I've interviewed dozens of .net / build / install guys over the last year and I find installs to be the hardest.
I try to do a relaxed / adaptive style of interviewing where I avoid making the candidate feel like they are on the hot seat with 20 questions. I start off easy and in a conversational manner I try to let the candidates life experiences come out and have them reveal the depth of their technical knowledge. One of my favorite questions is to ask the candidate if they ever did something in an install they wish they could take back and do over. Sadly I've had so many candidates tell me no. Another problem I have with installer candidates is so many of them don't have the experience or don't want to admit they have the experience. You can sometimes see them just tune out. I've got two more phone screens to do today ( Austin, TX ) as I'm still trying to fill a build, an install and an internal tools position. We require very experienced people on our team so if you are interested, send me an email. Chris --- On Mon, 1/25/10, Wilson, Phil <phil.wil...@wonderware.com> wrote: > From: Wilson, Phil <phil.wil...@wonderware.com> > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Interviewing an installation developer > To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." > <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Date: Monday, January 25, 2010, 12:46 PM > One of the areas where this often > shows is in actions where the "setup" way is different from > the commonly-known way. So these areas might be useful to > explore, such as (and assuming MSI): > > How would you install a service? Start a service? > Register a COM server, both Win32 and .NET? > Install an assembly into the GAC? > Install the VC++ runtime support? > Create a shortcut? > Locate the common files folder to install a file there? > Search for an existing installed product or component? Or > registry entry? > Uninstall an older version of the product? > Set the value of an environment variable? > Install a file handler for a file extension? > > These are all areas where (regardless of what tool you use) > the general correct answer is to use the built-in MSI > capabilities instead of running code. > > Phil Wilson > > -----Original Message----- > From: Nathan Stohlmann [mailto:nathan.stohlm...@gmail.com] > > Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:49 AM > To: [Wix Users] > Subject: [WiX-users] Interviewing an installation > developer > > This is probably a little bit off topic but I was thinking > that this > list might have the right people for the discussion. > > We are doing some interviews for an installation developer > position at > my company pretty soon and we got pretty burned with the > person who > was previously in the role since I think we thought he had > a better > handle of some of the fundamentals of installation > development than it > turned out that he did. In an effort to keep that from > happening again > we were thinking of coming up with some sort of exercise > that could be > done during the interview that would show some level of > proficiency. > Kind of like the classic "Write a sorting algorithm" sorts > of > questions that are pretty common for more general > development > positions. > > Has anyone had any really good installation development > focused > interview exercises? > > My initial thought was to write up an installation package > for some > sort of dummy software that had a few little requirements > and have the > candidate verify the requirements were met by being able to > point to > various points of the actual MSI where the requirement was > implemented. It's tempting to take that a step further and > put a few > not so subtle bugs in the package to see if they catch them > or not. > I'm not sure I can get a machine for the interviews though, > but I'm > not sure if printing out a table dump from the MSI through > something > like Orca would translate well enough. Thoughts? > > Thanks in advance for any responses. > > (And if you're in the Twin Cities metro area and are > looking for an > installation development position, ping me privately and > I'll see > about getting your resume to my manager) > > -- > --Nathan Stohlmann > Minneapolis, MN USA > nathan.stohlm...@gmail.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Throughout its 18-year history, RSA Conference consistently > attracts the > world's best and brightest in the field, creating > opportunities for Conference > attendees to learn about information security's most > important issues through > interactions with peers, luminaries and emerging and > established companies. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsaconf-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > > > *** Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including any > associated or attached files, is intended solely for the > individual or entity to which it is addressed. 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