Sometimes I wonder how certain people get employed… really! I usually get drilled with a bunch of technical questions in every job interview I’ve gone to (with the exception of a couple where the hiring manager had absolutely no clue about IT… this re-enforces me original point!) and feel that I really have to show “what I’m made of.” In the meantime, some people get hired and surprisingly manage to keep their jobs whilst they lack (IMNSHO) the knowledge and skills.

For instance, yesterday this guy who works for our “.Net Division” approached me while I heated my lunch and asked me how (i.e. the code) a form/window could call another one and display it on the screen!?!? At first I didn’t know what to think and gave him the benefit of the doubt… Maybe I didn’t understand the question correctly. So I re-phrased the question, giving names to the objects (i.e. form1 and form2) and in a way wishing the question was a bit more complicated than just:

Form1: [snip]

Dim secondForm as new Form2() secondForm.ShowDialog()

Boy, was I wrong! The guy looked at me with the facial expression of someone who had just put on an old pair of jeans and found a $50 bill in one of the pockets! He still asked me if he could come up to my cubicle and ask me more questions if he had problems “implementing” the code! You see, I’m not trying to be a smart ass here… This guys walks around the office claiming to be a great programmer, showing off his recently acquired PMP certificate.

Today I was telling a friend and a co-worker (self proclaimed web application developer for the last 6 years!) about my previous post (the one about the hacker who hacked himself) when she turned to me and asked:

"127.0.0.1??? What is that???"

Trying really hard to hide my desbelief I explained it to her what it meant, holding back this incredible force the compelled me to ask what kind of web development she’s done in the past 6 years!