Re: Technical Test

["Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net>]

Andrew,

I just re-read the definitions of TCP/IP and TCP vs. UDP last night in the
February issue of Maximum PC, yet I would be hard pressed to give you an
answer now. I would say that many of those things are not the "important"
things that I carry around in my head, ready fo instant use (as compared to,
for example, the difference between the use of "over" and "more than"). Nor
do I remember the details of the database stuff, even though I had a
week-long class on SQL & PL/SQL when I worked at Oracle.

But, like most programmers, I know where to find that information, and can
usually find it quickly (most often on one of the many books I have).

It's is one of the things I have professed in interviews: if I don't know
something (certainsly, despite my confidence in the abilities I do have, I
could never credibly profess to know everything), I often know here to find
the information, and *will* find it.

Maybe others would think otherwise, but I think that this is a can-do
attitude that is desired.



"Andrew Plato" <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message
news:93581 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> "Ehr, Meg"  wrote...
>
> > I'm curious: do you allow access to any supplemental materials? I could
> > probably answer all of those questions if I had some basic reference
info at
> > my disposal (as it is, I'm thinking I *should* know the answer to about
> > three or four off the top of my head). It may not be what you're testing
> > for, but providing basic materials might allow you to assess the
> > individual's ability to find the answer.
>
> No, but naming off a few places you would locate such information would be
a
> good answer. Like I said, its a test of character as much as one of
technology.
>  How people handle pressure and feeling dumb says a lot about a person. It
> isn't intended to humiliate people, but analyze their ability to handle
honest
> intellectual stress.
>
<snip>

> So how would you respond?  Anger, frustration, reason?
>
> You'd be surprised. Its easy to say "oh, I'd reason it out." But when
you're
> under the gun, people respond to their true nature. If your a person who
angers
> when you feel dumb, its hard to re-engineer that response.  Scientists and
> doctors are taught in grad school that you have to remove yourself from
the
> equation and confront everything as a problem. The key to that is to
remember
> that there is ALWAYS a solution - you just don't know it, yet. If your
patient
> and let your reasoning abilities work on the problem, 9 times out of 10,
you'll
> solve it, or get very close to a solution.
>
Always?

Would you care to find a solution, then, to FTL travel? Or maybe personal
near-instantaneous transportation over long distances? I would want to use
both of those in my lifetime. <grin>

--
--
"[Programmers] cannot successfully be asked to design for users
because...inevitably, they will make judgments based on the
difficulty of coding and not on the user's real needs."
        - Alan Cooper
        "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"

Chuck Martin
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net      www.writeforyou.com



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