"finally" a "break" in the job hunting

[Andreas Nerlich]

Hi there!
I've spent quite a bit of time going through posts here at the Job Forum with the goal to finally get me that Java specific job. I got certified in May and have since been looking for a job while continuing my J2EE studies. My problem was my commercial Java inexperience and also not having much of an IT background. So most recruiters and companies I approached were not keen to further assess me. However, last week a recruiter from London prompted me to take an online Java evaluation at QWIZtek. The next day he phoned me to let me know that I did rather well considering that I had no commercial Java experience. An appointment for a technical telephonic interview was made (I currently reside in South Africa).
The t.t. interview was about 20 minutes long speaking to their technical manager who himself has a software engineering degree. He did the SCJ2P examination a month ago. This aided my interview tremendously as he was well aware of what I had achieved by passing the SCJ2P examination. He asked me whether I have done or been exposed to JSP, Servlets, XML and EJB and what I knew of it. The rest of the interview was rather casual and we discussed the Developer Certification and what IDE's we prefer using. After telling him that I had some difficulties with the ODBC driver trying to connect to an Acces database he was all to eager to advise me to rather use the freely downloadable database MySQL.
They phoned me today and said they were happy with the interview and that they wish to fly me from Johannesburg to London for us to have a face-to-face meeting. I am rather grateful as I consider this a big break. I know it is not final yet, but I think I have overcome the difficult and important hurdless in the quest for employment.
In short my advice to fellow jobseekers, seeing that I am on a high at the moment : Know what Java (OOP) is all about, what it can do and most importantly why it is so powerful, essential and almost irreplaceable in today�s technology (Good reference : First couple of chapters in Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java 2). Also to study the latest technologies namely Servlets, JSP, XML, EJB and JDBC to name a few!
I thought I'll share my experience seeing that have gained so much from this and other JavaRanch forums. Hold thumbs for my face-to-face meeting next week!
Take Care!

[Ajith Kallambella]

Well done. Good luck with your personal interview.
Ajith

[Tony Alicea]

Your tale parallels mine... Good Luck!

[Archana Gupta]

Andreas, It certainly looks like you have got a well deserved break. Congrats and good luck.
You said that you had given a online Java evaluation at QWIZtek.
I found the qwiztek site via google.
But as I understand, the company must first refer you to the qwiztek. I mean I cant very well give the exam and hope that potential employers will simply pick up the result?
So could you tell me some companies which do use this kind of online evaluation.
I am asking because, I am a SCJP, but am still scouting for a job. And previous to this, I had no IT experience. The result is that, I get job offers which seem to fizzle out.
And atleast in India, most companies want atleast a college level education in computers , which I dont have.
I am personally willing to relocate anywhere in the world
[This message has been edited by Archana Gupta (edited October 26, 2000).]

[John Coxey]

Regarding the Qwiztek site.
I took their Java exam about 3 days ago - had access through
a recruiter.
The exam is nothing like the Java Certification Exam. The first
10 questions were rather basic - for example: Is Java more
closely related to C++ or COBOL (not the actual question but
you get the idea).
The next part of the exam focused on Servlets - and you really
gotta know your stuff here - method names especially.
The third part of the exam focused on MediaTracker and ImageObserver - which I never really used - but the recruiter
said I did on on this part. Guess I got lucky.
The fourth part of the exam dealt with some of the java language
constructs - basically the Operators and Assignments chapter out
of Roberts & Heller.
Nothing at all on File I/O or Exceptions. One or two questions
on JDBC. Some code examples - but nothing like on the SCJP
exam.
Overall, I got an 82% - it took me about 2 hours to get through
50 questions. I have no idea why I did so well - as I guessed
at a lot of the questions.
Hopefully I can get something out in the Colorado area.
Johnny
([e-mail])