Blurring the line between the real and unreal, magic does this without any sociological or physical penalty. When the lines blur between the real and unreal, people get committed to hospitals and take a regimen of drugs. People jump off bridges in an attempt to fly, only to meet their death. Lose control of this ability to judge and you are in big trouble. While losing this ability is rare and terrifying, magic does this on a daily basis, all in a safe environment. Magicians trick human nature all the time, and have been doing so since humans walked the earth. How much more interesting can this get?
As is the German carnival tradition, individual Schwellkoppe (“swollen heads”) or larger-than-life-heads made from papier-mache march with bands in between the floats.
These clowns all look pretty creepy. Who do they mock? Local politicians and businessmen? The three in the front all have the same metal emblem around their necks. What is this?
This question has repeatedly come up during face to face interviewers of one specific company here in Toronto, Canada. It is supposed to test programming logic. You may judge for yourself its effectiveness. Trick interview questions such as these are controversial. Do such questions really show IT intelligence and talent or are they used as a chance method to eliminate candidates? One web site, CareerCup.com has a collected a database of such interview questions.
Q: There are three covered boxes that are all mislabeled: one contains “apples”, one contains “oranges”, one contains “mixed”. You cannot see the contents of these boxes. You may stick your hand into one box at a time and take out a fruit. How do you correctly relabel the boxes?
After two months of recruiting for permanent and contract IT developers for a specific company, this experience has shown the psychological resilience and toughness of IT contractors. No matter the rejection and abuse they get from companies, this does not faze them. Life merely carries on. Need it be this way?
This morning I was submitting candidates to this company for interviews. The company was asking us for convenient interview times. But by noon the news turned grim: all contractor positions were filled. Anyone looking for a contract that was not already interviewed was being offered permanent positions only. The abruptness was a bit shocking to me, as it looked like there was a lack of planning.
New am I as an IT recruiter. Sure, I have interviewed and hired for my own development team, but this new job has me reading hundreds of resumes a week. Here are some observations about reading resumes and talking to job candidates: 1. Canadians do not have as much education as candidates from the USSR and China, 2. I have no idea of the authenticity of many Indian post secondary schools, 3. There is more to life than money, 4. Why post your resume up to a job board when I cannot even contact you?
Eye opening was my new job as an IT recruiter here in Toronto, Canada. As a North American born and Canadian raised and educated, I knew something was askew. Reading hundreds of resumes per week I wondered why it took so long for me to find work, though it is not exactly in my job stream. Why where there so many newly immigrated foreigners out of work? Why where there so many second generation immigrants, fluent in English and Canadian educated, having such a difficult time finding work, in our ethnically diverse Toronto?
It has been a long time since I have talked to him, but I still clearly recall going to school with Mark Rowswell. In China he is much more commonly known as “Da Shan”, or Big Mountain. Mark is not only Canadian, like myself, but also comes from Toronto, my home town.
I met Mark while attending classes at Beijing University. As fellow Canadians in a place with many more Americans and other foreigners, we, of course, got to know each other. It turns out that his parents lived near lived near my parents, in the quiet suburb of North York, around Don Mills and Finch.
Some interview questions are simply very puzzling to me. They beg the question “Why do they ask them”, and what is there to be gained. Interviews are stressful events, and to ask a candidate seemingly idiotic questions that prove seeming little about their innate talents can be worse than pointless. These questions may show that the interviewing company treats their employees irresponsibly.
A case in point the question above: What is the next in the sequence SSS SCC C SC? This IT interview question is said to be from Google Corp. You can google for the answer, as I did. I found the solution here.
Going back to the commute routine has been eye opening, which caught me by surprise. It’s not like this is new to me, but getting used to the TTC and the quickness of pace has been eye opening.
The TTC seems to have stayed the same. I expected advancements, but this is not so. They struggle to keep from falling backward on themselves. While most bus drivers are courteous, I have met those who are not. Once there was a detour because of a crime and police had closed the road. This driver did not even announce why he was detouring, so many people asked. He got so mad.
Regret is how I feel about not posting these earlier. Still, life goes on and so I go. All these events have been memorable, and at each one I learn more as I continue on my way, either through technique, talking to people, or myself. Overall, it is 3 x win. Clovent clovents
