>> (There's a face-to-face interview plus a C++ coding test first. I'll
>> presumably fail that.)
>
> That's bullshit thinking. Stop that. From my experience, such "coding
> tests" are merely there to filter out people who do know the syntax but
> don't have the slightest clues about algorithm design, performance
> issues and so forth.
>
> For instance, they might ask you to write a small function to compute
> factorials. Someone might program this as a recursion because he
> happened to come across it as an example in the "programming for
> dummies" section on recursion.

/Sometimes/ it's a trivial test. Sometimes it's very intense. It's 
difficult to know until you get there.

I'm sure I told you guys about the SQL test I took once. The one with 
tasks such as "list all customers in alphabetical order"...

>> I'm ambivalent as to whether this is actually the best strategy. On one
>> hand, the more stuff I apply to, the more likely it is that somebody
>> will call me. OTOH, if I apply for something totally unsuitable, and the
>> recruiter phones me, they're not going to be amused at having their time
>> wasted.
>
> Best thing is if you do inform yourself about what the company actually
> does, and which of your skills might be of interest to them. (And don't
> just think "this particular job", but "this particular company" - they
> might have other opportunities available.) Then, when applying,
> emphasize those skills. (Don't forget the "soft skills"!)

When you see a job advertised, you don't know who the company is. (If 
you did, you could just phone them up, and then the agency wouldn't get 


As to whether trawling jobs websites for advertised positions is the 
best option... well, that remains to be seen.

I am on a mission to stalk the OU. (Fat lot of good it's done me so 
far...) Oh, and Google. Because, you know, it's Google. But /everybody/ 
wants to work there, so there's no particular reason to believe they'll 
ever hire me.

>> And than there's Network Rail. A friend
>> of mine works there and insists it's the best job in the world... But
>> they have ZERO computer jobs listed.
>
> Ask your friend to dig around what they've got cooking wrt IT.

She says "keep looking". Uh, yeah. That's not much help.

> Do apply
> for a job at companies you'd probably enjoy working for, even if they
> don't seem to offer jobs right now. They might just happen to ponder
> hiring someone - or they may the moment they read your CV. You know, you
> can't actually lose anything, can you?

Finding good companies to work for is nontrivial. Figuring out how to 
apply to them when nothing is advertised is intractable. If you send 
them a letter, they'll just be like "why didn't this guy bother to look 
at what's advertised?"

> And by all means, get rid of that "I'll probably fail" attitude. You
> CANNOT LOSE at a job interview (or when sending in your CV, or whatever).

Last I heard, /most/ people fail at /most/ interviews. It takes many 
hundred thousand interviews before a hire occurs. Which, given that so 
far I've been to 2 interviews this lifetime, doesn't bode well...

(Unrelated: Apparently Bode is also the name of a type of chart used in 
signal processing, invented by Hendrik Wade Bode...)

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