Useless Conversation

[Cheddar]

Where do you work that you have panel interviews? I haven't seen those since promotion boards while in the Air Force.

The Coca-Cola Company also does panel interviews.  Three-to-one, sometimes four.  I managed to have three of them in ten years.  The last one was with my manager at the time, the manager that hired me and one of my team members.

I have also slipped in as a panel member in order to give a hard time to potential UNIX admins.  The Ringo of the panel, perhaps.  I didn't belong but some people felt I was a credit to the proceedings.

Toughest interview I have been in.  Well worth it if I get the position, but damn.  Normally you get 1-2 weeks prep time for these; I got 1 day.  Very nerve wracking. 

[Strazos]

You guys would love the Foreign Service's Oral Assessment...an all-day affair, plus the security interviews that follow.

[Cheddar]

You guys would love the Foreign Service's Oral Assessment...an all-day affair, plus the security interviews that follow.

Wait until you get a special security interview.   

[Strazos]

EDIT: Eh, I'll deal with it.

[Endie]

Most of my interviews have been with two or more people.  I can only remember one that was not, and that was the only job I didn't get offered: my agent had simply lied and said that I had expertise in a variety of areas I'd never worked in.  I told them so, apologised to them that their time had been wasted, and said that there was no point in continuing.  I think that they were a bit surprised that I didn't try to bluff.

Another job had a two-day residential process with panels, problem-solving exercises, interviews, role-playing scenarios and so on.  At the end of it all they offered me one of the roles and I declined: the value of such a process is that the interviewee also gets a glance into the company (a bank), and I didn't like what I saw at all.  From their point of view that is a successful process too, as the last things they want are new employees who are wishing they weren't there after a few days.

[Righ]

I once had a six hour interview that resulted in me determining that there was no real job vacancy - the interview was designed to find fault with candidates so that the company could claim no qualified local candidates existed and that the position justified maintaining somebody from India on a visa. Yes, of the seven people who interviewed me, four were Indian and related to one another, including the person who had been doing the job for six years on temporary visas. The game became apparent after I noticed that they were asking particularly obtuse questions on poorly defined scenarios and seemed unhappy when I searched for more detail and explained why it was needed. The job remains listed eight years later, presumably so that they can continue to claim endless visa extensions are required. The agency that sent me there and wasted a whole day of my time admitted that yes, they suspected that the visa game was being played but that I was the highest qualified candidate that they had put forward and they wanted to see what would happen. I didn't use that agency again.

Most technical interviews are fairly short. It's quite easy to determine whether people have the skills they list on their resume or whether they're just bullshitters. Most good technical interviewers get past that part quickly and move on to the more important discussion that attempts to discover whether the candidate is interested in the position and motivated enough to be a good worker. Once I get to an interview, I find that I rarely fail to get offered a position.

[Fraeg]

Meh I would have been furious beyond words at that Righ, and would have tried to report them to "Bullshit Visa Extension Org" or what have you.

I thought my 2 hour 3v1 interview for my current position was bad enough.

[IainC]

For my current job I had a two day interview that spanned an evening meal with the design team, a day of panel interviews with various teams and then a half day of practical whiteboard driven discussion on design. This was after the 4 hour phone interview they gave me before flying me across.

By contrast at my previous job I spent an hour talking about Blood Bowl with the guy who would eventually be my boss followed by a 10 minute screening by HR.

[Viin]

For my current job I had a two day interview that spanned an evening meal with the design team, a day of panel interviews with various teams and then a half day of practical whiteboard driven discussion on design. This was after the 4 hour phone interview they gave me before flying me across.

By contrast at my previous job I spent an hour talking about Blood Bowl with the guy who would eventually be my boss followed by a 10 minute screening by HR.

And which company would you rather work for? (Seriously curious).

[Selby]

Once I get to an interview, I find that I rarely fail to get offered a position.

You suck.  I had to interview all over the country only to be offered one job.  Sucky economies are not your friend when you have a specialty that isn't in demand in most major cities.

[schild]

I have an interview story that would make every last one of you shit your pants in unison and move to destroy a certain gaming company.

Therefore it won't get reprinted.

[IainC]

Viin. My current place hands down.

[Viin]

I have an interview story that would make every last one of you shit your pants in unison and move to destroy a certain gaming company.

Therefore it won't get REprinted.

Does this mean the gory details are already printed somewhere? Linky.

[schild]

My bad, printed.

[Merusk]

Viin. My current place hands down.

As if you had a choice saying anything else. 

"Hey that guy marked as a Developer with his name attached on a gaming site said he'd much rather work his old place than his new one... let's help him along!"

[Draegan]

So my girlfriend said yes and she's now my fiance. 

[Endie]

Congratulations!

[Salamok]

I have an interview story that would make every last one of you shit your pants in unison and move to destroy a certain gaming company.

Therefore it won't get reprinted.

RG wanted to see if you were going to be a good fit didn't he?  You would have been a shitty castle page anyhow.

[WayAbvPar]

So my girlfriend said yes and she's now my fiance. 

Grats!

[NowhereMan]

I've just found http://www.amazingribs.com and I really, really wish I had the facilities for some proper barbecuing right now. Gonna have to try some of the slow cooker recipes in the near future.

[Fraeg]

So my girlfriend said yes and she's now my fiance. 

woohoo, nice man, congratulations.

[Selby]

My workplace has no power.  Apparently a few inches of rain makes transformers and power lines hate life.  I drove to work with no traffic lights or no street lights (it's amazing how dark it can really get in the city) only to be turned back at the gate.  I asked what their ETA was and they said "the directors told us to tell you guys to expect to stay home all day."  So score, 4 day weekend.

[Yegolev]

So my girlfriend said yes and she's now my fiance. 

Good job.

[Righ]

I am unable to buy a copy of Finnegans Wake from Amazon. They have numerous editions available, but Amazon (who made their name by selling books cheaply) is not a useful site to buy books such as this. Every "look inside", every review, and every editorial comment is disassociated from the particular edition, so it is impossible to know whether a particular book is a third edition or a facsimile of the original first edition. I don't want the original, complete with thousands of typos and errors. I'll have to actually go a book store.

[rattran]

They still have those?

[Samwise]

They still have those?

I go to them to browse for books I might like and make notes of what I'll buy on Amazon later for 30% cheaper.   

[rattran]

Heh, I do the same thing. The last purchases I've made at the local bookstores here have been coffee, and magazines.

[Nebu]

Have to agree with above.  I only go to Barnes and Noble now for scones, clearance bin books, and to read magazines that I'm too cheap to buy. 

[Endie]

That's why Borders went bust in the UK.  The only bookshops in a good position here are small, specialist shops; those who offer extraordinary service and therefore have a loyal community of customers; and maybe Waterstones picking up the impulse-purchasing browser/urgent/internet-phobic/lazy remainder.

[Samwise]

Used book stores are also still pretty useful.  You might be able to get stuff a little cheaper on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, but then you have to pay shipping and you don't get to inspect its condition before you buy it.

[Fraeg]

Default rounding arrays bite me in the ass yet again.

Legacy DB that has not been updated to the precision of more modern instrumention.  I can enter data in to the thousandths... and it is stored in the thousandths.  But as soon as you try and retrieve your data a default rounding array rounds to the hundredths... and no I do not have the *power* to override the rounding array on me end.


need an emoticon of someone slamming their head against their desk.

[Trippy]

Don't like the wall?

[Signe]

You owe me.

[Fraeg]

You owe me.

Danke


The wall is good but I am at a desk so...

[Endie]

Default rounding arrays bite me in the ass yet again.

Legacy DB that has not been updated to the precision of more modern instrumention.  I can enter data in to the thousandths... and it is stored in the thousandths.  But as soon as you try and retrieve your data a default rounding array rounds to the hundredths... and no I do not have the *power* to override the rounding array on me end.


need an emoticon of someone slamming their head against their desk.

Do you have another function that will retreive it for you as a varchar or the like. which you can then re-cast with no loss of accuracy?  Basically a way to get around the offending function.