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It would behoof you to consider the consequences to your reputation with when you nag us so.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Hi All,
As the title says had an interview yesterday, I was given a test as part of the interview did it.
I was a bit shocked that I could remember one formula but according to the interviewer I did more than most software guys on the electronics questions (I'm really an electronics engineer pretending to be a software guy!). The question I have is really how much are those tests worth? I mean I don't know about others but I have a copy 'The Art of Electronics' & 'The C Programming Language' on the shelf or the web so when I have to check something I go to those rather than the 'Wet Ware' Store between my ears... 
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Agreed and I use a calculator too for working out stuff. Also at home we have a fancy washing machine and no mangle anywhere to be seen.
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I have several of these tests, they generally have no reference to the job either!
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The tests are just something the interviewer(s) pulled down from the internet to take up time during the interview so they don't have to talk to you. 
They don't know the questions to ask, because they haven't thought about it for more than 11 seconds.
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By-the-way, good luck.
Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.
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glennPattonBackInThePUB wrote: I'm really an electronics engineer
Then look for these jobs, and not software engineering jobs? 
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I do, however most of them require you to be fluent with C, assembler & other things these days pretty much everything has some form of controller in it (even a battery charger I worked on!).
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Of course! Battery chargers are complicated these days, what with temperature sensors, charge termination monitoring, and such like. It's a heck of a lot more accurate and cost effective to use digital technology than try to do it all in analog circuits.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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This battery charger was some else project who left the firm and it was muggins who had to sort why it wasn't working properly, the analog temperature sensor rig was going positive due to an op-amp chip getting too hot. As I recall it was 'fixed' for the ones in the field by sticking heat sinks to offending chip. I came up with a desgin using a PIC to monitor temperature and voltage on the chip and a couple of other things...
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A question I was given, among twenty other such questions, was:
int i = 5;
int j;
j = ( i++ > 4? 3 : 4 ) < 10 ? 8 : 14;
cout << j;
Not sure how many of those twenty I got right; but I didn't get that job.
The one thing most interviewers forget is that 'There is a debugger'. 
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I mean I can understand it from the what does the '?' do, but if you turned in the line j= (i++>4? 3:4)<10 ?8 : 14; to anything other that a its in the field it passed every test, oh darn we need this added feature I would have been flayed!
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Avijnata wrote: 'There is a debugger'.
Yeah, but that one is trivial.
Since both possible values for the first expression are less than 10, the whole thing is just
int i = 6;
int j = 8;
cout << j;
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Yes, but not the case 22 years ago, for a person seeking a software career. And I had barely learnt C, given my background in FORTRAN.
At that time, a person who wrote the most cryptic statement was considered as though descended from heaven
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Checking poor knowledge is not a good test. Nobody can remember everything.
You should know how to get the information you need in short time. Formerly that means to know which book contains the information and where the book is placed or whom to ask (I still prefer this way if possible and it seems you too). Nowadays it means to enter the best search term.
But you must have basic knowledge of the topic to understand and transpose it.
So a better test would be to provide some books that may help to answer the questions and access to a computer for research. Then you can show that you are able to get the required information in short time and use it to answer the questions.
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Jochen Arndt wrote: and access to a computer for research.
But then QA would be full of "URGENTZZ! IN INTERVIEW! NEED ANSWERZZ TO QUESTIONZ PLZ!" 
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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It is...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Which is why I steer clear of it. 
Well, that, and no one asks any Delphi questions.
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Sadly, I don't have an answer for that guy, because I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to do... 
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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I'm convince he does either. Such are the delights of QA sometimes.
I think of it as a giant CCC set by morons.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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The test shows you have the ability to do some, if not all, of the work. As opposed to being a member of a team that does the work. Being a member of the team might mean you can write documentation, but no nothing about building an application.
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The trick is not knowing everything by heart. It's knowing what to look for and where to look for it... 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Quote: It's knowing what to look for and where to look for it...
I concur - this is the key thing to know.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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