Charlton Wilbur said:
MML> However remember that the interviewer isn't really interested
MML> in technical ability - he knows that from your CV -
Er, you haven't seen some of the resumes I've seen, then, and
subsequently interviewed the candidates with the same name at the top
of the resume. The technical ability described on the resume may have
nothing at all to do with the technical ability possessed by the
candidate, and it is an irresponsible interviewer who does not
evaluate the candidate in front of him separately from what the resume
claims.
Maybe that says more about the interview process than the candidate. That is
particularly true of computers. Put someone in front of an unfamiliar system
and he won't even know how to log on. That doesn't mean that within a few
days he won't be perfectly competent and productive.
Questions like "how many levels of indirection does C allow?" tell you a
little bit, but not much. Some programmers don't even use the term
"indirection", though they know what the concept means. An experienced
programmer might say "I don't know", because it is just a bit of trivia of
no real interest to anyone not actually implementing a compiler.
If people are coming to you claiming two years' experience as a C programmer
developing desktop apps with Blogg's corps, or possessing a degree in
computer studies, and seemingly now knowing basic things, then you really
need to look at what is going on. Whilst the candidate is trying to sell
himself and put a good gloss on his achievements, outright lying is
relatively rare, and in Britain at least is illegal. It could be that people
are elevating trivial exposure to something into wide experience, but then
you might be making the mistake of saying "we need someone who knows how to
log on to Unix".