RE: Perils of technical interviews (was RE: Better way to code a maintenence program ILERPG)

And in the real world, how long would a single file update program take
to code? 
It would probably take two hours just to create the display file
if you were doing it from scratch!

-----Original Message-----
From: david.kahn@gb.abb.com [mailto:david.kahn@gb.abb.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 12:03 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Perils of technical interviews (was RE: Better way to code a
maintenence program ILERPG)




I wrote:

>Colin Williams <Williamsc@technocrats.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>You mean you failed a technical interview because you were honest!
>
>Why? Is there an easier way?  :-)

Seriously, I once failed a technical interview after a conversation that
went
something like this.

Interviewer:   Do you know about logical files? Because there are no
sorts on
the AS/400, you know.

Me:       Well, actually, sorting is still supported on the 400, in the
Conversion Reformat Utility.

Interviewer:   But logical files are obviously more efficient, otherwise
why
does everybody use them?

Me:       Surpisingly, perhaps, if processing speed is your only
consideration
it may actually be more efficient to run a sort and process the output
file
sequentially than to create an access path and process the data through
a
logical file.

Needless to say I failed the interview because the interviewer felt I
didn't
understand the concept of logical files. The correct answer to the first
question should have been "Oh yes, absolutely, logical files are
definitely the
only way of ordering and selecting data on the AS/400." Having got the
first
answer wrong and admitted the existence of sorting I could possibly have
saved
the situation by making the second answer, "Quite so. Logical files are
definitely the most efficient way of ordering and selecting data on the
AS/400."

The interviewer wants to be in control. The golden rule is never to take
him too
far out of his own depth or he gets panicky. Joel's problem was
admitting that
some programs are more complicated than others.The interviewer was
thinking
"enquire, add, change, delete". Joel was thinking about multiple
subfiles,
optional positioning, second level help text, command line interface
etc. etc.
etc. For interview purposes a single file update program takes 2 hours
maximum.
:-)

Dave Kahn, ABB Steward Ltd.


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