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He was actually pretty bright and did learn quickly, but they were not looking for somebody to learn on the job!I'll remember to have a word next time it happens.
I've been in the situation before when such a blagger joined a team I was part of. I spent 6 months dragging them along & fixing their flip ups (not to help them but make sure my team met it's targets). That was until my manager asked my honest opinion & they were subsequently moved to elsewhere.
It's not worth the stress though. If someone's new & trying I'll happily help but if their out of their depth & slacking next time I was going to hang them out to dry and ensure I've met my own goals. I'll try having a word first.
I went for an interview, for a part time job in the NHS, last August. My interview was for 10am, it said so, clearly, in the letter they sent to me. I arrived at 9.15 and at 10am was invited into a room to do a test (multiple choice nonsense), the test papers advised taking 40 minutes to complete it, it took me 10, it would only have taken my cat a little longer. After 45 minutes a lady returned, collected my papers and vanished. A while later she returned, congratulated me on passing my test and said, "Your interview will be at 4.15pm, is that ok"? Of course it was, after all, I always happily waste every day between 10am and 4.15pm.
Anyway, I got the job and "work" (such as it is) in the NHS is as chaotic and unproductive as the interview process.
I think that's quite impressive actually - doubly so if he made it past chapter 5. If it had been the Dummy's Guide, on the other hand, I'd have shown him the door straight offYears back, we got a new programmer straight from university. I spotted him looking very furtive, and discovered that he was balancing a copy of K&R on his lap, under his desk.
It isn't difficult to check if somebody knows C. There are some incredibly easy traps to fall into which any experienced C programmer would know about. You could show them some suitable sample C code and ask them what it was supposed to do, and what was wrong with it. Nope, didn't bother. They probably asked him where he saw himself being in 5 years time. In reality, that was as a software team leader - somewhere else!
Years back, we got a new programmer straight from university. I spotted him looking very furtive, and discovered that he was balancing a copy of K&R on his lap, under his desk. I had a quiet word with him while management were looking the other way ...
We needed an experienced C programmer, so the company had advertised for one. New Guy had gone to his interview and just blagged it. They asked if he was experienced, so he simply said 'Yes' and they took his word for it!
It isn't difficult to check if somebody knows C. There are some incredibly easy traps to fall into which any experienced C programmer would know about. You could show them some suitable sample C code and ask them what it was supposed to do, and what was wrong with it. Nope, didn't bother. They probably asked him where he saw himself being in 5 years time. In reality, that was as a software team leader - somewhere else!
A friend of mine was thought to have dysentery by his new IT colleagues as he was spending a lot of time in the toilet. He was mugging up on the finer points of Pick programming from manuals. He'd told the recruitment agency that he was an accomplished programmer in the language. He subsequently learned enough to be recruited by NASA but was unable to take up the post as the whole set up was thrown into disarray by the Challenger disaster.
Or maybe I am talking b0ll0cks?
I don't blame a blagger for trying it on if they have the confidence to, but if a company genuinely only wanted to hire an experienced programmer, I think it would make sense to get somebody who knew their stuff to ask her/him a few probing questions at the interview. A bit more probing than "So, you have 3 years experience in C, yeah?" ... which is a summary of what he was asked!That's not out of the ordinary. It was fairly standard for contractors to blag work and turn up with manuals hidden about they person/baggage.
I don't know what language it was but a friend applied for a job programming it (he was already a programmer) knowing nothing about it. He was given an interview date a few days after his holiday, so he went away with a book about the language - and no computer. He read the book and came back able to program in the new language. I can't comprehend how you can do that. (He got the job)
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Years back, we got a new programmer straight from university. I spotted him looking very furtive, and discovered that he was balancing a copy of K&R on his lap, under his desk. I had a quiet word with him while management were looking the other way ...
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I was just curious to know what was going on.I hope your "quiet word" included explaining where to put the curly brackets. He'd get totally the wrong idea from K&R !
(sorry, bit of geek talk, nothing to see here for the rest of you)