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I've never seen such an incompetent person hired anywhere I worked for. I did see similarly qualified people turn up to interviews but they were all invariably

by baruch 12y ago

I've never seen such an incompetent person hired anywhere I worked for. I did see similarly qualified people turn up to interviews but they were all invariably rejected.

engi_nerd 12y ago
I want to work where you have worked, then. Rant from the aircraft industry follows, feel free to ignore. Engineering incompetence is widespread from my experience (flight test engineering). I wish, as a flight test instrumentation engineer, that I had not had engineers from various disciplines ask me how to interpret the contents of their test monitoring screens. I am responsible for providing the accelerometers, strain gages, data bus monitoring, and so forth that the various teams request and making sure that the data from those sensors is decision quality and properly telemetered and recorded. But it is NOT my responsibility to interpret that data. And yet, some of these other engineers, who are responsible for real-time monitoring of safety of test parameters during flights, clearly have no clue what they are looking at. One engineer even confused hydraulic pressures with engine temperatures during one test I was involved with and was about to raise a fault against my system because she thought the data was faulty. That's just one instance -- sadly, I have encountered many more during this career. Yes, these people are trained in their disciplines and on the content of their monitoring screens, but for some, it just doesn't seem to stick. How can they, in good conscience, respond with a "GO for test" when asked if they know they do not understand their monitoring screen?
waterlesscloud 12y ago
I've never worked with anyone who flat out couldn't code. I've worked with some who needed more help than others, but I'm fine with that since I've been that person myself with some things. But never with someone who just couldn't do it at all. On the other hand, I've certainly had interviews with people who are just awful at it. So much so that I think the interview process is by far the greater obstacle to finding competent people than some huge mass of incompetent people out there. Think about it this way- Almost no one has ever had explicit training in interviewing. Everyone learns by trial and error and rumor and superstition. It's one of the most cargo cult aspects of any given business.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  I had a "software engineer" work for me that didn't know if from while. Literally. He was copy pasting stuff until it "worked". One day he calls me over because his program is hanging. He had something like " while (x) print something; ". I asked how that would work if x never changes in the loop. After I bit of blankness, I said " isn't this just supposed to print once, like maybe use an if? " "Oh yeah, if. That's the one I wanted." ... Worked with another person of similar skill, that went on to become Microsoft MVP. Do not underestimate how far drag-n-drop and copy paste can take someone with modern timing. Especially if they're good/inclined to tout themselves.

by baruch 12y ago

I've never seen such an incompetent person hired anywhere I worked for. I did see similarly qualified people turn up to interviews but they were all invariably rejected.

engi_nerd 12y ago

I want to work where you have worked, then. Rant from the aircraft industry follows, feel free to ignore. Engineering incompetence is widespread from my experience (flight test engineering). I wish, as a flight test instrumentation engineer, that I had not had engineers from various disciplines ask me how to interpret the contents of their test monitoring screens. I am responsible for providing the accelerometers, strain gages, data bus monitoring, and so forth that the various teams request and making sure that the data from those sensors is decision quality and properly telemetered and recorded. But it is NOT my responsibility to interpret that data. And yet, some of these other engineers, who are responsible for real-time monitoring of safety of test parameters during flights, clearly have no clue what they are looking at. One engineer even confused hydraulic pressures with engine temperatures during one test I was involved with and was about to raise a fault against my system because she thought the data was faulty. That's just one instance -- sadly, I have encountered many more during this career. Yes, these people are trained in their disciplines and on the content of their monitoring screens, but for some, it just doesn't seem to stick. How can they, in good conscience, respond with a "GO for test" when asked if they know they do not understand their monitoring screen?

waterlesscloud 12y ago

I've never worked with anyone who flat out couldn't code. I've worked with some who needed more help than others, but I'm fine with that since I've been that person myself with some things. But never with someone who just couldn't do it at all. On the other hand, I've certainly had interviews with people who are just awful at it. So much so that I think the interview process is by far the greater obstacle to finding competent people than some huge mass of incompetent people out there. Think about it this way- Almost no one has ever had explicit training in interviewing. Everyone learns by trial and error and rumor and superstition. It's one of the most cargo cult aspects of any given business.

MichaelGG 12y ago
I had a "software engineer" work for me that didn't know if from while. Literally. He was copy pasting stuff until it "worked". One day he calls me over because his program is hanging. He had something like " while (x) print something; ". I asked how that would work if x never changes in the loop. After I bit of blankness, I said " isn't this just supposed to print once, like maybe use an if? " "Oh yeah, if. That's the one I wanted." ... Worked with another person of similar skill, that went on to become Microsoft MVP. Do not underestimate how far drag-n-drop and copy paste can take someone with modern timing. Especially if they're good/inclined to tout themselves.