[DUG] Work Wanted in Wellington

Thu Jul 3 13:53:03 NZST 2014

You have indeed side stepped the original question – maybe that is an essential programmers skill!

I read recently that at Google they have tended to move away from the flashy problem solving interview questions (such as “how would you find how many beach balls it takes to fill a soccer stadium?”)  to investigating peoples work history – that is the old thing of genius being 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration – that is some of the talented people have lazy work habits and drive and some diligent and focussed people will out-perform them with less skill.   Craig Neville-Manning from Google gave a lecture at the University of Canterbury a couple of years back (largely on how to develop an IT hub around a university like that around Stanford which produced HP, Apple, Google and Silicon Valley and what they are doing in NY with the Google office occupying a whole block).   Google gets approached all the time with ideas for the “next great thing” and he said what interested Google was to look at products already thriving in their market – ie the practice and not the theory.

Are you meaning that - what you said about revealing peoples thought process in an interview illustrates it is not specific check boxes but again something more intangible or qualitative or human quality that is the sought after quality?  Along with the required technical proficiency of course.

Specifics on what you said:
  a.. Debugging on paper – now that takes me back!  my first programming job had just that – there were more programmers than screens and that’s what we had to do.  Useful to be able to do, and to be grateful you don’t have to do it for day to day work. 
  b.. Exception handling – is this also an area where opinions vary?   For instance I read that the NASA Shuttle programming team had to produce code so reliable that it never threw exceptions, and the production version had all exception handling turned off.  (This being my side step) 
  c.. Any more examples of the sorts of questions you ask? 
  d.. The original question – what is the difference between people who think they are good and those who are good?  Is there an answer? or is there an answer only for a particular workplace and job? 
  e.. Right back to the original question specifically  – is there a shortage for essential Delphi skills in NZ compared to Oz and Switzerland?  What is lacking – training/size of talent pool/non-intellectual focussed culture/lack of or quality of IT industry training/Delphi community being less lively etc?

From: Jeremy North 
Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2014 1:02 PM
To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List 
Subject: Re: [DUG] Work Wanted in Wellington

Giving specifics is hard because it would depend on the work you want them to do but also the level you are hiring for. 

We basically have zero interest in someones ability to write SQL because we don't have to write SQL at all. While it is a handy skill to have.
We hope they have exposure to unit testing and know and understand the difference between unit and integration testing.

We look for people that can hold a discussion on system / class design. We discuss code separation. I have a list of 20 verbal questions that I ask during an interview. I don't ask all 20, many questions rely on previous responses (being correct). I've been in interviews where I've asked just the first couple and had to stop (some are really basic that every developer should know). The questions vary in skill required and we like to hear the answers but we also like to see they they react and their mannerisms when responding. We do ask questions that are very hard and we don't do it to big note ourselves but to see how the person copes with not knowing the answer or the thought process they go through while thinking about it. If they know the answer - that's great as well. Some questions (aim to) lead into further discussions about previous job experiences and the like - we like it when this occurs.

After the discussion portion which is generally 30 - 60 mins, they get a written test which we allow 60 mins for. This is just to prove they not only know all the right answers, but can use and implement the things we have discussed previously.

The test has specific skills we'd like the person to have and some skills that we'd like them to have. The test is written - we want to know what they know (not what Bob in the UK knows to be the answer!).

We recently interviewed for a FireMonkey position and gave them a PC and a sample project to maintain.

One question that should be on everyone's interview list is exception handling. The number of developers that don't know how to use it is a worry. One of the questions involves "debugging on paper". Following the flow of a method when it has different outcomes and outputting the correct method result for different inputs.

We have no issues with wrong answers, it is mostly how they reach the answer. The thought process.

The biggest issue when conducting interviews is making the person comfortable. They will be at their best when they are comfortable and at the end of the day that is what I want. The less interviews I have to do, the better!

I think I've successfully side stepped the response you were hoping to get :-)

On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 9:20 AM, John Bird <johnkbird at paradise.net.nz> wrote:

  OK that begs a further discussion!

  What in your eyes makes a developer “good” as opposed to thinking they are good – specific qualities please of what the good qualities are.  I am wondering if there are many opinions of what a “good” programmer is which might explain why some think they are good whilst others think they are not.  What are the more objective measures?

  I have worked on numerous projects the last few years and seen a lot of different talents.  Some that stick out in my experience are:

    a.. Technical proficiency – ie knowing already what is likely to be the best technology to use to tackle a new problem 
    b.. OO depth.   Is it innate or learned?   How is it best learned? 
    c.. Ability to mentor and guide others through existing code
  Curious to hear specifics from you as you have the reputation of a Delphi authority!

  From: Jeremy North 
  Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2014 10:23 AM
  To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List 
  Subject: Re: [DUG] Work Wanted in Wellington

  I know here (Australia) we would happily pay decent salaries if we found Delphi developers that were actually good and didn't just *think* they were good.

  On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 8:06 AM, Stefan Mueller <muellers at orcl-toolbox.com> wrote:

    As a Swiss Delphi Developer living in New Zealand I find that interesting. 

    Switzerland isn’t exactly at the top of my mind when I think about the “value for bucks” for outsourcing work to – not because you don’t get the quality, but because salaries there are almost twice what you would have to pay here.

    Kind regards,

    Stefan Müller,
    R&D Manager

    ORCL Toolbox Ltd. 
    Auckland, New Zealand 

    P Please consider the environment before printing this email

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    From: delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] On Behalf Of Tony Blomfield
    Sent: Thursday, 3 July 2014 9:29 a.m.
    To: 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'
    Subject: Re: [DUG] Work Wanted in Wellington

    Gary.

    If you would like to send the details to me I will have a chat with them.

    Unfortunately we have had such a bad run with Kiwi Developers we moved our R&D over to Switzerland last year where we get much more cost effective results.

    Anyway, I’d like to assess the person myself to see if they are suitable.

    Kind regards.

    Tony Blomfield

    From: delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] On Behalf Of Gary T. Benner
    Sent: Wednesday, 2 July 2014 2:32 p.m.
    To: delphi at delphi.org.nz
    Subject: [DUG] Work Wanted in Wellington

    HI All, 

    This just passed in if anyone can help: 

    Permanent Developer available in Wellington. 

    Experienced Senior Delphi Developer looking for a permanent role in or around Wellington. 

    Open to remote work. Also open to learning a new language if needed. Experienced in picking up code from others and looking after legacy systems as well as new development. 

    Also experienced as a Development Manager and Product Management. 

    Anyone with an opportunity can email me at gary at benner.co.nz and I'll pass it on. 

    cheers 

    Gary 

    List Admin

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