Re: [PLUG] OT: (outta sight!) making IT in Philly?

[Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net>]

On Sun, Mar 12, 2006 at 11:43:26AM -0500, Jeff Abrahamson wrote:
>   - If you don't know the answer to a question, *never* bluff.  Say you
>     don't know.  If you do know something related or a little bit, say
>     that, too.  You will garner a great deal of respect.  I have talked
>     to many colleagues who have interviewed people who have bluffed,
>     saying something was true that wasn't, for example.  It absolutely
>     and instantly kills the applicant's chances.

This point is even more salient because you will almost never hear back
from a failed interview with any real critical feedback. If you bluff 3
times in an interview, and they decide not to go with you, there won't be
any explanation as to why and you won't know which of the bluffs was a
failure.

>   - On the other hand, you *can* bluff on things for which there's no
>     correct answer, such as whether or not you are expert in a given
>     technology, *as long as* you've done your research to know enough.
>     What "enough" means varies, but, basically, you should know at least
>     as much as a cheap consultant on the subject, except that you should
>     know the limits of your knowledge and be confident that you can fill
>     in the gaps.  I got my first java job that way: I read a book, put
>     it on my resume, and interviewed, saying I had experience and
>     talking about those details I knew.  It all worked, and they were
>     happy with me through the job.  But I knew what I didn't know, and I
>     had ten years of programming experience to help me synthesize book
>     learning in a way that let me talk about what one can do with the
>     language.

Again, this is especially true for areas where there are very few experts
and most of those are well-known inside the community but not well known
outside. Currently this is happening with Rails "experts". People asking
for 3 years of Rails experience could not truly be satisfied with anyone
other than DHH himself, but often times recruiters don't actually know
that. Same thing with anyone asking for 16 years of Java experience.

-- 
Toby DiPasquale
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