So somewhere along the line, our Car Tax Registration details where wrong between the us, the dealer and the DVLA. This means our car was registered on the DVLA database against the wrong house number and hence we didn’t get a renewal form, which because you don’t look at those sorts of things means the car tax slipped, and we got fined.

I’m quite annoyed, while at the same time in a typically British way resigned to the consequences.

It looks like from the form we have, the DVLA entered it wrong into there database, but they deny all culpability for these types of things, so we will still have to pay ?80. and ruth is now having to spend tommorow running to chester (because liverpool doesn’t have a DVLA office!) to get the new disc. That’s just so annoying!

Most people will agree that some Monday mornings can be difficult to motivate your self, and get into work mode, especially if you’ve had an extra long weekend. I can tell you it’s ten times worse, when you add the fact that you’re leaving your current job in 5 weeks.

maybe caffeine will help?

So one of the things that’s being going around my mind, based on my recent experiences is. Just what makes a good interview question to ask developer?

I’m a firm believer that asking technical ‘quiz’ questions, doesn’t really work, it doesn’t separate out the good programmers, from those who’ve read the documentation before they’ve walked into the room, for example you may ask, what is polymorphism? (clue it’s not that episode of morph, where Chas* cloned him). Now I’m a quite decent programmer if I don’t say so myself, can have a go at describing this of the top of my head, but in reality, the person who swallowed the book just before they went in to the interview could give you a better answer without really understanding it (the lesson here would be, if someone reels of a textbook answer, they got it from a textbook).

So just what can you ask to separate the 1’s from the 0’s?

Well before we start, let me just point out, I’ve not been on the interviewing course, so I have no idea if you can ask these types of questions, without going against all fair interview techniques, but if it was totally up to me.

What books do you read?
When I told Ruth she said, “what like terry pratchet”, and initially I thought no, it’s more “what books relating to the field do you read”, but then I thought a bit more, and yes, if somebody answered, “I’ve read every terry pratchet novel twice, and I am the owner of the terry pratchet fan fiction site, where I’ve written several noveleet’s about disc world” then that gives you a good incite into somebody’s persona.

The problem is that there is of course no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to this one, it’s far to subjective, but I think if the right person came to interview, this would be the question to make them stand out. (for me the answer, C++ Hackbook & learn yourself perl in 24 hours are the ‘wrong’ answer)

Anymore good questions?
I think the point here is that the best questions aren’t necessarily about the subject you’re interviewing for, the beeb have some nightmare interview questions, which if nothing else, make you glad they’ve never happened to you. (a jaffa cake is a biscuit by the way), of course we could just look to Microsoft, who after all have at least a few good developers working for them. they have a range of interview questions with some scarrly technical and also more of the wall questions.

It turns out I agree with Bram Cohen (inventor of bittorrent):
“Interviews are practically worthless for screening candidates. In an interview you can tell if a person is a pleasant conversationalist, and you can give some technical questions to rule out the truly inept, but beyond that you might as well be rolling dice.”

I have to say, I absolutely despise where do you see yourself in five years? It’s the most thinly veiled, do you have ambition and drive question I’ve ever seen, I mean who answers “duh I don’t know, I thought I would just bum about in this job for a bit”

*I’ve checked and Tony Hart’s website says it’s chas (pronounced Chaz)

it’s the hardest question you can get from someone you currently work with.

• because i didn’t want to get stuck in the same boring job for the rest of my life
• because there are no job propects
• becasue in five years, we will still be working on the same thing, and it won’t have moved on
• because the politics is everywhere and just grinds you down

All of these tend to leave the impression that you are saying, “you’re life sucks, and i’m better than that” which isn’t why i’m leaving, although all those reasons are part of why i’m leaving.

The paper works arrived for the job, so it’s all a bit more official. It’s still not official official, because it’s dependent on references, and medical information being passed back and forth. But I now have a piece of paper telling me I got the job and how much they are going to pay me (although I’m due for a cost of living rise in April, before I even start!).

I still haven’t told everybody in work yet, mainly because it’s a Saturday, but also because I wanted to wait for the piece of paper. Mondays going to be fun though, almost first thing we have a project meeting, so I think I will use that as the opportunity to tell people. Stuart already knows so he will be prepared, and hopefully he has some ideas as to who will take over what.

I spent all of last week writing documentation. And I suspect I will spend most of the next 5 weeks doing the same, with all my holidays taken into account I should finish in around 5 weeks, get a fortnight off, and then start my new job beginning of May.

I’ve gotten over most of the initial shock and now I’m really looking forward to it and no doubt I will be chomping at the bit by may,

It’s funny how memorable moments come about, the famous Accrington Stanley milk advert was meant to be Tottenham Hotspur but they objected.

Anyway, Accrington now heading back to the league, are honoring the bloke who started in the advert, “Exacly”