[sdiy] Who Needs a Degree?

[Dave Manley]

Jason Proctor wrote:
>> What do others that interview do?
>
> a company i used to work for had a hard and fast rule hiring engineers 
> -- they had to be able to read and write code in the interview. it 
> freaked a few candidates out, which was of course not a good sign. it 
> wasn't a perfect way of sorting the wheat from the chaff, but it was 
> very effective overall.
>
For new/junior engineers:

1. Sometimes I give puzzles that are easy to state and don't rely on a 
trick to solve.  In between the tedium that makes up the majority of 
engineering, solving puzzles is much of what we do. No?

2. Give them a piece of suitably complex code (usually Verilog) and ask 
them what it does.

The most intimidating thing I was ever part of was at one company where 
two or three people simultaneously grilled the interviewee.  
Fortunately, the practice was stopped.  I can remember one candidate who 
when asked a reasonably simple question responded, no doubt after 
watching some NatGeo special: "Sir, like the frog that emerges from the 
bottom of a dry riverbed when the first rains come, so that knowledge 
will return to me when the need arises."  One of the three interviewers 
just shook his head and got up and left without a word, leaving the 
other two of us to carry on.  A few weeks later the candidate came back 
to our office and stated he'd got a job elsewhere, and said the person 
who asked the question was an ass.  He was told to leave, or the police 
would be called.

BTW, I've worked with a number of non-degreed engineers - in my 
experience these people were top-notch engineers, and deserved the 
title.  On the other hand in school I had classes/labs with a number of  
soon-to-be BSEE's that obviously had no future in engineering unless 
they were off to become sales reps, or useless FAEs for some distributor.

-Dave