Re: Two Question Asked Of Me.. -- RPG400-L

Thanks to both of you for answers.
This was asked by a lead technical person in a face to face interview for a
company.
 Note: Guy does know his tech stuff and made it a point to correct me every
time  I said "AS/400" by saying "iSeries" every time I said it. But as you
both stated I did not think he knew how to ask the right questions. Like me
sucking at typing what I'm thinking :).

On the first question he wanted to hear the word "modules".

 I also dropped the RPG part like Scott and stated that I felt once binded
they weren't a part of program either. Wished I had said "bytes" though :)
just to get back at the AS/400 / iSeries constant correction in the middle
of sentences.

Second question I just said exfmt on subfile control record if records have
been loaded and sfldsp and sfldspctl indicators on. He actually wanted to
here everything. Clear sfl, load sfl, process sfl, etc. Should have just
wrote one and not said a word.

It was my first face to face interview in 10+ years :) Every contract I've
gotten in that time has been by PHONE interviewed/hired and has started as 3
months and ended up long term (because of results).

Still learning everyday. Love this list.

Thanks again.
Bill H.

P.S. Booth the 5 non-tech people I saw before him knew
the companies I had worked for before and what I had done for them. And all
stated "No need to question tech skills". They went great.
I tell people all the time that in my job learning, speaking, and working
with people is the key.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Booth Martin" <Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 11:54 PM
Subject: Re: Two Question Asked Of Me..


> In my mind these general types of questions are useful for allowing you to
> show your skills interacting with non-technical people.  These questions
are
> an open ended invitation for you to begin a dialog with the interviewer.
> These are not questions designed to measure technical expertise.  A few
key
> questions from you are important here.
>
> The right questions from you are a wonderful opportunity for you to take
the
> interview to your strengths, and also for them to get a good feel if you
can
> understand and communicate effectively.
>
> Remember this, the Interviewer is looking for the right person for a
> specific job;  help him/her.  S/he is NOT looking for reasons to cull you
> from the herd.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
> Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
> Date: Saturday, February 15, 2003 23:26:22
> To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
> Subject: Re: Two Question Asked Of Me..
>
>
> On Fri, 14 Feb 2003 as400bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > What makes up an RPG ILE program?
> >
>
> There's no such thing as an "RPG ILE" program. Programs are created from
> modules. Modules are created from source code which can be RPG, and also
> can be many other languages. However, the "RPG" part of it is gone at
> the time that it becomes a program -- consequently, it's an ILE program...
> NOT an "RPG ILE" program.
>
> Of course, once the binding is done, the modules aren't used anymore
> either... so saying that an ILE program is made up of modules isn't really
> correct either.
>
> Technically, the only correct answer I can give to this question is
> "bytes". It was a poorly worded question.
>
> What they probably were thinking of is the difference between creating an
> ILE program vs. creating an OPM program.... and apparently they expect
> everyone they ask to be in the same mindset.
>
>
> > Also
> >
> > How do you display a sub-file?
> >
>
> Yet another poorly worded question. Too vague, just like the first one.
>
> The answer could be "by running a program." Or, if you like, I could
> look up the 5250 codes that are sent to the terminal, and say "by sending
> this sequence of bytes to a 5250 terminal".
>
> What are they really looking for here? The EXFMT statement? or
> READ/WRITE statements? or are they looking for the DDS code?
>
> I mean, without any context, answering these questions is silly. In order
> to give good answers to programming question, you have to first understand
> what problems you're trying to solve.
>
> Were you asked this by someone as part of a job interview? or part of a
> class you're taking? or...?
>
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