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That's fine if you're talking about languages you use infrequently, but if you can't declare and populate an associative array in the main language you're inter

That's fine if you're talking about languages you use infrequently, but if you can't declare and populate an associative array in the main language you're interviewing in you shouldn't be surprised if your interviewer fails you.

corrral 4y ago
I usually try to drill syntax for about 30 minutes before an interview, for this reason—I'll forget it a few hours later, but that's fine, since it doesn't actually matter—but it's hardly ever been turned out to be a factor in a 20+ year career and 7 or 8 job switches, anyway. I mostly do it for my own peace of mind.
travisgriggs 4y ago
But to GPS point, if this is going to be the new production language for this person for the next period, they’re going to lookup how to do this in seconds and then be an asset to you. Would you really rather have the junior developer who knows the answer to this question off the top of their head, but has so many other lessons to yet learn that GP can bring to the table? Honestly, once a person has demonstrated some proficiency in a cross section of languages, you should just skip the language proficiency section and instead talk about how learning new languages has gone in the past. Look for any red flags or biases that are going to be a hindrance in the new languages particular paradigm, but otherwise the “can you X” is already a done deal.
grog454 4y ago
> but if you can't declare and populate an associative array in the main language you're interviewing in you shouldn't be surprised if your interviewer fails you. What if I can google how to do that in all of the languages I've used (and many I haven't) faster than most can write it out from memory? How do I convey that to you and what is it worth to you? Wrote memorization like that is one of my weaknesses but I can compensate for it. I heard an interesting theory that one aspect of intelligence is how efficiently you can forget information that you don't benefit from retaining. If our brains have finite storage capacity that seems pretty logical.
- leaflets2 4y ago
  > how efficiently you can forget information that I'm smarter than what I thought :-) & frequently forget how to iterate through arrays and objects in Typescript although been using it for years > if I can google Sounds fine with me, or via an IDE, or pseudocode
boltzmann_brain 4y ago

corrral 4y ago

I usually try to drill syntax for about 30 minutes before an interview, for this reason—I'll forget it a few hours later, but that's fine, since it doesn't actually matter—but it's hardly ever been turned out to be a factor in a 20+ year career and 7 or 8 job switches, anyway. I mostly do it for my own peace of mind.

travisgriggs 4y ago

But to GPS point, if this is going to be the new production language for this person for the next period, they’re going to lookup how to do this in seconds and then be an asset to you. Would you really rather have the junior developer who knows the answer to this question off the top of their head, but has so many other lessons to yet learn that GP can bring to the table? Honestly, once a person has demonstrated some proficiency in a cross section of languages, you should just skip the language proficiency section and instead talk about how learning new languages has gone in the past. Look for any red flags or biases that are going to be a hindrance in the new languages particular paradigm, but otherwise the “can you X” is already a done deal.

grog454 4y ago

> but if you can't declare and populate an associative array in the main language you're interviewing in you shouldn't be surprised if your interviewer fails you. What if I can google how to do that in all of the languages I've used (and many I haven't) faster than most can write it out from memory? How do I convey that to you and what is it worth to you? Wrote memorization like that is one of my weaknesses but I can compensate for it. I heard an interesting theory that one aspect of intelligence is how efficiently you can forget information that you don't benefit from retaining. If our brains have finite storage capacity that seems pretty logical.

leaflets2 4y ago
> how efficiently you can forget information that I'm smarter than what I thought :-) & frequently forget how to iterate through arrays and objects in Typescript although been using it for years > if I can google Sounds fine with me, or via an IDE, or pseudocode

boltzmann_brain 4y ago