Re: Testing job applicants

[Charlton W Wilbur <cwwilbur@oitunix.oit.umass.edu>]

On Thu, 9 Sep 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:

> When I engage the services of, or hire, an individual, I want to know
> how well he can do things.  This is measured by accomplishment.  How
> "smart" he/she is doesn't mean anything if what's lacking is
> application.  The most important criteria are (1) ability to
> understand what's required/specified to get a job ccompleted, and (2)
> the willingness to do whatever it takes to get it done.  
> 
> This means no whining about the tools, language, schedule, etc.  It
> just requires application of available resources.  

On the other hand, there are tools that are of acceptable quality and
tools which are of unacceptable quality.  It is true that it is a poor
craftsman who blames his tools, but it is also a poor craftsman who sticks
around when he is being forced to work with shoddy tools.  

Further, my job contract with you spells out the number of hours I work.
My time is an "available resource" as well, and I am prepared to apply a
finite amount of it to any project.  If the tools and resources are
inadequate to the job, I do not whine; I inform, and then I get to work.
Failure of management to provide adequate resources to solve the problem
is not the fault of the programmer, and programmer time is a resource to
be managed like any other.  I am *not* willing to do "whatever it takes to
get it done"; I am willing to use whatever of my resources are specified
in the contract and which I am being remunerated for that it may take to
get the job done.  There is a significant difference there.

I'm not sure what kind of manager you are, sir; however, most of the
people I've seen complaining about the incompetence of programmers are the
sort who consider 60 to 70 hours a week (on a 40-hour contract) as an
acceptable workload, and who get upset when a programmer refuses to work
over 50.  I have worked on projects where I was given inferior or
inadequate tools and expected to work 80-hour weeks; I put my objections
to the tools and the workload in writing, pointing out where they differed
from my contract, and did the best I could in 40 hours a week with the
tools they gave me.  (The project wound up being late, because the
Unix-vs-NT war was being fought by the management types with the project
as a battleground, and because the tools we were given on either platform
were wholly inadequate to the job.)

There are faults here, on both sides.

Charlton
(who learned how to diagram sentences in the 8th grade)

--
Charlton Wilbur                |  Wer bin ich, waer' ich deine Wille nicht?
University of Massachusetts    |                        -- Bruennhilde
cwwilbur@music.umass.edu       |  1832 - 1841 - 1976 - 1992 - 2001