The Vent and Rant Thread

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by slayda

With those three tests, you could hire a robot and miss hiring a genius. But to each his own.

Depends on if that's the kind of person you want to hire and will fill the position requirements. Sometimes you need a drone.

Right now my group is interviewing for 2 positions. Our entire team takes part in the interviews. We do that because the applicant won't just be working with the boss; the person will need to work with all of us. We're a tight group and want to make sure we get the right personality and set of job skills to fit the empty niche.

Dreamer

[Taylor514ce]

But a genius at what? I don't need a genius who can't TYPE, can't grasp the highly visual/visceral, "flow" aspects of good programming, or can't quickly read someone else's code, or spends 2 hours debugging because he can't see the difference between 0 and O.

The qualities I'm testing are more relevant to good programming than intellectual, but ineffectual, brilliance.

@BD: Yes, I'd often do a fourth test, if I was concerned with team integration, and that was to send the applicant to an Industrial Psychologist for a "personality profile" test. It wasn't good at the "positives" but was remarkably good at the "negatives", such as warning me that a person couldn't take criticism, would try to force his way, would perceive someone else's advancement as a personal insult, etc.

When I became a Vice President of one particular company, I read my own profile. That was interesting reading, and I have to say, very accurate, even on the negative qualities.

[nekokami]

I don't think those tests would select for "drones," even the accuracy one. Visual perception hardly equates with orthodoxy, and typos in computer programs can be fatal (literally).

When I was still working for a large computer company, I was working on a "troubleshooting skills" test for use with tech support candidates, based on Interactive Fiction technology. The test didn't rely on any particular technical knowledge, but was based more on approach and use of logic. I'd have validated it against our existing staff before trying to use it in hiring, however.

[The Skwerl]

:: jumping up and down stomping paws throwing acorns around:: "Chitter !! chitter!! Damn CHITTER.....GGRRRRR...Chitter..crap.....chitter ....Chittter ..POOH !" ::signs and grins to climb up his tree back into his den:: ( Bad Day humans really annoy me sometimes)

[Patricia]

It occurs to me that Zelda is probably using a French keyboard. If so it will be difficult for the rest of us to work out which keys are causing trouble.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by The Skwerl

( Bad Day humans really annoy me sometimes)

yep, i hear ya.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

It occurs to me that Zelda is probably using a French keyboard. If so it will be difficult for the rest of us to work out which keys are causing trouble.

that's a good point, although i think it's mostly the letters which are different, not the functional keys like tabulation, shift, alt, etc. but i could be wrong ; i haven't used an qwerty keyboard in some time so i can't quite remember how the keys are on the edges. i think it must be edge keys that do it though...

[Mindy]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Pollock's?

(sorry -- bad Edinburgh "joke").

Nice!
It's worse actually, I went to Aberdeen Uni and had to spend a year telling everyone I lived in Fyfe (House)

[nekokami]

I'm using a US keyboard and it's definitely some combination of keys on the left edge. I haven't figured out the exact combination yet, though.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I'm using a US keyboard and it's definitely some combination of keys on the left edge. I haven't figured out the exact combination yet, though.

Well, lessee .... the tab key will move your cursor to the next "field" on the page. Which is probably the "submit reply" button. Then you keep typing away, blithely unaware .... and when you next hit RETURN (to start a new paragraph, maybe) ..... whammo!! You've sent your message and you didn't mean to do so.

See, I just hit TAB and RETURN to post this.....

[nekokami]

Ok, but my message wasn't getting sent, I was being sent back a page in my history.

[RWood]

I use an old design Avant Stellar keyboard. While it is a US QWERTY layout, the function keys are on the left (as they were on the original IBM keyboards.) I like it better than the ones that have the function keys along the top. There is also the inverted "T" cursor keys and a numeric keypad. I have used the same keyboard for over 15 years. It weighs about 7 pounds and has outlasted five or six motherboards. Since I do so much typing it has proven to be a good investment in contrast to the cheap throw-away keyboards (as Zelda has said her keyboard is.) Be kind to yourself as a good keyboard, good mouse, and good monitor pay dividends for many years to come. (Call this an anti-rant post.)

[Taylor514ce]

But buying a "good" monitor that would last was hard a few years ago... VGA? SVGA? XVGA? CRT? LCD?

[RWood]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

But buying a "good" monitor that would last was hard a few years ago... VGA? SVGA? XVGA? CRT? LCD?

I stayed with monochrome for many years while the rest of the world moved from CGA to PGA to VGA and then to SVGA. I used the Hercules Monochrome+ board and finally migrated to SVGA and a peperwhite CRT monitor in the early 1990s. Finaly I moved to a color monitor in the mid to late 1990s. I did jump on the LCD bandwagon early as I found it easier on my eyes -- I could work for longer periods with less eye strain than I could if I used a normal CRT monitor. Given the increase in my own productivity I find the incremental cost for a good monitor to be well worth the investment.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RWood

I stayed with monochrome for many years while the rest of the world moved from CGA to PGA to VGA and then to SVGA. I used the Hercules Monochrome+ board and finally migrated to SVGA and a peperwhite CRT monitor in the early 1990s. Finaly I moved to a color monitor in the mid to late 1990s. I did jump on the LCD bandwagon early as I found it easier on my eyes -- I could work for longer periods with less eye strain than I could if I used a normal CRT monitor. Given the increase in my own productivity I find the incremental cost for a good monitor to be well worth the investment.

I had an Amdek amber monitor driven by a Hercules card for years.

These days, I have an Envision 19" flat screen LCD CRT. (It's not a flat screen monitor as normally though of -- the screen is flat but it's a full CRT.) I run it in 1600x1200 resolution, and consider it one of my best investments. I've had it for 5 years or so, and it just runs.
______
Dennis