once upon a time. I can just imagine the recruiter's thought process... "Well, it says 'C#', so that must just be a more advanced form of 'C'! I'll just search and replace all of the '#' symbols and remove all references to .NET."

The moment of mutual confusion that you and the interviewer share about 3 minutes into the interview is just priceless.

Recruiters will literally type your entire pdf resume into Word to do this. They often choose to re-type it anyway to put it on company letterhead.

Remember: there can be $20-30k riding on a placement. Some recruiters are crazy enough to do anything you can imagine for that money.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:00

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

I've had my PDF resume get converted into a Word Document and then had the graduation date edited out.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:05

Don Mega: Nov 26, 2005

I had a recruiter add "Operating Systems" under my skills section and when the interviewer asked me about it all I could really say was "apparently the recruiter added that so I can't really answer your question." Avoid them.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:08

HondaCivet: Oct 16, 2005; And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know

shrughes posted:

I didn't even have to dig around, it was displayed in the title bar.

Oops, guess that's what happens when I try to do things right before bed.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:18

No Safe Word: Feb 26, 2005

shrughes posted:

Generally speaking there exists a subset of people reading resumes who will read it in a more charitable light if it was made in LaTeX. There are big grains of truth in this:

The distinction to make is that LaTeX is a plus and Word isn't a minus. Like I know for a fact that at my current job I got bonus points for noticing/mentioning the Model M keyboard that my boss has, but I'm pretty sure he's not expecting everyone he interviews to notice it and comment on it.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:29

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

shrughes posted:

You think that hides the fact that you used Word?

I don't think anyone gives a rat's rear end if it's from Word, LaTeX, or hieroglyphics written in crayon on a roll of toilet paper. Okay, maybe they care a little bit about that last one.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:33

pr0zac: Jan 18, 2004; ~*lukecagefan69*~; Pillbug

I've generally found most LaTeX resumes that end up in my lap seem to care way more about showing off how awesome the creator is at LaTeX than actually succinctly displaying work history and experience relevant to the position I'm looking to fill. This may be because the LaTeX resumes that don't do this are indistinguishable from those done in Word or whatever.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:42

tk: Dec 10, 2003; Nap Ghost

shrughes posted:

I will not be taking any formatting advice from the person that made this image.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:51

Crazy Mike: Sep 16, 2005; Now with 25% more kimchee.

I just got back from a job interview that seemed like it went in my favor. I am a programmer 1 and the interview is for a (2/3/4) flex position. I've provided mostly good answers and some total blanks and shotgun guesses. The first set of questions was about how you would handle work problems. (Tell me about a time you had to drop everything and focus on another task. There is a critical software release that needs go out, but no time to resolve all the bugs. What is the best approach? Something in your code slipped through the cracks, how would you handle it?)

Then came the technical questions. I was off to a bad start with not knowing what LDAP was and what it was used for. I knew what a RAID was but wasn't able to talk about the difference between RAID 1 and RAID 0. I did good on the next two questions explaining the difference between equal and equivalent and what is the difference between pass by value and pass by reference? Apparently pass by value/reference is a stumbling block for a lot of people.

The next question was to describe polymorphism. I screwed up and got a backwards analogy about cow and chicken deriving from animal and if you cast an animal as a cow, it would have the cow's methods. After the interviewer corrected me I asked him how much we have to think about polymorphism in this job because even though I've read about it, I never really had to use or think about it much in my work. He said it was all the time as they have a lot of Java classes that have a lot of polymorphism.

The next question were me being walked through Pessimistic Locking/Optimistic locking and who gets to update a record. I haven't heard those terms before but guessed that they had to do with a database and were similar to read permissions and worked from there. The last question they didn't expect me to get which was have you used a CRM like Microsoft Dynamics? That was another blank area for me. Finally they asked what is the base class in .NET (System.Object) and what is the framework that is most critical in .NET? (After a few seconds of me thinking he gave me the answer 2.0 for their asp compatibility. I was going to go for adding generics)

Despite a lot of misses on the questions by the end they seemed to like me and were talking like I already got the job. They told me that contractors do most of the big application creation and we are here to customize it for the business needs, that about 25% of their applications is in .NET that they want to get to at least .NET 2.0 although there are large legacy concerns, and that the vast majority of the rest is Java and I'm going to have to learn that.

I have a feeling I'm going to get the offer for a 2. It would be a stretch to say I'm qualified for the 3, but within the realm of possibility. One of the reasons I started looking was my boss taking twice as long as normal to promote almost everyone. Here's hoping I climb to the next rung.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:53

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 8, 2024 15:59

shrughes: Oct 11, 2008; (call/cc call/cc)

Ithaqua posted:

I don't think anyone gives a rat's rear end if it's from Word, LaTeX, or hieroglyphics written in crayon on a roll of toilet paper. Okay, maybe they care a little bit about that last one.

It's not like people actively care, you can say you're all objective robots, but that's not true. When you're reading resumes, and you get a poo poo-ton of Word resumes, then you get a LaTeX resume, you end up looking forward to it. It has a higher chance of getting a phone screen. I mean by "you" I don't mean you, since apparently you can't recognize the difference between its typography and that of Word.

# ? Nov 9, 2013 00:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

«‹›728 »