Epos Nix on 6/6/2006 at 01:32
Righteous indignation prevails once again!!! :D
Ultraviolet on 6/6/2006 at 03:06
Quote Posted by Tocky
Oh. I see. It's not a job, it's an adventure.
Yes, called "spelunking."
I saw this thread title in the new posts list and I was like "What, did you intercept his interviewer's thank-you card?"
godismygoldfish on 6/6/2006 at 05:52
Very nice, you gotta love moments like these. :D
descenterace on 6/6/2006 at 09:03
Last year at around this time, the small company I did software testing for was hiring new developers. There're only about five or six people at this company, so everyone knew everyone else and, most importantly, the boss knew I could write decent code.
I was up against six applicants, all graduates and a few had been in other development jobs since leaving Uni. The company was going to take on four of us over the summer. For comparison, I'd just finished the second year of my course.
The interviews came and went, and I knew I hadn't done very well because my answers to questions had tended to be more technical than they wanted. So I didn't get the job. My contract as a tester was expiring in the next week or so too, so I signed up with one of the agencies in the area to find a job for the summer, which turned out to be warehouse work.
About six weeks later, I get a call from my previous boss. He asks me if I'd like to work for the company as a developer... I accepted, of course. By the time I started, a week later, three of the graduates they'd hired had 'left', halfway through a three-month contract. Maybe they'd gone looking for greener pastures.
When I looked at the code they'd produced over the summer... whatever reason they had for leaving, it's a good thing they did. Documentation was approximately nil, and design appeared to have consisted of slamming lumps of code together and patching the gaps with rubbish. I'm surprised anything worked. The thought occurred that they may have been given some incentive to leave.
It is said that a Real Programmer can write FORTRAN in any language. I have now seen that it's possible for a Crap Programmer to write BASIC in C#.NET.
Anyway, it transpired that the boss took me back because I could do the job several orders of magnitude better than the bullshitters hired for the summer. Seems that interviews don't count for much. Nor do CompSci degrees.
jstnomega on 6/6/2006 at 13:15
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
They won’t guarantee me my current position, but they’ll give me a signing bonus: a nice fat check, first day I walk in the door. It works out so that I’ll make as much money over the next six months as I would have otherwise, but the risk is on me to prove I deserve to keep making that much.
As our favorite defense counselor once put it to me: "You eat what you kill." I corrected him saying, "You mean you eat *PART* of what you kill.", with which he agreed.
"THINK OF THE BILLABLE HOURS!" - Harvey Birdman
Anyway, GL w/the new position RBJ. The harsh reality of the matter is that, occupationally, you're living in Ted Nugent's world - hungry Alpha dogs everywhere!
Mortal Monkey on 6/6/2006 at 13:40
internets = lies
RBJ totally booted those people because they refused to pay the "protection money". I heard it with my own ears!
Nicker on 6/6/2006 at 21:50
Getting accurate information on prospective hires is a real battle and the smoke is not always blown by candidates. The most evil, conniving boss I ever had would regularly offer employees with abysmal service and public safety records, glowing letters of reference as an incentive to resign peacefully. Good people, on the other hand, were trash talked (nothing in writing) to prospective employers, thus keeping them in the fold.
Our personal experiences of RJB might lead us to believe the title of this thread was a bit of crowing, rather than a statement of fact. But had he lied, glossed over the fellow’s failings and given the thumbs up, the new hire’s likely fall from grace would have reflected badly on RJB’s judgment.
Agent Monkeysee on 7/6/2006 at 00:19
Oh Rug Jurn Bunky <3
Scots Taffer on 7/6/2006 at 00:28
Rug's Junk Burny.
Ko0K on 7/6/2006 at 07:27
I was going to say that six years is a long time and that it is possible for people to gain more maturity during that time, but I would definitely find it rather concerning to learn the guy changed jobs three times in three years. I talked to a similar guy before, and he had all the right reasons and circumstances, of course. Anyway, I wouldn't want to work with someone who's incapable of saying simple hellos and good-byes. WTF is the deal with that?
