RE: Interview Question

Trajectory to the moon...apparently they think programming is "rocket
science". :)

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan
Campin
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2016 1:21 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
<rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Interview Question

I interviewed with a company that will stay nameless for a programming
position. At that point in my career I had probably twenty years of AS/400
development experience so I have to take a programming test. I don't think
to much of it until I look at the test. All the questions are questions for
someone applying for a Scientific Programmer's job. How do you calculate the
trajectory to the moon. I am a business programmer. What do I know about
trajectory to the moon.

But it got better. They told me the pay and I said OK but well we expect you
to be in early everyday and leave late so I said you are expecting a 10 hour
day, yes and you need to come by on Saturday morning and work for a few
hours. At the same pay, yes. And, oh, we have special project so you will
need to work some extra hours for that and if we have a new release you
expected to be here for that and if the boss decides we are late you will
need to work some extra hours. I said in addition to 50 hours a week plus
the 4 or 5 on Saturday plus extra 3 or 4 hours a week? Same pay. And oh, the
boss will come around and scream at you. You just need to stand up and
scream back at him and after awhile he will go away.

I didn't pass the test but I think I just might want to decline the offer.

On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 9:30 AM, Marc Couture <couturem@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Great story !

Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>




On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 11:34 AM -0400, "sjl" <sjl_abc@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:
sjl_abc@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

Craig -

I'd tell the company giving such a test to go pound sand... ;-D

In 1985, on the referral by a friend working there, I interviewed for
a programming manager job at a large property tax consulting company
in Dallas. One of the requirements was to take a programming test
created by one of their senior developers.

This is the one and only time I ever took a programming test as a job
applicant.

I was given a functional specification for a somewhat complex
modification needed to a program. They had a user id set up for me on
their S/38 and gave me the names of the source/object/data libraries
and told me to get to work.

The test was not timed, but they told me that time spent factors into
the final score.

First off, the program would not compile because of an undefined field.
Some research showed that I needed to use a file other than the file
in the library list - a field had been added t to one of the files
used by the program, but the file in the library list did not have
that added field.

I had to modify the library list to get the program to compile. It
turns out that this was part one of the test, where most people failed.
Once I got the program to compile, I had the modification done in less
than two hours.

Apparently I passed the test, but instead of programming manager they
ended up offering me a Sr. PA job at a significantly lower salary,
also indicating that I would be competing with two other new hires for
an eventual programming manager position.

I was offended by their offer and told the recruiter to go pound sand.
Later I found out that he had misrepresented the opportunity to me and
I later got my revenge on him.

Afterwards, the friend who referred me for that job told me that I had
scored the second highest score by any applicant taking that test, and
that the IT director took personal offense at my rejection of their
job offer (but not knowing that the headhunter had misrepresented the
position to me...).

-sjl


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