Posts from February 02, 2006

interviewing stories

Oracle

A few years ago, I worked for a small internet company and was a successful dot com millionaire. Then the confounded Italians went and devalued the Lira.

We spent (wasted) lots of time interviewing Oracle developers. Interviewing was time consuming and we had a fairly rapid turnover of people with varying technical abilities and personality disorders.

After a while, we decided to set a short technical test in an effort to save time and improve the quality of the technical people we hired.

The test was a trivial piece of PL/SQL. Count all the rows in all the tables in a specified schema. The consequences of introducing of this test were very revealing.

Some candidates (with years of Oracle and PL/SQL experience) flatly refused to take the test at all - 'the agent didn't say anything about a technical test'.? Some candidates asked if they could have access to our embryonic Oracle technical library (a couple of O'Reilly books). Some candidates asked it they could use their own technical books for reference. We flatly refused.

It was interesting to see whether people elected for Linux/vi or Windows/notepad.

It was interesting to see whether people could deliver under pressure.

It was interesting to see whether people asked questions.

It was interesting to see whether people actually compiled and executed the code. Some candidates thought, incorrectly, that the test was purely to 'write the code'.

It was interesting to see whether people visited 'http://tahiti.oracle.com/'. We said you couldn't use books. However, we didn't say you couldn't use the internet.

It was interesting to see whether people commented a trivial procedure.

It was interesting to see whether people counted the rows or checked for the presence of recent statistics first.

It was interesting to see whether people used native, dynamic SQL or tortured themselves with DBMS_SQL.

It was interesting to see whether people favoured SQL*Plus, Pro*C, PL/SQL or Perl/DBI.

The standard of candidates improved. If the technical test was unsatisfactory, we skipped the interview formalities to save time (theirs and ours).

One outstanding candidate delivered an excellent test. Perfect, commented PL/SQL. He even included a file header with CVS macros for version control. The results were correct. He finished the assigned task in minutes. He even used the singular if a table had '1 row'. He was an excellent Oracle PL/SQL developer.

However, we didn't hire him because there was an indefinable, intangible concern, a nagging worry that we couldn't articulate or put our finger on precisely. It just didn't feel right. Hard to explain to the agent. Even harder to explain to him but sometimes you have to go with your instincts.

interviewing stories

IT

I once sat on an interview panel. Each interviewer would briefly summarise the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate and a decision would be made by consensus.

However, for one candidate, the first interviewer simply said 'No'.

'OK David. Thank you. John, anything to add to that ?'

John: 'Absolutely no.'

And that was the end of that.

interviewing stories

IT

Doug Burns tells of an unusual company with an unusual interviewing technique that reminded me of some interviewing anecdotes.

After one year in IT, I had money in my pocket, no more studies and I was keen, enthusiastic and motivated. Consequently, I was invited on the 'milk round' to interview prospective graduates in Scotland. Flying in an aeroplane, staying in a posh hotel, eating food, drinking beer and not having to pay for any of it motivated me even more.

So I painted a glowing picture of our company to everyone I met. Even people I wasn't interviewing like the hotel receptionist. I couldn't wait to tell the nervous undergraduates, in their ill fitting suits, about the summer barbecue with as much free food and alcohol as you could consume with transport laid on. Nor could I wait to tell them about the Christmas dinner dance at a top notch London hotel with partners invited, a high quality 5 course meal, cabaret, disco, and, again, as much free alcohol as you wanted.

A year later, I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar Scottish face turn up for his induction after his successful application. He was also pleased, enthusiastic and motivated. Well he was. Until, two weeks later, I had to break the news that this years summer barbecue was cancelled due to 'budgetary constraints'. With the aid of counselling, he managed to get over that bombshell until, three months later, I had to break the tragic news that the Christmas dinner dance was also cancelled due to 'adverse market conditions and poor company performance in Q3/Q4'.

so farewell then, Palm Vx

IT

A couple of messages to the kind person who accidentally took my Palm Vx from the safety of its docking cradle. Clearly, like me, you can resist everything but temptation.

  1. You can also have the mains charger, cradle, spare stylus and a screen protector. I may even have the original box and instructions somewhere. This will help to increase the resale value on eBay. Just look under Brightside, N and give me a call. You will find that I am a very understanding, forgiving type.
  2. Thank you. I had a nagging suspicion for a while that the Palm was just a glorified address book. In fact, I didn't even notice its absence for a hour or so. Hopefully, my Palm will find more synchronisations and love in his new home.
  3. Thank you. I now have a wealth of commercial and open source software packages to evaluate and high tech gadgets to consider to help fill this gaping void in my life.
  4. Finally, a proposition for you. If you send out Xmas cards to everyone in 'Personal' and 'Family', signing the cards 'Happy Christmas. All the best for 2007. Love from Norman & family' and send them by 2nd class post by 10th December, we shall call it quits and I shall take the matter no further.