Wednesday, November 29, 2006

More Candidate Interview Questions

Implement the following methods:

/*
Given a word, return true or false indicating if the word is a palindrome.
FYI - a palindrome is a word reading the same backward as forward, such as bob, noon, madam, racecar, etc
*/
boolean isPalindrome(String word)

/*
Given an integer number, return a string representation of that number. For example, 481 should return "481".
*/
String intToString(int value)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Friday, November 10, 2006

Candidate Interview Questions???

You have two buckets - one holds exactly 5 gallons and the other 3 gallons. How can you measure 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket?

(Assume you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the buckets.)

BTW - There are two different solutions to this problem.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Recruiters

So I just got back from my second interview of the day. Oops, did I just let that slip? Oh well... I'll chance it, and as I've heard, "Interviews are free". At the very, very least, this little experiment has forced me to update my resume. Anyway... recruiters. I'm not sure what to think. I think they make a lot of sense for companies to use, I'm just not sure why people looking for jobs use them. The arguments I keep hearing are:
  1. They're in the business of finding people jobs
  2. They can better represent me as a perspective candidate
  3. Some companies only list openings through recruiting agencies
Do I agree with those statements? Well, let's see.
  1. Yes, they are definitely in that business and making sure you know that seems to be vital to this argument. However, what are they really providing? It seems to me that anyone with any level of motivation and know how can do what it takes to get a job interview.
  2. Of course, they get paid regardless of which job I ultimately take and they only get paid if I take a job. Now, I didn't say they get paid to get me the best job. It's in their best interest to find me a job as soon as possible. In fact, they probably hope for high turnover in the industry. Makes sense... more people looking for jobs and more jobs to be had. So... remind me again why they can better represent me.
  3. Now, do I actually believe this? Why would a company only list a job through a recruiter? What benefit would that provide to the company? Granted the recruiter could perform some initial screening of candidates for the company, but why else? If they were able to find someone to fill a position without going through a recruiter it would save them money.
Maybe I need to meet with the recruiters and have them remind me again of what they're doing for me.