Re: Interview questions

>  From:    Gwecnal@aol.com

>  I asked this question a few weeks ago and mostly got speculation about the 
>  validity of testing as a method of demonstrating knowledge, so let me be 
> more specific.
>  We are getting ready to hire a PC and Network person.  We have 35 
applicants 
>  and are a busy 3 man shop.  We cannot afford to spend a heck of a lot of 
> time figuring out which few of the 35 we want to talk to in depth.  
> Most of the 35 are clueless hobbyists with no experience 
> who want to learn computers at our expense.  
> We have had no trouble at all coming up with written tests for NT 
>  and Novell 5.0 and we will use the scores as ONE OF SEVERAL criteria for 
>  selecting candidates.  As sort of a tiebreaker, some 400 experience would 
be 
>  nice.  Therefore, we would like to get a short (~25 question) test that 
would 
>  show whether the candidate had in fact ever dealt with a /400.  We don't 
have 
>  time to write the test, we would like to just get it off the 'net the way 
we 
>  were able to get the other tests.  Any suggestions?  TIA, Lance

For an alternative approach at your testing facility, provide the users with 
direct access to some AS/400 forums, of which you have many to choose from, 
and also arrange for each candidate to have a different user-id for purposes 
of the test, and ask them to answer a cross section of questions about the 
400 from other people with problems, in which they get to choose which 
questions to answer & print copies of what they posted so you can compare & 
review.  You should find out pretty fast who is clueless, who is real good at 
BS, who knows some good stuff, and who is a good communicator.  Let the forum 
moderators know in advance what is coming down & they might be able to 
provide you with a temporary forum just for your candidates.

When you find a good list of questions, some other folks might also want the 
data.

You do not need an experienced professional, just someone who knows some of 
the basics, using questions such that folks, who don't know what a 400 is, 
won't be able to make good guesses.

Whoever grades the test answers had better be someone who knows the 400 & not 
some HR clerk checking off against a list of most likely answers, then 
interview needs to discuss test answers just in case candidate knows more 
than the test credits them.
True-False ideally needs to be phrased so that for someone who does not know 
the 400 the obvious answer aint it.
Multiple Choice needs lots of wrong answers that would sound very credible 
without 400 experience knowing better.

Would a satisfactory candidate be someone with zero experience in formal 400 
programming who helped MIS in a power user trouble shooting role?  Such a 
person might be versatile in using a variety of tools without neccessarily 
knowing the correct names for the tools.

Depending on what's installed at last 400 company of your candidate & what 
duties led to 400 exposure, there's a great diversity of possible know-how 
qualifying him or her to join your team, so ask questions representative of 
operations programming administration security with possibly more in the 
entry level area, and make a passing grade merely a majority of right answers 
in one category.

The folks at that former 400 site might be misinformed on some nuances ... 
test for general awareness of 400 resources not for areas of expertise where 
trainees can be easily misled but such misconceptions do not disqualify a 
person's future potential.

So here are some suggested questions for discussion whether or not on right 
track.

What is the difference between AS/400 and OS/400?
(former = hardware CPU,
latter = native operating system that runs on former)

Name two historical programming languages at the core of legacy/400.
(RPG & Cobol .... give them a passing grade for getting only one of them ... 
they might have been at a site that used only one & were peripheral to MIS 
dept)

What editor is used for creating & maintaining programs on the 400?
If you do not know the correct name, give the command for getting into the 
editor.
(SEU PDM & other valid answers)

What is function key 4 used for, on any command line?
)parameters prompt)

When would you use function key 4 when editing source code for a program?
(prompt for syntax of parameters desired)

Fill in the blank.  Programs written in language _____ can call or access 
objects created by other programs written in the same language on the AS/400. 
 
(CL RPG Query SQL)

In object oriented AS/400 a program written in one language can call a 
program or object written in another language - is that true or false?
(true)

If true, give some examples
(CL calls RPG, CL calls Query, CL calls SQL,
RPG calls CL, RPG calls DDS, RPG calls SQL,
DDS calls UIM)

If false in your experience, identify languages on the 400 that you are 
familiar with for which this does not work.

(either way, you are looking for lists of programming languages on the 400 
that the candidate claims to know something about)

True or false, just about any well known computer operating system can run on 
the 400 such as Unix Linux & Windows NT?
(true)
spoiler warning ... someone peripheral to an MIS dept might not be aware of a 
lot of basics, but still proficient in some areas

A user reports that an interactive screen appears to be "locked up" or hung.  
How should we diagnose this problem?
(Check WRKACTUSR or equivalent to see if the user's program really is waiting 
on some resource, & check its job log to see what error messages the user may 
have disregarded.
If program recently changed - check for high CPU activity - it might be in a 
loop.
Ask for surrounding symptoms - did anything ususual occur just before this 
event - is everything else running smoothly?)

System commands are often combinations of 3 letter abbreviations such as
DSPLIB display current library list
WRKSBMJOB work with jobs submitted to job queue

List some other common examples

Name a programming language into which these type commands can be embedded
(CL)
Spoiler warning ... a power user might be functionally competent in CL 
without knowing name of language & question about QCLSRC could be to someone 
who worked in a shop that did not use standard naming conventions.

Tools intended for programmers, such as DFU, SQL, Query (your test might add 
to the list), can be very powerful, but also dangerous in the hands of 
insufficiently trained users.  Provide an example of danger for each example 
in this list & for extra credit give examples of danger for examples not on 
this list.

(DFU can be used to change data in complex data structures with no formal 
audit trail, in violation of data integrity rules across files, and by people 
who do not comprehend the full significance of status codes in some fields.
SQL can obliterate the contents of files or populate one field of all records 
with inappropriate contents.  It just takes one keystroke error.
Poorly designed Query linking large files & run on-line can destroy 
performance.)

Advanced Tie Breaker Questions

What is the benefit of using Externally Described files over Internally 
Described?
What is the difference between a Physical File & a Logical?
What is SDA used for?
What are Triggers?
Where would you use Override Data Base File?
What controls which printer a report goes to?

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
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