What do you do?

Mist

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,512
22,434
Erronius_sl said:
Also, Mist's experience sounds like a lead-in to a DM's Shadowrun game right before the players walk off the elevator.
Click to expand...
lol yeah. My job is almost precisely like whatever the protagonist of every cyberpunk anything has before they become Neo/Hiro/whatever. It could not be more of a faceless cubicle farm if it tried. 95% of it is monotonous corporate drudgery.

It's definitely taught me a shitload about hacking phone systems, or hacking corporate networks by getting root on the linux servers their VOIP phones run on, so I might ACTUALLY be on my way to becoming a Decker.
 
Palum

Palum

what Suineg set it to
23,794
34,653
Noodlemod_sl said:
I bombed a question on pointers because I forgot to dereference a pointer, rookie mistake.
Click to expand...
So you're the asshole leaving all the dangling pointers?

I wouldn't worry too much, either they know you're a good candidate because you are, you aren't because you aren't or you just wouldn't fit into the company or the up with shitty co-workers.

I had an interview with a company for a dev position few years ago, they wanted someone adaptable to learn/deal with a ton of shitty customer legacy programs but the focus was on manual data sanitation heavy ETL with REGEX. So the interviewer asks me to tell him out loud (no paper) for a method to print the Fibonacci sequence in C#. I told him I could do the function in LISP no problem because it was fresh but honestly had not used C# so I could only go as far as the basic psuedocode for some parts because I didn't know all the syntax as I'd only ever read up in the differences between C++/C#/Java. He said he wasn't quite sure why I would use LISP for that task (lol?) but that he'd "have to take points off." ?? The next question was to tell him a query to find the duplicate SSNs in a customer table in SQL, I asked him if that was a joke considering what they were looking for and the last question. He said no and I responded with, "OK Select... Do you need me to spell that command for out?" Yea so I turned that job offer down after I found out he was part of the small team lol. Also screw commuting into Cambridge.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
Oh no, I never leave dangling pointers. Also our code really needs to be extremely efficient and optimized, and on top of that we need to unit test everything, so it's just not possible. The problem is my mind is always flipping pointer shit around, so I need a couple of minutes usually to set it straight. It's weird, but of course it was the one question he asked.

He also asked a compiler question that sort of irritated me. The exercise was reading from memory addresses 10 times. I put it in a while loop, and it was something like ((UINT32 *)Address)*, I can't remember how it was written. He then asked me what the compiler would do with that loop. I told him nothing, it would read the memory 10 times. He argued with me that the compiler would flatten it out and store the memory value in the stack and just use that value 10 times. Here's the thing though, I know for certain the compiler included with the BIOS IDE they're using specifically doesn't do that. I've seen the assembly code for it, I know for a fact that it actually reads the memory 10 times. He argued with me and basically "lead me to water" by setting the variables as volatile. Just really annoying, he wasn't even on the team I was interviewing for.

Yes, fuck travelling to Cambridge. If I did get a job there I'll just take the T.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,656
Like the boss who says obvious wrong and dumb shit just to test if you KNOW it's obvious, dumb, and wrong -- assembly language guy might have just been seeing if you're legit.

It's less assholish than you might think. Cause working on projects you no doubt will meet "that guy" who is operating under a subtle but obviously incorrect assumption. So seeing how you correct him (if you know that's he incorrect in the first place) is an extremely valuable evaluation tool for a job interview.

They could just ASK you if you're a blowhard asshole. But if they wanted you to lie to them they'd just ask how big your dick is.
 
Heylel

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
3,602
429
I'm mildly concerned about funky corner case questions today at noon. I'm interviewing for a UX position focused specifically on accessibility research, and one of the panelists helped write the W3C recommendations. It's bit intimidating. I've actually taken some of her seminars at conferences before.
 
Vinen

Vinen

God is dead
2,783
490
Heylel_sl said:
I'm mildly concerned about funky corner case questions today at noon. I'm interviewing for a UX position focused specifically on accessibility research, and one of the panelists helped write the W3C recommendations. It's bit intimidating. I've actually taken some of her seminars at conferences before.
Click to expand...
Ohh boy! Standards.zzzz
Anyone who brings up corner cases in an interview is probably not worth working for.

//Have contributed to multiple RFC
 
Heylel

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
3,602
429
Eh, standards don't bother me. In terms of application, they're pretty vital to ensuring that research is effective and producing the necessary results.

What I'm honestly expecting is a brief summary of my work history (again), talk about research I've done, some chatting about methods, and then a discussion about internal training and education. From what I've been told, a decent chunk of the job will be embedding with designers early on in the product cycle to help ensure that accessibility is a priority, and that means getting them to understand why it matters. The hiring manager already seems to be on my side. Today is a meeting with the global team who manages accessibility initiatives across the entire company.
 
Mist

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,512
22,434
Palum_sl said:
I had an interview with a company for a dev position few years ago, they wanted someone adaptable to learn/deal with a ton of shitty customer legacy programs but the focus was on manual data sanitation heavy ETL with REGEX. So the interviewer asks me to tell him out loud (no paper) for a method to print the Fibonacci sequence in C#. I told him I could do the function in LISP no problem because it was fresh but honestly had not used C# so I could only go as far as the basic psuedocode for some parts because I didn't know all the syntax as I'd only ever read up in the differences between C++/C#/Java. He said he wasn't quite sure why I would use LISP for that task (lol?) but that he'd "have to take points off." ?? The next question was to tell him a query to find the duplicate SSNs in a customer table in SQL, I asked him if that was a joke considering what they were looking for and the last question. He said no and I responded with, "OK Select... Do you need me to spell that command for out?" Yea so I turned that job offer down after I found out he was part of the small team lol. Also screw commuting into Cambridge.
Click to expand...
Those are both braindead easy questions, what the fuck. Is that seriously the kind of questions they ask when you're interviewing for a programmer position. Fuck, I could be a programmer if that's the case.
 
Cad

Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
24,546
45,615
Mist_sl said:
Those are both braindead easy questions, what the fuck. Is that seriously the kind of questions they ask when you're interviewing for a programmer position. Fuck, I could be a programmer if that's the case.
Click to expand...
For junior programmers literally anybody could probably do the work. I'm sure you could. (No sarcasm.)
 
Heylel

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
3,602
429
Sounds to me like it was a technical interview with a programming guy who had never done interviews before. Those are the worst. It's some power mad neckbeard "grading" your performance who has no training or authority whatsoever to do so.
 
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,809
32,291
I always like when the interviewer or recruiter ask you a yes or no question because they have no clue what it means. Who doesn't answer yes.

Recruiters always ask if I'm familiar with API, AWS, ASME, AISC codes and stuff and I know they don't even know what those mean in the slightest. Who wouldn't say yes? Ummm I'm interested in the job but am despearatly underqualified so let me say "NO" and fuck myself. Yeah right.

One recruiter called one day out of the blue and asked me if I had petro chemical experience because it was required for that job. My whole resume is petro chemical. I asked her about it and she said she was in St. Louis and had to google what petro chemical was.
 
Heylel

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
3,602
429
Heh, I go a step further. I specifically ask about the things I feel least qualified to speak on, because if I bring it up first the onus for an answer is on them.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
Mist_sl said:
Those are both braindead easy questions, what the fuck. Is that seriously the kind of questions they ask when you're interviewing for a programmer position. Fuck, I could be a programmer if that's the case.
Click to expand...
They don't typically ask complicated problems, they just want to see if you know what you're talking about and if you can demonstrate how you think about things.

Entry level programming isn't difficult to get into, mostly what is barring many is the degree (I KNOW, YOU DON'T NEED ONE, DON'T TELL ME HOW YOU HIRE PEOPLE WITHOUT THEM).

Even for my job the question was easy. He gave me:

And he asked how to read 32 bits from each register. Simple stuff, but I forgot to dereference a pointer so I fucked myself a bit.
 
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,809
32,291
Picasso_sl said:
Lol i would say no but I'm a terrible interviewer
Click to expand...
Well they way they phrase it doesn't help. Are you familiar with? That's a terrible way to ask a question. I'm familiar with how nuclear power plants work, but you wouldn't want me to have anything to do with them.

But they always ask if I am familiar with X and Y. Yeah I'm familiar with a lot of shit. They need to rephrase it so that they ask if you know how to do X and Y.
 
Heylel

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
3,602
429
Interview #4 is down. One of my panelists remembered meeting me at a previous conference and said so, which I think immediately gave me credibility with the entire panel. The other two people were more nuts and bolts questions that I've had to answered several times. Overall I think I impressed everyone.

Couple hours I've got a one on one with a researcher who would be on my level, and then I think I'm done for today. Have to contact the recruiter about next steps.
 
Mist

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,512
22,434
Cad_sl said:
For junior programmers literally anybody could probably do the work. I'm sure you could. (No sarcasm.)
Click to expand...
I was hands down the best programmer in all my Java classes, my Python class, and my various web development classes.

But those nuts and bolts compiler design type classes and higher went totally over my head.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.