Questions for the next interview: Software Development
Seeing as how I have completely neglected this blog, I think it's time to do my once-every-month-or-so post. Something came to mind today when I was at work, viciously plugging away at a SQL stored procedure that will only do god knows what to my data... When I received an e-mail from a user which completely contradicted everything that the MICROSOFT DOCUMENTATION indicated, the thought came to me: I really should have asked more questions during my interview.
If I had asked more questions in my interview, I believe I would have been much more prepared for what I was about to experience. Before I go any further, here are my credentials in the realm of Information Technology, so I don't come off as a completely inexperienced and naive blogger:
- I have been in the industry as a Software Engineer, and web Developer for the past 6 years. I started in 2006 working as a temp at a help desk for Bank of NY.
- I'm currently pursuing my Master's degree, majoring in Information Management (which is more or less a high-level project management degree).
- I also have earned my Associate's and Bachelor's in IT-related fields of study.
- Throughout the years I have had a taste of project management, business analysis, and complete systems architecture.
Through the proper questioning you can get a somewhat accurate idea of what to expect when you join a new company or department. I emphasize the word somewhat because there is no guarantee that the person(s) interviewing you will be telling the truth. Remember, everybody lies and the only question is why they are lying and in this case it's most likely because their department is seriously dysfunctional in some capacity. One of the things that I kept hearing during my undergrad was to "ASK QUESTIONS ON INTERVIEWS", which is essential in choosing a potential employer. You're not just being interviewed, you are also interviewing the employer. Choosing a company to work for is important because it will have an effect on how you live your life. Your job obviously has an impact on your financial stability, but also has a profound affect on social and personal happiness.
I've been burnt a few times in my young career by not asking the right questions during a job interview. By asking the right questions you can get a better idea of what you are getting yourself into if you accept the position. I've broken apart the list into three separate sections which concentrate on a specific area of specialty.
Programming / Development Related
- Do you have any development standards in place which promote standardized code and documentation practices?
- If you have begun implementing such practices, how long have they been in place?
- Generally speaking, how much of your existing systems and applications are documented?
- How many developers are currently working in the department?
- Do you expect the developer to gather their own requirements from end users?
- What is the policy for accessing data that's in production?
- What development tools do you currently use?
- Do you attempt to stay in line with industry standards when it comes to development practices? For example, if you are a .NET development shop, do you use best practices as defined by Microsoft?
- Do you have standards for testing and piloting new applications?
- Do you use any automated testing techniques such as Microsoft's Unit Testing in Visual Studio?
- Do you have standards in place for how applications are written?
Project Management Related
- Generally speaking, how large would you say the projects that the department is assigned? (By large, I mean how much of a work effort, 1000+ hours? 100?
- Do you have formal project managers assigned to projects which will handle the resources and management?
- How do you track a project's progress? Do you have a enterprise-wide project management system?
- What are you policies for governing projects? By governing, I mean creating scope and determining which ones to pursue.
- What tools are used for managing projects? MS Project 2010?
- What artifacts do you require for any project pursued in the company?
- For the majority of software development projects, how many developers are assigned to it?
- Are there any Business Analysts available to assist with projects? Does the position currently exist?
General
- Do you frequently have turnover of employees in the department?
- Am I expected to be on call? This is a great question to ask, make sure you ask it! The last thing you want is to accept a position and then find out that you are expected to be on call 24/7.
- Who do I directly report to?
- At what time do I need to be in the office? Do we have flex time?
- Can I work remotely from home?
Now you may have noticed (or not) that I did not list any questions about room for advancement. The reason for the exclusion is due to the question usually never being answered truthfully. Such a question requires the employer to take into account the political landscape of their department and company, which is usually never an easy analysis. Even if they truly believe their answer, it cannot be accurate. How do you know if you'll be able to advance in a company? You don't.
The tale of the Playstation Move Not-so-sharpshooter…
I'm a huge fan of the Resistance franchise which is solely featured on the Sony PlayStation 3, and it's pretty much Sony's answer to Gears of War. I enjoy the storyline and am always revved up whenever a new installment is released. I recently preordered Resistance 3, along with a PlayStation Move Sharpshooter all for about $120. Now the reason I did not buy the special edition Resistance 3 which came with the move and the sharpshooter was due to the fact that I already had a PS Move with 2 move controllers. I figured that it would be stupid to double dip on the move hardware; take note that the Resistance deluxe package is about $150 bucks.
When I received the Sharpshooter, I found that I was missing another controller for the move... A "navigation controller" which is more or less half of a PS3 controller, probably one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. The Sharpshooter itself was nothing special, merely a cheap piece of plastic which provided basic trigger functionality and a placeholder for not one, but two PS Move controllers. I've got to give it to Sony, they really know how to draw people in. You may have purchased the gun, but wait, you have to buy two controllers for it to actually work. At the end of the day, I paid about $150 for the gun and additional controller.
...Yes, I really should have bought the deluxe package.
The Review: PS Move SharpShooter
Despite my gripes about the cost of the SharpShooter and it's dependent PS Move components, the hardware works as intended, or at least I think it does... First off, let's admit this: Sony's Move is no threat to Wii, and it never will be. Using existing components (i.e. the PS Eye) to assist with motion capture was good business, however, usability-wise it sucks. You must have a well-lit room for it to be usable and plenty of room. The controllers are clumsy at best, and will most likely lead to severe carpal tunnel after several hours of playing each day.
The SharpShooter is equally as flawed as the entire concept of the Move. Frankly, the hardware for the SharpShooter is cheap, and I do mean, CHEAP. In fact, I'm pretty sure the paint used on it is lead based... so watch out if you have small children in your home. Simply, the gun acts as a placeholder for two move controllers. The only real functionality it provides is the redirection of your PS Move buttons.
Alone, the gun itself is light and is a breeze to aim for long amounts of time. When you add two controllers to the gun, it becomes a bit heavy which makes it nearly impossible to use for long amounts of time. Here's where Sony shows stupidity by doing this kind of crap..
The whole concept behind the Wii was that its meant for "casual gamers", ultimately meaning that you are not going to play any of our games for longer than 30min - an hour at most. As for the PS3, it's been marketed towards "serious gamers", mind you this was their justification for extremely high prices ($599 initial price for a PS3). The move is a flawed concept to the PS3. The games developed for Playstation are meant to have substance, and in certain cases, be played for hours at a time, which is not for casual gamers. Trying to shove the PS Move down our throats is just a bad idea because the games don't really support it.
Aside from the poor hardware design, as of October 2011, there are very few games that actually support the SharpShooter. Resistance 3 was the 4th or 5th game to be used with it, please note that this figure needs to be confirmed.
The Overall Ratings (Best = 5, Worst = 1)
Usability: 2.5
Look and Feel: 3
Price: 1 (if PS Move components must be purchased)
4 (if you already have PS Move components)
Mexican Casserole
Last week I took on my very first casserole with a Mexican twist. I wanted to keep it simple and this seemed to be the best way. Extremely simple and fast to make; a very easy solution for a dinner time crunch. The casserole itself is fairly straightforward, use re-fried beans, salsa and cheese for the base mixture. Tortilla chips are crushed and lined in the bottom of the dish, then the re-fried beans, all topped off with ground beef and more cheese.
Above shows the finished product, which is not very pretty mainly because I excluded the black olives and haphazardly cut the tomatoes. Very cheesy and delicious dish. Surprisingly, I could only eat one serving, it's very dense because of the large portion of re-fried beans and cheese.
The recipe can be found here.
Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
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- This was what it looked like out of the oven
The Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownie recipe was simple and only had about 8 ingredients. The end result was ultimately delicious and the original recipe can be found here.
There are some suggestions that I would make to anyone attempting to make this "brownie" and that is ADD more chocolate!!! The recipe called for 2 ounces of dark chocolate which in my opinion was far too little. I would like to try this again with adding 4 ounces of chocolate. My biggest issue with this brownie was the texture, it was not like a brownie at all, more like a cake. I followed the ingredients to a T, but was surprised that the brownie lacked any chocolate flavor. I must say that the cheesecake topping is quite delicate and delicious; not too sweet.
The above pictures are the end result and again, I am no culinary genius. I'm just a simple IT guy with a little free time.
Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
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- Mac and cheese
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- Mac and Cheese
Well, after some preparation the slow cooker mac and cheese is finished. At first I was concerned about the consistency; very watery and clumpy. After about 1.5 hours in the slow cooker on HIGH all of that dissipated and turned into a smooth, creamy, taste of heaven. The original recipe recommended 2-3 hours in a slow cooker on HIGH, but anything after 1.5 hours, it seemed that the pasta began to brown on the sides. The one downside about this dish was stirring it every 30 minutes, which was necessary to avoid burning the pasta and absorbing the cheese sauce; ultimately making it a dish where you truly cannot "set it and forget it".
Another thing that I found lacking in this dish was BACON. If you added some bacon crumbles to it, it would immediately hit an entirely different level. Make sure you don't use regular elbow macaroni for this dish; it's far too small to absorb such flavor! Use a more hearty pasta, I used Barilla Cellentani pasta, which is a "super elbow macaroni" consisting of many elbows.
The recipe that I used can be found here.
Please note that I am a complete IT geek and do not cook frequently. The above pictures show my end product, which is obviously not fancy, but god damn delicious!
Getting back on the saddle again
I got bored today and decided to challenge myself by making a few of the recipes I have stumbled across (using StumbleUpon) during my travels of the Internet. Today I'm going to make a simple "Red Velvet" Cheesecake Brownies (the red is just food coloring) and a slow cooker mac and cheese. Decided against going to the local Price Chopper due to the clientele; between the unattended children and the massive amount of obnoxious adults, I really can't handle it anymore.
I decided to try out TOPS Markets, mainly because of my mother who is the bakery manager at their Cicero location. Took a chance and went to see if my mum was working, she was but didn't even come out so I could say "Hi"... She's a busy woman I guess. Dropped about $120 bucks on the paraphernalia needed for the recipes. I found everything except for a block of Velveeta cheese, apparently this is a rarity that most stores do not carry. Ran over to Wegman's thinking that it was a high class store which has everything, but apparently it's too high class to stock a block of processed cheese.
I was about to give up, then I thought to myself "what store has everything and does not care about the health of it's patrons?" Answer: Wal-Mart.
Got everything, now I'm cooking... We'll see how it goes.