Your story reminds me of the joke/anecdote of the way to cheat on tests. You religiously look over your notes and the textbook in the weeks leading up to the test, so that when you take the test it's like you have a comprehensive cheat sheet with you, but in your head.
If the hiring process wasn't able to distinguish between you or who they thought they were looking for, then it wasn't your responsibility to inform them of it.
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by opportune on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @12:43PM
(#16377599)
Reminds me of this skit: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/acaxis/key-and-peele-the-heist
I may be dense here, but what's the difference between a cheat sheet in your head and actually knowing the topic?
That's the point of joke/anecdote. By studying you know the material and don't have to cheat, but the "tip" is voiced by someone more accustomed to cheating than studying, and so it's framed as a dishonest strategy.
That's the joke he referenced. Although there is a difference between knowing something and memorizing answers.
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by Nullabillity on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @03:42PM
(#16379189)
Knowing canned answers vs being able to come up with it yourself.
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by commandlinefan on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @12:58PM
(#16377741)
Well, thank you for your (intentional?) kindness, but back then I did sort of misrepresent how well I understood the language.
this happens in an episode of the simpsons except he studies on accident by getting locked in a closet.
Eh, sounds like smart preparation to play the game on its terms. Did those questions end up being seriously relevant to the work? If so, then you prepared yourself better for the job by learning the answers. If not, well, then maybe it's the interviewers who weren't so honest.
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by commandlinefan on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @12:01PM
(#16377238)
> Did those questions end up being seriously relevant to the work?
Oh, God no. I've never been asked a question in a job interview that was in any way relevant to the work I actually ended up doing.
Only one question has ever been relevant for me. It was about map reduce for locations and the job was using map reduce on location data...
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by commandlinefan on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @06:15PM
(#16380464)
At the job I have now, they spent the whole interview session asking about Python, Scala, machine learning, natural language processing, Spark and Hadoop clustering. I've been doing Angular 2 front-end work since I started.
I would argue that the kind of person with the skill to navigate into a position, is more likely than the person not, to be able to pick up things faster. So the fact that you may not hit the ground running does not matter so much as your attitude and ability to learn quick. Well done.
What you talk about indicates there is a gap between what industry wants/expects and what you learn either from books or in college.
Re:Who Killed the Junior Developer?
by ghostbrainalpha on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @12:13PM
(#16377333)
It's only dishonest if you send in a fake interviewee before you in order to get the questions.
Back in the 90's, when I wanted to move up to working with C++ (the hip, new, "in" thing at the time), I bought a book about C++, read through it, worked the examples, and then started interviewing. The interviewers asked all sorts of arcane questions that I hadn't come across in my few months of study, so I was tanking the interviews. The trick I figured out back then, though, was that the interviewers all tended to ask the same sorts of questions - so after getting my rejection, I'd go look up what the answers to all their questions were so that the next time I was asked the same question, I'd know the answer. I did eventually get a job doing C++ (and did well at it), but... yeah, looking back it was maybe a little bit dishonest.