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Write a bit of generic code to calculate a square root.
That\'s what I have in mind.
Probably the applicant has never done this, now he\'s on his own,
he has to think his way through a problem. That\'s what you
watch - not the answer, but his thinking.
On April 14, Clive Arthur wrote:
When you interview job candidates, you pose standard
problems, of circuits, PSpice, maybe Mathcad, etc.
Textbook stuff, you expect he knows,
Microsoft and Google are famous for posing brain twisters,
stuff \"outside the book\" (if any exists, nowadays with the net).
Do you do this? The obvious idea is to test for originality.
How much weight do you place on the responses?
Write a bit of generic code to calculate a square root.
On April 14, Clive Arthur wrote:
When you interview job candidates, you pose standard
problems, of circuits, PSpice, maybe Mathcad, etc.
Textbook stuff, you expect he knows,
Microsoft and Google are famous for posing brain twisters,
stuff \"outside the book\" (if any exists, nowadays with the net).
Do you do this? The obvious idea is to test for originality.
How much weight do you place on the responses?
Write a bit of generic code to calculate a square root.
That\'s what I have in mind.
Probably the applicant has never done this, now he\'s on his own,
he has to think his way through a problem. That\'s what you
watch - not the answer, but his thinking.
What temperature does solder melt at? This one\'s interesting, most
don\'t know of course, but some can\'t even make a guess, and even if the
guess is wildly wrong the reasoning can be good.
OK, I\'ll bite - how does one \'reason\' one\'s way to a melting point?
Mentally solve Schrodinger\'s equation, given the molecular structure of solder?
They showed me a small PCB and asked me what it was.
From the 741 op-amp and the fairly large value capacitors I deduced
that it was probably a low power audio amplifier. Their notes just said
\"circuit board\".
They then handed me a resistor which I told them was a
4k7 5% 1/4 watt resistor. Their notes just said \"resistor\".
hmmm... did any candidate fail this exam?
On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:10:26 -0700 (PDT), RichD
r_delaney2001@yahoo.com> wrote:
On April 14, Clive Arthur wrote:
When you interview job candidates, you pose standard
problems, of circuits, PSpice, maybe Mathcad, etc.
Textbook stuff, you expect he knows,
Microsoft and Google are famous for posing brain twisters,
stuff \"outside the book\" (if any exists, nowadays with the net).
Do you do this? The obvious idea is to test for originality.
How much weight do you place on the responses?
Write a bit of generic code to calculate a square root.
For an integer, just binary search the bits, like an SAR ADC.
On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:51:50 +0100, Martin Brown
\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
On 13/04/2022 21:02, RichD wrote:
When you interview job candidates, you pose standard
problems, of circuits, PSpice, maybe Mathcad, etc.
Textbook stuff, you expect he knows, reviewing his resume.
Microsoft and Google are famous for posing brain twisters,
stuff \"outside the book\" (if any exists, nowadays with the net).
Do you do this? The obvious idea is to test for originality.
Most regular interviewers have their own favourite pet questions.
Discussing the right answers online would defeat the object so they
don\'t stay useable for long in this age of everything on social media.
How many zeroes does 100! have in its decimal representation is one such
that has been popular in recent years.
How much weight do you place on the responses?
Watching how they approach an unfamiliar problem can be a sufficient
guide to do they have what it takes. Engineering can get away with an
answer that whilst not exactly right is \"good enough\" for practical
purposes.
A pure mathematics course would expect the right answer (and quickly).
You have to know what characteristics you are recruiting for to pick the
right test question(s) for the position if you are playing this game.
Whether the individual will fit in with the team is often much more
important than technical prowess (provided that is adequate).
Unless that is you enjoy herding cats (something software engineering
management has been compared with - more than our fair share of divas).
Puzzles, especially math puzzles, tell a small part about a person\'s
prospect as a design engineer. Puzzles are an easy thing for HR folks
to use.
On 14/04/2022 15:35, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:51:50 +0100, Martin Brown
\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
On 13/04/2022 21:02, RichD wrote:
When you interview job candidates, you pose standard
problems, of circuits, PSpice, maybe Mathcad, etc.
Textbook stuff, you expect he knows, reviewing his resume.
Microsoft and Google are famous for posing brain twisters,
stuff \"outside the book\" (if any exists, nowadays with the net).
Do you do this? The obvious idea is to test for originality.
Most regular interviewers have their own favourite pet questions.
Discussing the right answers online would defeat the object so they
don\'t stay useable for long in this age of everything on social media.
How many zeroes does 100! have in its decimal representation is one such
that has been popular in recent years.
How much weight do you place on the responses?
Watching how they approach an unfamiliar problem can be a sufficient
guide to do they have what it takes. Engineering can get away with an
answer that whilst not exactly right is \"good enough\" for practical
purposes.
A pure mathematics course would expect the right answer (and quickly).
You have to know what characteristics you are recruiting for to pick the
right test question(s) for the position if you are playing this game.
Whether the individual will fit in with the team is often much more
important than technical prowess (provided that is adequate).
Unless that is you enjoy herding cats (something software engineering
management has been compared with - more than our fair share of divas).
Puzzles, especially math puzzles, tell a small part about a person\'s
prospect as a design engineer. Puzzles are an easy thing for HR folks
to use.
The open ended puzzle tests are not particularly useful when used by HR.
Anyway they prefer multiple choice off the shelf standardised
personality tests - so much easier to mark.
To find out how someone will work with your design team, just do it.
Although I draw the line at the nasty modern practice of tasking some
bunch of poor unfortunate would be recruits with solving one of your
tricky real world problems for nothing in an attempt to win the job.
You can generally tell pretty quickly whether or not someone really
knows their stuff as claimed on the CV or has mugged it up from \"Ace the
technical interview for Dummies\" or even done no prep at all.
\"What would you like to ask me about the job?\" can be informative too.
We had a couple of short test pieces of code ~20 lines for each language
and the test was to explain what the code does. Much like you would with
a circuit diagram in hardware. Quite a few had no real understanding of
the language(s) that they claimed to know fluently. Saved a lot of time.
One of the key requirements is to have a balanced team.
You need the odd completer finisher to ensure that the last remaining
uninteresting bits do get done when the people who break new ground are
off doing the next interesting big project. Resource is always finite.
I was interviewed for the job of well logging engineer. Besides answering
common engineering questions, I was asked to solve the problems written
on a whiteboard behind my back. The usual stuff, like \"what is the next
number in this sequence\".
On April 15, wim...@gmail.com wrote:
I was interviewed for the job of well logging engineer. Besides answering
common engineering questions, I was asked to solve the problems written
on a whiteboard behind my back. The usual stuff, like \"what is the next
number in this sequence\".
77, 49, 36, 18, ... ?
--
Rich
8, 0, 0, 0, 0,....
It was interesting to see not just his intelligence and technical
range, but how he generated ideas and reacted to other peoples\' ideas.
Perhaps a tad dogmatic,
He also cooks, and bakes bread, so we took him for Thai lunch outdoors
and then walked to Tartine and bought him a gigantic sourdough country
loaf. All that sort of stuff suggests how people might work together.
On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 3:05:59 AM UTC-7, Clive Arthur wrote:
Write a bit of generic code to calculate a square root.
int i=1,root=0; while (input > 0) { input -= i; i += 2; root++; }
Well, you didn\'t say it had to be FAST...
Besides answering common engineering questions, I was asked to solve the
problems written on a whiteboard behind my back. The usual stuff, like \"what
is the next number in this sequence\".
77, 49, 36, 18, ... ?
8, 0, 0, 0 ....
RichD wrote:
On April 15, wim...@gmail.com wrote:
...I was asked to solve the problems written
on a whiteboard behind my back. The usual stuff, like \"what is the next
number in this sequence\".
77, 49, 36, 18, ... ?
8, 0, 0, 0, 0,....
jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
==================================
It was interesting to see not just his intelligence and technical
range, but how he generated ideas and reacted to other peoples\' ideas.
Perhaps a tad dogmatic,
** So in reality a whole lot and exactly like JL - another autistic.
but I guess people are stressed in interviews.
** Nope - that is how most autistics permanently ARE.
He also cooks, and bakes bread, so we took him for Thai lunch outdoors
and then walked to Tartine and bought him a gigantic sourdough country
loaf. All that sort of stuff suggests how people might work together.
** No it does not.
He admits to being autistic, which is if anything an asset in our business.
** My god, what a shitty business you are in.
But I guess being socially awkward and obsessed with tiny details is some sort advantage when doing PCBs.
Another guy that we zoom interviewed this week is autistic too.
** So PCB design is one step below code scribbling ?
Visibly so.
** Wonder what that means.
Hesitant speech, makes no eye contact and looks plain odd?
It was interesting to see not just his intelligence and technical
range, but how he generated ideas and reacted to other peoples\' ideas.
Perhaps a tad dogmatic,
** So in reality a whole lot and exactly like JL - another autistic.
No, quite different. It\'s called a \"spectrum\" for good reason.
but I guess people are stressed in interviews.
** Nope - that is how most autistics permanently ARE.
No, quite the opposite.
He admits to being autistic, which is if anything an asset in our business.
** My god, what a shitty business you are in.
Thinking objectively,
But I guess being socially awkward and obsessed with tiny details is some sort advantage when doing PCBs.
The tiny details matter.
Another guy that we zoom interviewed this week is autistic too.
** So PCB design is one step below code scribbling ?
Visibly so.
** Wonder what that means.
Rocking back and forth into the camera, especially visible with the
close-up cam of a laptop. I let him know so maybe he can try to not do
it in the future.
Hesitant speech, makes no eye contact and looks plain odd?
No that guy was great otherwise.
On April 16, Phil Hobbs wrote:
Besides answering common engineering questions, I was asked to solve the
problems written on a whiteboard behind my back. The usual stuff, like \"what
is the next number in this sequence\".
77, 49, 36, 18, ... ?
8, 0, 0, 0 ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yscaDkzHqek
Given a Tom Collins glass, 4\" high, 6\" circumference.
A spider sits on the outside, 1\" from the bottom.
A fly lands on the inside, 1\" from the top, on the opposite side.
The spider, who aced the calculus of variations, takes the shortest
route and pounces.
What route, what distance?
jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
==================================
It was interesting to see not just his intelligence and technical
range, but how he generated ideas and reacted to other peoples\' ideas.
Perhaps a tad dogmatic,
** So in reality a whole lot and exactly like JL - another autistic.
No, quite different. It\'s called a \"spectrum\" for good reason.
** JL misreads, all the time.
His words \"... a tad dogmatic\" - are clearly an understatement.
So in reality the applicant was a whole lot dogmatic
Like JL is, 100% of the time, including now.
but I guess people are stressed in interviews.
** Nope - that is how most autistics permanently ARE.
No, quite the opposite.
** Fraid that is a totally undeniable fact.
He admits to being autistic, which is if anything an asset in our business.
** My god, what a shitty business you are in.
Thinking objectively,
** Not something JL has ever done.
ASD people cannot be genuinely objective.
Lacking empathy just makes them mean and nasty.
But I guess being socially awkward and obsessed with tiny details is some sort advantage when doing PCBs.
The tiny details matter.
** But there is NO need to be autistic and obsessed to deal with details when needed.
Another guy that we zoom interviewed this week is autistic too.
** So PCB design is one step below code scribbling ?
Visibly so.
** Wonder what that means.
Rocking back and forth into the camera, especially visible with the
close-up cam of a laptop. I let him know so maybe he can try to not do
it in the future.
** LOL - better he not LOOK like a nut case - eh ?
Mo works with autistics.
** She is one, you fool.
Hesitant speech, makes no eye contact and looks plain odd?
No that guy was great otherwise.
** Blatant lie.
One autistic has no way to evaluate another.
Be like a blind person trying to evaluate someone\'s vision.
It was interesting to see not just his intelligence and technical
range, but how he generated ideas and reacted to other peoples\' ideas.
Perhaps a tad dogmatic,
** So in reality a whole lot and exactly like JL - another autistic.
No, quite different. It\'s called a \"spectrum\" for good reason.
** JL misreads, all the time.
His words \"... a tad dogmatic\" - are clearly an understatement.
So in reality the applicant was a whole lot dogmatic
Like JL is, 100% of the time, including now.
but I guess people are stressed in interviews.
** Nope - that is how most autistics permanently ARE.
No, quite the opposite.
** Fraid that is a totally undeniable fact.
He admits to being autistic, which is if anything an asset in our business.
** My god, what a shitty business you are in.
Thinking objectively,
** Not something JL has ever done.
ASD people cannot be genuinely objective.
Lacking empathy just makes them mean and nasty.
But I guess being socially awkward and obsessed with tiny details is some sort advantage when doing PCBs.
The tiny details matter.
** But there is NO need to be autistic and obsessed to deal with details when needed.
Another guy that we zoom interviewed this week is autistic too.
** So PCB design is one step below code scribbling ?
Visibly so.
** Wonder what that means.
Rocking back and forth into the camera, especially visible with the
close-up cam of a laptop. I let him know so maybe he can try to not do
it in the future.
** LOL - better he not LOOK like a nut case - eh ?
Mo works with autistics.
** She is one, you fool.
Hesitant speech, makes no eye contact and looks plain odd?
No that guy was great otherwise.
** Blatant lie.
One autistic has no way to evaluate another.
Be like a blind person trying to evaluate someone\'s vision.
The issue isn\'t personality stuff,
He admits to being autistic, which is if anything an asset in our business.
** My god, what a shitty business you are in.
But I guess being socially awkward and obsessed with tiny details is some sort advantage when doing PCBs.
Another guy that we zoom interviewed this week is autistic too.
** So PCB design is one step below code scribbling ?
Visibly so.
** Wonder what that means.
Hesitant speech, makes no eye contact and looks plain odd?
Met more than a few of them.
We agreed that if we hire him, it will be as a virtual intern,
** So he is gonna be employing AI?