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My company had a zero tolerance policy as well. That just meant that the CEO kept his booze in the VP's office. 
“The palest ink is better than the best memory.” - Chinese Proverb
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You'd probably do better with a zero temperance policy.
Explorans limites defectum
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Ask him about stuff you expect him to be using for the job.
What does his CV say he has done? Ask about projects and what his involvement in them was. What did he learn from them? what does he wish he'd done differently? How does the internet work? Explain a WPF project he was involved in? What was his contribution? What would you spend the money on if you won the lottery? How does WPF differ from Web Forms?
Throw a couple of silly ones in there - they help to break up the tension and show you how his thought processes work. Does he freeze like a rabbit in the headlights, or does he think about what he is doing? Does he rush in without thinking?
And if you ask a "basic" question, ask a follow up question that wants more depth based on his reply. You want dig out the ones who know the subject, not those that parrot a couple of sentences.
Good luck!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I do not know why, but this makes me nervous. 
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These are great suggestions , I would also add paying attention to his soft skills as it can motivate/demotivate others in long term …
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Ask him if he would use Entity Framework on an enterprise solution. What tool set does he recommend and why.
Does he have a CP profile!
Where does he he do most of his research.
And as OG said get him to discuss recent projects.
If you can keep MM off the turps during working hours hire him (assuming you are in Sydney)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Does he have a CP profile!
Upvoted 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: If you can keep MM off the turps during working hours hire him (assuming you are in Sydney)
Virang's office is about 150 - 200metres metres from mine in a straight line if I don't have him confusrd with someone I haven't caught up with. North Sydney to be precise. Im sure he causght up in the Wger Am I Members section but couldn't see him when I looked.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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They have advertise the role in Perth as that is our main office. So I am getting a developer there.
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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virang_21 wrote: They have advertise the role in Perth as that is our main office. So I am getting a developer there.
The Matilday Bay Brewing Company is near there so I may be interested. I just need to come up with a great excuse as to why I'm always working n a brewery though.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I always think the best interviews avoid the "what is x?" and "explain y" questions and delve more into the "whys" via a slightly more conversational approach.
I think you get a fairly quick idea of technical competence from the way people speak - you'll soon gather whether a person is a buzzword bull artist, a clueless cut-and-paster or a script kiddy without asking them stuff that they might just be able to parrot from Wikipedia articles. It doesn't take long to realise when you're talking to a genuine coder.
It's one thing for a person to be able to reel off the normalised forms as a list but it's another to say where and why they would or wouldn't use them.
Don't ask people "what is DI?", ask them where and why why would/wouldn't use DI.
Above all, ask questions that don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer. You're looking for someone who will fit into your team and the important thing there is to know what qualities you're looking for - the best person for one job may well be a disastrous choice for another. An excellent highly process-driven developer may struggle in an anarchic organisation and a more creative type might struggle in a more organised environment. Ultimately, it's a case of "horses for courses" and cultural fit can be a far bigger factor than book learning.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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PeejayAdams wrote: I always think the best interviews avoid the "what is x?" and "explain y" questions and delve more into the "whys" via a slightly more conversational approach.
Agreed.
Even when interviewing entry level people I use this technique. I don't care if the interviewee knows every command in the language -- this isn't the 1980's -- if someone doesn't know something they can search for it rather quickly. I want to know if they know why to use it. If they know why, then they know what.
Questions for a higher level person? Ask opinion questions. One question I used many moons ago was "DAO, ADO, or RDO -- which do you prefer and why?" The answer was of no importance -- what mattered was that the person understood things well enough to have an opinion and explain it. If the answer was that they didn't know that? Just as good, they have the confidence to state what they don't know.
Look at their resume and consider your own project(s). Choose open ended questions from that grouping. Plan for essay answers, and if the person can't explain or if their essay answer is a monosyllable, you know you don't have a match.
This gets a demonstration of their thinking and communication abilities. Occasionally a senior level person needs to be the most proficient geek on the team, but most of the time the soft skills are required.
One last thought -- pay attention to usage of "the team" or "I". A few I interviewed described in great detail what "the team" did, but couldn't explain what they did.
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ask him how he would solve a requirement (refer back to recent projects so you know what was done)
i.e. not "what is a bridge," rather "given this river (width, depth, flow, flooding) in broad terms what sort of bridge would you build."
People that can't solve a problem are not very useful, you want a robot that only does what's told or someone that can think and provide something that fills the needs?
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"Where do you see yourself in five years?" - I hear that's a popular one.
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Is "in the next company" an acceptable answer?
--
"My software never has bugs. It just develops random features."
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Perhaps not a top priority, but … if he is supposed to interact a lot with other developers it's important to have an idea about his way to communicate, as it can be motivating/demotivating for the others… (eg positive attitude or "slight/hard bullying" in commanding style ...). Soft skills thus, as they are more and more becoming a part of ICT curricula.
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Get a feel for their troubleshooting and research techniques.
In the age of the internet, they should be able to find the answer to most topics they are not fluent in, etc.
I am more interested in how they go about learning what they don't know, versus what they do know.
Also, I could not care less if they know how to concatenate strings in 5 different languages in the fewest lines of code, and I never ask these types of retarded questions during an interview.
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Slacker007 wrote: Also, I could not care less if they know how to concatenate strings in 5 different languages in the fewest lines of code, and I never ask these types of retarded questions during an interview.
Right on.
Been in way too many "fibonacci sequence" interviews. When someone asks me a retarded question like that, I respond with "Why, do you have code in production that concats a string 5 different ways in multiple langauges?" If they do, their code is $hit and I walk away. If not, their idiots for asking.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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The only question you need to ask if "tell me about what you have been doing." And let them do most of the talking. You should be able to tell if they have the experience you are looking for.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Nap time.
veni bibi saltavi
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I always ask, "How many computers do you have at home for you own personal use?" If they look at me like "why should I have my own computer at home?" the interview is over. If they say "only one, my [insert name of an iCrap thingy]" then the interview is over. If they say any number more than 2, give them the job. Otherwise we have to go through the long process of actually having a conventional interview...
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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One of the best web devs I work with has no personal computers. Just saying.
company provided laptop and that is it. Company doesn't mind if he does R&D on the laptop, his learning will eventually make $$ for the company.
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I totally get what you're saying here. I have a server, 3 PC's, a laptop, and 4 tablets.
That doesn't mean I leave work, drive right home, and code all night. After 30+ years of coding I like to go home & relax. That is no reflection on my work skills or performance in any way.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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This is more of a suggestion for the job seeker rather than the headhunter. But this probably applies to both - use this information as you deem appropriate:
Social media can put a serious stain to your name/reputation. We recently had someone send his resume with some pretty impressive items on it, and included links to some blog he maintains. Out of morbid curiousity, I started reading some of his posts and public responses.
Lets just say that some people have sent him non-private messages painting him as a total d*ck and as someone who must be rather miserable and infuriating to be around IRL (and in fact using those exact words).
Granted, his extra-curricular activities are really no-one's business, but it does raise some flags.
The way I see it...your local labor laws may vary, but just like you're generally allowed to talk to a candidate's previous employers...if he provides (without asking) links on his resume to stuff for you to read, by all means, you should probably have a look.
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virang_21 wrote: I don't want to ask too low level question like what is an interface and what is a class. I feel that will be given for a senior developer with 10+ years of experience.
Why not ask? There are far too many "senior" developers out there who only know the book definition of what an interface is.
First, ask what an interface is. Then ask them to give you a real world scenario where you would use one to solve a business problem. This shows you their knowledge level AND their problem solving skills.
Making the assumption that because the title on their resume has "Senior" in means they're skilled is a huge assumption. I've met people with less than 2 years experience who consider themselves senior. I think their work is crap.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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