Ouch just bombed an interview

[seabass]

It was a phone interview and the guy asked me to go to a website to do some coding.

They were simple questions like do some int/array manipulation.  I've been programming for years and worked on much harder data manipulation, but I don't know... I couldn't even write the function header.  Mind just completely racing and flustered.

I have terrible performance anxiety, there's no way I can do coding over the phone.  I gave up, he said thanks for the time, that's it.  I don't blame the interviewer at all, I'm sure some people can write lots of code under pressure but I cannot.

This sucks.  I'm seriously going to quit engineering, maybe try for technician.  Last time I tried for a technician position, they said I was overqualified.

[0xFFFFFFFF]

---

seabass wrote:

It was a phone interview and the guy asked me to go to a website to do some coding.

They were simple questions like do some int/array manipulation.  I've been programming for years and worked on much harder data manipulation, but I don't know... I couldn't even write the function header.  Mind just completely racing and flustered.

I have terrible performance anxiety, there's no way I can do coding over the phone.  I gave up, he said thanks for the time, that's it.  I don't blame the interviewer at all, I'm sure some people can write lots of code under pressure but I cannot.

This sucks.  I'm seriously going to quit engineering, maybe try for technician.  Last time I tried for a technician position, they said I was overqualified.

---

Sorry to hear about your bomb.

But I'm the same way, when I'm in interview/talk mode, my coding brain turns off.

Also vice-versa, when I'm coding hard-core, I need a break before talking like a human again.

It's not pressure as such.  I also don't like coding under (time) pressure, but of course have had to do so many times.  Generally when I'm on a team I get ahead of the rush and then sit around and wait for everyone else, not to brag or nothin, but when production is down and everyone is screaming, it can be pressure, and hopefully it's not my stuff that broke!  And it usually isn't, and I find the break, pass it up to whoever, and then they say they can't fix it for a month and then I have to volunteer to do it in a day instead.  Fun.

Anyway, this is just why coding in an interview sucks.

They want to pay me a grand to do a real exercise, maybe.  I've been asked to do what looked like a real job task as part of an interview (that is, do it at home and turn it in the next day, actually this was BEFORE an interview, they just had the recruiter pass me the problem!), and I told them to go suck.  The problem was bent, they should never have been doing that in the first place.  My resume is my bona fides, anyone with even five years experience in the field, should not be run through stupid exercises like that.  Any job that is so simple you could really test for the right capacities that quick, is probably a newbie job anyway.

(actually they asked, "Do you know how to do this?"  I looked at it, coded it up for good luck (took about half an hour), and replied, "Yes I do."  then they came back and said, "Well, show us."  And I said, fugedabodit)

[seabass]

Thanks for the support.

Yeah it's just hard to visualize code through a phone conversation.

Ugh... for the application, I already wrote some test code for him, which worked correctly.  Then he wanted to do another one over the phone.  I guess they were looking for someone who like collab coding.

[I_Wana_Be_IT_KID]

seabass, dude !

I had 2 in person interviews last week, with one I am waiting for the background check to complete so that they can make me an offer, but let's focus on the second one.

It was a panel of 3 idiots that kept me there from 2 p.m. Till 5. p.m. They kept asking me technical questions like:

In VB 6.0 What the maximum length on label, what is the Max length of a message box (like some one would remember that for 15 year old technology.  They have the last hour asking me ASP.NEt questions while the job spec nor my resume has ASP.NET in it.

A week prior to that I had a phone screen, the problem was that I had surgery on Monday and the screen was on Tuesday, even though the questions were fair, I was kicking it on pain killers at the time, so I blew it.  I told the recruiter about the surgery, but she scheduled it anyway.

My Point is, go to Colorado and smoke some wacky tobbaki, take a chill pill...  We have take our beatings also.  

And don't be ridiculous with all that quitting stuff, we typically are given ample time to complete assignments and every-one knows that put excessive pressure on us is a bad idea !   We are not robots, we engineers, the more luxury we to go back and fix/perfect the code, the better the end product is.  

But also you reminded me why am staying away from web dev, and looking for more server side work...

[0xFFFFFFFF]

---

seabass wrote:

Ugh... for the application, I already wrote some test code for him, which worked correctly.  Then he wanted to do another one over the phone.  I guess they were looking for someone who like collab coding.

---

Did they advertise that, XP teams or the like?

There is no greater mark of mediocrity than that, that they need two people to do one normal person's job.

[JCPOPESCU]

---

seabass wrote:

It was a phone interview and the guy asked me to go to a website to do some coding.

They were simple questions like do some int/array manipulation.  I've been programming for years and worked on much harder data manipulation, but I don't know... I couldn't even write the function header.  Mind just completely racing and flustered.

I have terrible performance anxiety, there's no way I can do coding over the phone.  I gave up, he said thanks for the time, that's it.  I don't blame the interviewer at all, I'm sure some people can write lots of code under pressure but I cannot.

This sucks.  I'm seriously going to quit engineering, maybe try for technician.  Last time I tried for a technician position, they said I was overqualified.

---

Listen....

If I had a dime for every "code test" I bombed I would retire, without apology, fat, dumb, decadent, and hedonistic on the French Riviera without apology.

Coding is an ART.  The situation you describe:  Handing Michaelangelo a bunch of cans of spray paint and directing him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.   I used to develop commercial software and I can tell you it is VERY time intensive.   It takes no end of thought, attention to detail, and can't be reduced to going to a website and coding on demand.  

You're taking it out on the WRONG person.  You're not going to find salvation trying for a technician's job, a garbageman's job, or a WalMart job.  

Is your education solid ?  Is your work history solid ?   Do you have something tangible you can point to and say "I DID THAT " ?  

Then what the hell are you taking it out on yourself for ?  You came across nothing but **bleep** inc and their clow intervewer who , within the first few seconds of directing you to a website, proved he had nothing to offer. 

My response: You want me to code ?  Pay for it.  One hundred dollars per hour, eight hour minimum, MONEY UP FRONT.  

[seabass]

They didn't advertise XP teams or anything like that.  But I got the feeling before the interview that it would be the kind of place where a bunch of young guys would sit around in a room and whiteboard for hours.

By the way, thanks all for the logic and the advice.  It really brought my mood back up.

[0xFFFFFFFF]

---

seabass wrote:

By the way, thanks all for the logic and the advice.  It really brought my mood back up.

---

You're very welcome.

It's too easy to think it's a personal thing, us techies tend to be individualists and just think that way so when it's really the system that stinks we fail to see it clearly.

[JCPOPESCU]

---

0xFFFFFFFF wrote:

---

seabass wrote:

By the way, thanks all for the logic and the advice.  It really brought my mood back up.

---

You're very welcome.

It's too easy to think it's a personal thing, us techies tend to be individualists and just think that way so when it's really the system that stinks we fail to see it clearly.

---

MUCH too easy to think it's a personal thing.   MUCH.

The thing to realize is EVERY company has some specialized facet of a "standard" programming language they use for whatever sum total reasons.

Companies I worked for:  They used C, device and platform assemblers to the point where they're coding a specific way to get the complier and assembler to translate the fastest machine code possible.    Unless you've been knee deep in that particular shop you'd have no idea what on earth they mean when they throw some piece of code or ask you to code.  

Whole point is:   Companies will CONTINUE to throw curve balls, arcane constructs and facets of a particular hardware and software TOOL at you for desired effect:   The effect is you'll bow out, flub, or predictably fail.  

A great deal of "skills" tests are deliberate setups to fail.   This is why I refuse or would charge to take one.  My mind is VERY expensive real estate.  

[LeslieDiceExpert]

Dear seabass,

"Simulated" tests are tough, there's no doubt about it. But don't be too hard on yourself because even veteran actors get stage fright before a performance. The more you practice the better you'll do whether its phone interviews, technical interviews or coding sessions. I'm sure you'll do better next time--all it takes is practice and confidence.

Good luck.