Comments on: Quit Exaggerating On Your Skill Set

By: Osama

Osama — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:11:46 +0000

interviewer should know the person he is interviewing – esp. in technical interviews.

it differs when the interviewee is a fresh graduate, junior, senior, etc ….

Typically, I suppose a senior developer who writes he is an expert in Java for example, then he should be since he/she don’t know the one “geek” going to interview him/her! he/she might trapped him/herself.

@Cujo and @FJones, developer don’t need to know everything from memory, but there are concepts and some fundamentals that every developers (with some expertise) should know. I use google on daily basis, I don’t ask people I interview about details of details. when you need someone to hire, you need him/her to accomplish the task asked for; not to make academic exams with 5/5 .

after all, this topic is arguable, depends on the person you are interviewing and the position you need (except you are hiring for a startup company) and can be written in a 100 papers article.

By: Delicious 081103 ~ 081109 | ur-ban.com - Richard Hart

Delicious 081103 ~ 081109 | ur-ban.com - Richard Hart — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:36:16 +0000

[...] Quit Exaggerating On Your Skill Set [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:52:13 +0000

Maybe…. EMPLOYERS need to cease asking for people who are “highly skilled” in SQL Server, “dot net”, HTTP Streaming, C++, Cisco Routers, writing business proposals, negotiating with the CEO over budgeting, HTML, Linux, Scripting, Excel Pivot Tables and other absurd and impossible combinations.

Ever take a look at your local newspaper help wanted on a Sunday? That’s how they read. Impossible requests from employers who really do NOT want to hire, it seems. And that is their way out of it I suppose.

Those out there who are desperate seem to fall into the category of whom this current article is written about – they begin to exaggerate about their skills. They think “oh, I set up networks at home so I have networking experience now” and they add it because some dumb schmoe in the HR department of some company advertised a help-wanted for a highly proficient SQL Server DBA who is experienced with working in router internals such as the Cisco IOS.

Yea. The problem is much larger than those people who end up exaggerating. It goes way beyond that.

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:17:01 +0000

@Bob – I hear you. I remember reading an ad 5-6 years ago for a developer with a required qualification of 5 years of .Net experience. So that’s what…using .Net since 1998? Maybe it was a position for Anders…

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:15:11 +0000

And my point was we would not NEED to exaggerate if we weren’t asked to “know” 15 different unrelated languages. I know I personally get sick and tired of being a jack of all trades but that is the way my career has run. Every job I get I have to bring a veritable library of progamming books with me because I’m the master of nothing!
God I would LOVE to just know 1 language. That would be SWEET!

By: Cujo

Cujo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:17:59 +0000

%s/Stroustrop/Stroustrup/g

By: Cujo

Cujo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:17:14 +0000

@FJones, we weren’t talking about language neutrality or the unreasonableness of language-specific job ads, we were talking about people exaggerating their skills. If you need Stroustrop and Google, then you are definitely not an ‘expert’ C++ programmer, and even ‘proficient’ is questionable. An expert should know the language inside-out, backward and forward, from memory. And while I agree with you to some extent that smart programmers can learn any language, it takes YEARS to really master one as complex as C++. If your app is in C++ and you need expertise now, a Python programmer with little C++ experience isn’t going to deliver for you no matter how smart they are.

By: F Jones

F Jones — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:48:40 +0000

There are people who are language neutral. The best of us get 10 times as much accomplished as the mere competent in 1/10th the time. The skillset requirements of HR departments do not seem to take this into account. Cujo, what makes you love to take people apart? I am proficient at C++ when I have Bjarne’s book and google beside me. I have coded several hundred thousand lines in it, but when I am in an interview, I doubt I could answer your simplest question if I haven’t been working with the language in the last month. If for some strange reason I needed to code in C++, I would be able to in a heartbeat. You HR people and companies with pinheaded job specifications drive me away! You are not looking for the best. What it really takes is a good solid foundation and the willingness to put in the effort to immerse oneself in what they need to know… some are willing to, most are not.

By: Cujo

Cujo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:45:16 +0000

I just love when people say they’re C++ experts, so that I can take them apart. The guideline here, at least if you’re interviewing with me, is that if you say you’re proficient at something, you damned well better be.

One of my favorite interview questions is (for their one or two most-expert languages): On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you rate your expertise? What do you know that an N-1 doesn’t, and what does an N+1 know that you don’t?

By: Jeremy N

Jeremy N — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:33:38 +0000

@Bob & Tom:

I agree with Bob that for the most part a good job description can be taken from a team lead, for example, and turned into something totally different by HR.

One of the best places I have found for listing out great job descriptions has been Atlassian (http://www.atlassian.com/about/careers/). I have tried to model my job descriptions after them for the most part, but that doesn’t mean that is what got to the paper/job board/etc.