• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

Worst Interviews/Job Experiences

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 93
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey there Java Land,
A while back someone started a thread on "Worst Interviews", and it had some great stories. I thought it might be
fun to revive that thread, and also include "Worst Job Experiences" as well. I'll start -
My worst interview was at this really big company and you went into a bunch of rooms for a battery of questions
from various people. So I went into this one room and a particularly cold individual was there and started firing the
usual questions "Give an example of a stressful situation and how you dealt with it", "What is your weakest skill?"
etc . So I initiated my part of the ritual and started firing back my prepared responses. Except ... well ... his
questions kept repeating others that he had just asked, other than a slight rewording. Thus he would ask "What is
your weakest skill?" ... and then a few minutes later "What skill do you need to improve more?" etc. So I just
stared at him perplexed and asked "How does that question differ from the weakest skill question?". He just
scratched his head, looked embarrassed and glanced at his list. He said "I don't know ... but I have to ask these
questions". Sounds like a tight little bureaucracy to me ...
Dan
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 107
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Worst interview: 5.5 hours non-stop with different interviewers(company: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in NYC).
Worst job experience: I worked on average about 90hours/week(7am-11,12pm) for about 9 months back in 1996(one of the biggest innternational banks in the world, was purchased by some German bank and all of the consultants were let go in 2hours).
--Alex
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 276
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Not to long ago I was on a 4.5 hour interview with 4 or 5 different people in the company at different times. Most had not even reviewed my resume. So I would say about 2 hours was spent repeating the same information over and over again. And then someone wanted to know information from my high school years. I guess that's ok for you guys with just a few years experience, but I can barely remember college at this point.
Dan
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 22
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was interning for a summer internship...since i am still in college. I was expecting to be interviewed by the co-op supevisor at this company. It turns out I was in a room with 6 interveiwers and a whiteboard. I was given an hour oral exam on my programming knowledge. I was expecting questions about myself and my personality instead i was put on the spot with questions about programming. It felt like a nightmare...i was only a student with a years experience. They never told me if i was right or wrong either...they just nodded their heads...it was horrible. Afterwards i decided I did not want to work for people like that. a month later when they offered me the job it felt good turning them down :-)
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 1936
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My worst interview Experience was in 1999.
There were at least 150 candidates ahead of me when reached the office of a not-so-bad IT Training and Development company in Chennai, India. Call was for an Analyst/Trainer vacancy!! Most of them were obviously more qualified than me. Had to wait full 6 hours for the first round, 10 mins interview!!!
One week after first round, I was called in for a detailed technical interview - There were 9 gentlemen in the interview board and it went on more than 1.5 hrs, covering everything I have learned so far. If one question was about most popular Encryption Algorithms, next question to follow would be some thing like how to set DOS Prompt blinking and underlined !!!
Next morning I was called in to let to know the good news that I am being offered with an Analyst/Trainer job for a salary of 4500 Rs (less than 100 $) per month !!! and they also wanted me to sign a minimum-one-year service agreement also !!!
Ashok.
PS: Week after that I took up another offer - A prestigious EJB project for Standard Chartered Bank - 9 times better salary !!! And the whole interview process was a test followed by a very sensible 45 mins interview !!!
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 16
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Dear Alex Ayzin, i read your message below and having a technical interview with msdw very soon, i was wondering whether you could provide me with some example questions.
I am applying for a graduate IT position, but as i am not very technical i need all the help i can get.
Really hope you can help me.
Thanks,
Vish email: vish_2000@hotmail.com
-------------

Originally posted by Alex Ayzin:
Worst interview: 5.5 hours non-stop with different interviewers(company: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in NYC).
Worst job experience: I worked on average about 90hours/week(7am-11,12pm) for about 9 months back in 1996(one of the biggest innternational banks in the world, was purchased by some German bank and all of the consultants were let go in 2hours).
--Alex


 
Alex Ayzin
Ranch Hand
Posts: 107
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Vish Green,
My interview with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter took place about 4 -4,5 years ago in the building that as you may know does not exist anymore - WTC, NYC. My office was on 68 floor(or was 64?, can't remember.) Anyway, job specifications called for a skilled
database programmer/analyst - Sybase, DB2, Oracle, Informix and even Teradata for a Logical and Physical Database design in Enterprise Data Modeling Group. I already had one Java project under my belt(PaineWebber), but my interviewers mostly asked me about database stuff - purpose of indexes, all forms of normalizations in details, authorizations/permissionsand bunch of tricky SQL stuff. Hope, that helps.
BTW, SQL question for you guys: How would you retrieve LAST TWO rows from the table(or resultset) with no complicated subquires and most importanly no row_id(Oracle). just plain SQL.
Good luck,
--Alex
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 224
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Alex Ayzin:
BTW, SQL question for you guys: How would you retrieve LAST TWO rows from the table(or resultset) with no complicated subquires and most importanly no row_id(Oracle). just plain SQL.


Use the PreparedStatement and move it to the last position and then move back to two rows. Read the PreparedStatement API for more information.
------------------
Sreenivasa Kumar Majji
Sun Certified Java Programmer
SCJP Mock Test
[This message has been edited by sreenivasa majji (edited November 05, 2001).]
 
Alex Ayzin
Ranch Hand
Posts: 107
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
No, you gotta solve that problem with SQl only - nothing more.
Regards,
--Alex
 
Daniel Dunleavy
Ranch Hand
Posts: 276
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Some databases do not guarantee that data is returned in the same order unless you use the order by. So if you are talking about the last two added and you don't have an incremeted id field or created date column to go by, I am not sure you can do it.
you can 'order by xxx desc' with the fetch size at 2.
Dan
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic