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Subject:Re: Interview Questions (a question) From:Chris Hamilton <chamilton -at- GR -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 13 May 1998 07:36:59 -0500
Yes, but before you ask it, please realize that there's more than one
appropriate answer. When I was a programmer, the best way for me to handle it
was to walk away, go to lunch or something. When I came back, I'd find the
problem almost immediately. In three years of programmer, this method never
failed me. But virtue of its results, it was as successful as asking someone
else for help.
Chris
Karen Kay wrote:
> Janice Gelb said:
> > A programmer friend of mine says his favorite question to ask in an
> > interview is: "What do you do if you've been trying to debug a tough
> > problem in your code for several hours but are still unsuccessful?" The
> > usual eager-beaver-interviewee answer is "I keep working at it until
> > I've fixed it." The answer his team is looking for is "I ask someone
> > else to take a look at it and help me."
>
> I have been asked a question like this in writer interviews a couple
> of times. I would never have thought to ask this of anyone else, but
> evidently there really are people who don't know when to ask for help,
> so I've added it to my list of questions to ask others.
>
> Karen
> karen -at- wordwrite -dot- com
>
