5 ms·

> This actually might not be so nuts if it were clearly a way to evaluate how you handle unfamiliar problems and they made it clear they didn't really expect yo

> This actually might not be so nuts if it were clearly a way to evaluate how you handle unfamiliar problems and they made it clear they didn't really expect you to finish the whole thing in 50 minutes, I guess. This happened to me. I once interviewed at a place where they presented me with a language I had never seen. Very different concepts than your typical C/Algol flavored languages. They went over the basic concepts, with a handy reference sheet for me, then gave me a few tasks to complete in that language. Towards the end, after completing the tasks, I congratulated them for inventing a ficticious language in order to test candidates on a more equal footing. Cute, clever, creative, even though it's probably far-removed from the real world... Their response? Oh this is not a ficiticious language, this is what we use daily. It's our proprietary language and we're quite proud of it. Me: ... (I ended up getting the job and learned a lot in the domain of wheel reinvention.)

tristor 7y ago
Was it a company that is in the healthcare technology space, because that sounds like something you'd find there. That or aerospace.
- sansnomme 7y ago
  MUMPS?
  - athenot 7y ago
    Very close, yes. And yes to the parent comment. ;)
    - BWStearns 7y ago
      So it was Perl?
  - buildawesome 7y ago
    I find it disconcerting that there is a language the healthcare industry uses named MUMPS.
foota 7y ago
Man, this reminds me of the story about the person that gets a position at a new company and it turns out they have a ridiculous tech stack where it's a custom language. The new person comes in and adds comments which breaks everything and somehow files have like a version history which affects how they run? Anyone have the link to that? There's some individual that developed all of it and gets the new person fired for breaking everything in production (because of course it all runs from head) and was portrayed very negatively.
- clusmore 7y ago
  https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-inner-json-effect https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-inner-json-effect
  - foota 7y ago
    Yes, thanks :) I thought the TLs name was Tom.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Aeolun 7y ago
  I have a hard time imagining this is real, but it makes some twisted kind of sense.

tristor 7y ago

Was it a company that is in the healthcare technology space, because that sounds like something you'd find there. That or aerospace.

sansnomme 7y ago
MUMPS?
- athenot 7y ago
  Very close, yes. And yes to the parent comment. ;)
  - BWStearns 7y ago
    So it was Perl?
- buildawesome 7y ago
  I find it disconcerting that there is a language the healthcare industry uses named MUMPS.

foota 7y ago

Man, this reminds me of the story about the person that gets a position at a new company and it turns out they have a ridiculous tech stack where it's a custom language. The new person comes in and adds comments which breaks everything and somehow files have like a version history which affects how they run? Anyone have the link to that? There's some individual that developed all of it and gets the new person fired for breaking everything in production (because of course it all runs from head) and was portrayed very negatively.

clusmore 7y ago
https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-inner-json-effect https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-inner-json-effect
- foota 7y ago
  Yes, thanks :) I thought the TLs name was Tom.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Aeolun 7y ago
I have a hard time imagining this is real, but it makes some twisted kind of sense.