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From: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Weird C code as test for employment
Message-ID: <1577@megatest.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Aug-87 20:18:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: megatest.1577
Posted: Wed Aug 19 20:18:28 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Aug-87 18:42:05 EDT
References: <8644@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Organization: Megatest Corporation, San Jose, Ca
Lines: 52


Recollections of things past follow.  Hit 'n' if you are not up to
hearing a shaggy dog story.

The discussion about the weird C code as a test for employment reminds me
of an experience I had in 1979.  I had just graduated with an M.S. in
math after having returned to college as an adult.  The University
of Houston had bent the rules for me, and let me into grad school when
I was junior, so I was looking for my first job as a college graduate at 
age 32.

I applied for a job with a subsidiary of a large steel company.  I don't
want to name the company, but its initials are "U.S.".  They interviewed
me all day one day, and had me return the next day to take a test.
They put me into a small windowless conference room, with pencil and test 
forms.

The object of the test was to trace the control-flow of English-pseudo-code
nonsense "spaghetti" programs.  I was struggling with this, when I noticed
that each test form was two sheets, fastened at both top and bottom.

Strange.  

So I peaked between.  The inside of the bottom sheet functioned like carbon-
paper.  The inside of the top sheet had light blue traces on it.  That's 
how the test was to be graded! The grader would determine whether the 
carbon traces coincided with the light blue traces.  

Suddenly the test seemed much easier.

I struggled briefly with the ethical issues.  Well, "Look here", I said to
myself, "I am applying for an ENGINEERING job, where results are the only
criteria of success, right?"  "Or maybe the REAL test is to discover whether
or not I am clever enough to figure out the grading scheme."

This line of rationalization,  and my growling stomach, settled the matter.

So, I answered the test perfectly, and handed it in.  A while later, my
interviewer came back with a very pained look on his face.  He said
that I had done better on the test than anyone else ever had.  (He did
not bother to mention that I had scored 100%.)  It seemed rather
strange to me that no one else had discovered the key.  But, he explained,
they could not hire me anyway, because they could not hire someone who
was 32 years old and had never had a "real" job. They had brought me in
to take the test, apparently, just so they could have some reason, other 
than age, for giving me the bum's rush.

The story has a happy ending.  I got a much better job at Texas Instruments,
and both T.I. and I were quite happy with my employment until I left for
a teaching position four years later.


But since then, I don't take written tests on job interviews.