On Sat, 04 Aug 2012 18:03:49 +0200, clipka wrote:

> 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.

Yep.

I had an interview years ago with a software engineering team, and during 
the interview, I was given a problem to solve that was along the lines of 
having a container to fill with liquid, with an "input" (where the liquid 
came in) and an "output" (where the liquid went out).  The goal of the 
program was, given two functions that had two inputs each (I forget what 
now, it's been over a decade ago), keep the water between a high and low 
watermark in the container.

They asked me to solve it without a particular language - just in 
pseudocode or methodology.

I was unprepared to do that, and as a result, the day's worth of 
interviews ended up not resulting in my getting the job.

And now, over a decade later, I'm working with some of the same engineers 
I would have if I'd taken that job, but they respect me and my ability to 
learn technology quickly - and I'm writing documentation on a contract 
basis for them.

But if I'd gotten the engineering job itself - I would be somewhere else 
and wouldn't have their respect.  For this contract, though, they were 
actively excited that I was coming back to work with them again (I'd 
worked with them before at the start of the year for about 6 weeks; this 
time it's for 6 months).

Jim

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