A surprisingly large fraction of applicants, even those with
masters' degrees and PhDs in computer science, fail during
interviews when asked to carry out basic programming tasks. For
example, I've personally interviewed graduates who can't answer
"Write a loop that counts from 1 to 10" or "What's the number
after F in hexadecimal?" Less trivially, I've interviewed many
candidates who can't use recursion to solve a real problem.
These are basic skills; anyone who lacks them probably hasn't
done much programming.
Speaking on behalf of software engineers who have to
interview prospective new hires, I can safely say that we're
tired of talking to candidates who can't program their way
out of a paper bag. If you can successfully write a loop that
goes from 1 to 10 in every language on your resume, can do
simple arithmetic without a calculator, and can use recursion
to solve a real problem, you're already ahead of the pack!
What Interviewers Look For
As Joel Spolsky wrote in his excellent essay "The Guerrilla
Guide to Interviewing":
1. Employers look for people who are Smart and Get
Things Done
How can employers tell who gets things done? They go on your
past record. Hence:
2. Employers look for people who Have Already Done
Things
Or, as I was told once when I failed an interview:
3. You can't get a job doing something you haven't done
before
(I was interviewing at HAL Computers for a hardware design job,
and they asked me to implement a four-bit adder. I'd designed
lots of things using discrete logic, but I'd always let the CPU
do the math, so I didn't know offhand. Then they asked me how
to simulate a digital circuit quickly. I'd been using Verilog,
so I talked about event simulation. The interviewer reminded me
about RTL simulation, and then gently said the line I quoted
above. I'll never forget it.)
Finally, you may even find that
4. Employers Google your name to see what you've said and
done
What This Means For You
What the above boil down to is: if you want to get a job
programming, you have to do some real programming on your own
first, and you have to get a public reputation, however minor,
as a programmer. Don't wait for your school to teach you how to
design and program; they might never get around to it. College
courses in programming are fine, probably even necessary, but
most programming courses don't provide the kind of experience
that real programming gives, and real employers look for real
programming experience.
But How Can I Get Experience Without a Job?
If you're in college, and your school offers programming lab
courses where you work on something seriously difficult for an
entire term, take those courses. Good examples of this kind of
course are
-
USC: CS402
-
UCLA: CS111 is good, maybe also CS130, CS131
-
PSU: CS 410
-
Harvey Mudd: CS Clinic
Take several of this kind of course if you can; each big
project you design and implement will be good experience.
Whether or not you're in college, nothing is stopping you
from contributing to an existing Open Source project. One
good way to start is to add unit or regression tests; nearly
all projects need them, but few projects have a good set of
them, so your efforts will be greatly appreciated.
I suggest starting by adding a conformance test to the Wine
project. That's great because it gives you exposure to
programming both in Linux and in Windows. Also, it's
something that can be done without a huge investment of time;
roughly 40 work hours should be enough for you to come up to
speed, write a simple test, post it, address the feedback
from the Wine developers, and repeat the last two steps until
your code is accepted.
One nice benefit of getting code into an Open Source project
is that when prospective employers Google you, they'll see
your code, and they'll see that it is in use by thousands of
people, which is always good for your reputation.
Quick Reality Check
If you want a quick reality check as to whether you can Get
Things Done, I recommend the practice rooms at topcoder.com. If
you can complete one of their tasks in C++ or Java within an
hour, and your solution actually passes all the system tests,
you can definitely program your way out of paper bag!
Dan Kegel is a Senior Engineer at
Ixia
Communications. This article appeared originally at
http://www.kegel.com/academy/getting-hired.html
from
http://www.kegel.com/.
