I have suggestions for 21st Century Interviewing for Developers: http://www.lessonsoffailure.com/developers/stop-dumbing-world-bad-interview-questions/

Thanks for the post, I will be revising my interviewing techniques as a result. I LOVE learning/getting new ideas.

~Lee

Why? Because. Corporate America doesnt care for the developer. They dont know how to deal with us, they dont know how to pay us, they dont know what to expect from us. They dont know, also, what person is right or wrong, for a position — as is the point you’re making here.

They consider us as an “expense”. A loss as I have heard all too many times in the past. The expect us to develop software that has little to no specifications, in unreasonable amounts of time and for pay that makes some of us laugh. They expect overtime without pay. Would you ever see an attorney work a moment of overtime without charging the client? Would you see an electrician change the entire plan to wire a house after he began his job, without renegotiating his contract?

We need representation of SOME sort. Agents, Brokers, Union Boss – whichever works best. Certainly, a huge percentage of us dont represent ourselves very well.

For example: @John. Why are you doing an assignment for your interview? Thats absurd. Companies love to do that, they give potential employees “assignments” which are nothing more than work that they need done. Attorneys are notorious for doing this with their interviewees. They’ll give them a “typing test” to see how they do and what is it? Its work. They get free work, especially if they dont hire the candidate. And with John, they’re getting free work and/or IDEAS.

People, our skills are in our brains. It is our commodity and there is no reason to share it. These corporations demand that we, contract types, sign non-compete clauses which I personally refuse to do. Why would I want to cut off a portion of the population from my ability to earn a living from?

There is no need for certifications (MS, CISCO, etc). There IS a need to get organized into a nation group, however. Much like Hoffa did with the truckers. It may LOOK bad to some people who do not understand it too much but let me tell you, people protected by Unions do NOT work at 5:01pm unless they’re respected and they get paid.

Too much BS about “your biggest weakness”, I agree. My answer to those idiotic questions always is “My biggest weakness is taking a job with a company that asks me what my biggest weakness is”. The look on the faces of those who hear that is priceless. Amazingly, I’ve earned the contract work for over 75% of those places even after answering that way.

People – take your own lives into your hands and dont take crap from these companies.

I m same as you. Thanks for sharing.
I also thanks for all the valuable comments for this post…

“Granted there is a difference between a position where a lack of knowledge could KILL someone versus and position where a lack of knowledge causes a loop to run 100 milliseconds slower.”

Depending on which software you’re working on, lack of knowledge may cause financially or human loss as well.

I’m not sure I like the idea of a board certifying software engineers. I think this profession is still to young to make that work, we just don’t have enough figured out yet in regards to practices and methodology. Besides, things vary between language and platform by a wide margin. I think a board might just stifle creativity at this point.

I’ve run into a few people who lied on their resume, but they’ve always been easy to pick out. I like to use candidates resume as a starting point for a discussion. I think this is far more interesting, and more often than not I get to learn something new.

Oh, and I’m glad to now be working with you.

The problem here is that getting those certifications is INCREDIBLY easy, and most people don’t even bother learning the material, they instead read Braindumps or Certkiller papers. It makes the whole thing a farce.

Degrees are hardly an indication that someone is capable of writing good software, and hence aren’t really a great yardstick. Masters or PhDs aren’t good either, as most (and I mean most, not all ) people who fit into this category are too academic to be of use in the “real world” (I hope I don’t get flamed too much for saying that!).

So how would you go about licensing a dev without the above issues biting you in the butt?

I certainly don’t know the answer I don’t think the likes of Sweebok do either (with all due respect). So for now we’re down to relying on experience and references which should be evident from interviews.

Great post by the way!

@Scott: Darn! One of my favorite questions to ask is “What are your 3 biggest weaknesses and what do you do to mitigate them?”!!!!!!!!!!

I like what John said though! The homework thing, I think we should try that.