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From: Joel Koltner on 28 May 2010 13:34 "John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in message news:9f7uv5purnraa511gl0cunsek4v96d2uvh(a)4ax.com... > On Thu, 27 May 2010 14:38:24 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" >> What type of transistor? NPN or PNP? > Thank you for coming by to interview. Best of luck. No, no, John, your follow-up question is supposed to be about how one would go about measuring the height of a building with a barometer, wherein you see whether or not the many alternatives to the "intended" answer (e.g., "I go to the buliding superintendent and tell him I'll give him this fancy new barometer if he just tells me the height of the building") are sufficiently entertaining or not. :-) There is sometimes a blurry line between "this is intended to be a straighforward problem and you should make any reasonable assumptions necessary" and "this is something of a trick question and you need to proceed like a lawyer unraveling the tax code to have any hope of ascertaining the answer we've deemed as correct." ---Joel
From: John Larkin on 28 May 2010 14:37 On Fri, 28 May 2010 10:34:22 -0700, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >"John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in message >news:9f7uv5purnraa511gl0cunsek4v96d2uvh(a)4ax.com... >> On Thu, 27 May 2010 14:38:24 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" >>> What type of transistor? NPN or PNP? >> Thank you for coming by to interview. Best of luck. > >No, no, John, your follow-up question is supposed to be about how one would go >about measuring the height of a building with a barometer, wherein you see >whether or not the many alternatives to the "intended" answer (e.g., "I go to >the buliding superintendent and tell him I'll give him this fancy new >barometer if he just tells me the height of the building") are sufficiently >entertaining or not. :-) > >There is sometimes a blurry line between "this is intended to be a >straighforward problem and you should make any reasonable assumptions >necessary" and "this is something of a trick question and you need to proceed >like a lawyer unraveling the tax code to have any hope of ascertaining the >answer we've deemed as correct." > >---Joel This is not a sit-down test. This is a thing I scribble and talk about. There is no intent to be tricky, but I need to know if the person understands fundamantals. I use this one too: +10V | | | R=1K | | +-------- A | | R=1K | | | gnd What's the voltage at "A" ? I'm not kidding. Lots of people don't know. They mumble about not remembering the equation. John
From: Joel Koltner on 28 May 2010 14:59 "John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in message news:s2300698d2uftmqshsaervs39vc0asuvr6(a)4ax.com... > This is not a sit-down test. This is a thing I scribble and talk > about. There is no intent to be tricky, but I need to know if the > person understands fundamantals. Understood, some people just naturally seem to get really nervous and make bizarre assumptions that all interviews are going to be full of trick questions and are looking to ambush the interviewee at their first opportunity. Far better to go in with the assumption that you're dealing with rational, down-to-earth people... and if that's not the case, do you really want to work for them anyway? > I use this one too: > > +10V > | > | > | > R=1K > | > | > +-------- A > | > | > R=1K > | > | > | > gnd > > > What's the voltage at "A" ? > > I'm not kidding. Lots of people don't know. They mumble about not > remembering the equation. "We're not hiring for the marketing department at present, but we'll let you know if that changes. Best of luck!" :-) Having been a TA while in graduate school, I know what you're talking about -- it was pretty depressing how many students were only interested in, "what's the answer?" and not "why is the answer what it is?" I'm fairly certainly if you told your interviewees that, "the only equation you need to solve this problem is Ohm's law, V=IR" it wouldn't have helped them anyway. (Well, OK, I suppose you need to know Kirchoff's law as well -- "current doesn't just disappear into hyperspace at a junction, what goes in must come out.") ---Joel
From: Jamie on 28 May 2010 18:21 John Larkin wrote: > On Thu, 27 May 2010 14:38:24 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" > <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > > >>John Larkin wrote: >> >>>On Thu, 13 May 2010 09:23:56 -0700, "Joel Koltner" >>><zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >>> >>> >>>>"John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in message >>>>news:6r5ou5lcgjqv2cg8vbg1831506uqtmod4g(a)4ax.com... >>>> >>>>>Such brilliance! How do they keep doing it? >>>> >>>>A lot of graduating BSEEs today never really got that whole thing about >>>>superposition, I suspect? :-) >>>> >>>>Hmm... there might be a good interview question in there somewhere... "It's >>>>clear you can use an op-amp to sum an arbitrary number of inputs -- both with >>>>positive and negative gains -- but why is it that the vast majority of the >>>>time in an 'application example' you see people suggest only the inverting >>>>form?" >>>> >>>>Although I think it was Jim or someone who mentioned that these days some >>>>people don't even get past, "What's the approximate Vbe of any unremarkable >>>>transistor at reasonable currents?" :-) >>> >>>I like this as a test: >>> >>> +10V >>> | >>> | >>> | >>> | >>> c >>> +5V--------------b >>> e >>> | >>> | >>> 1K >>> | >>> | >>> | >>> | >>> gnd >>> >>>What's the base voltage? >>> >>>What's the base current? >>> >>>What's the emitter voltage? >>> >>>What's the collector current? >>> >>>What's the collector voltage? >> >> >> What type of transistor? NPN or PNP? > > > > Thank you for coming by to interview. Best of luck. > > John > > :)
From: krw on 28 May 2010 18:54
On Fri, 28 May 2010 11:37:59 -0700, John Larkin <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote: >On Fri, 28 May 2010 10:34:22 -0700, "Joel Koltner" ><zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >>"John Larkin" <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote in message >>news:9f7uv5purnraa511gl0cunsek4v96d2uvh(a)4ax.com... >>> On Thu, 27 May 2010 14:38:24 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" >>>> What type of transistor? NPN or PNP? >>> Thank you for coming by to interview. Best of luck. >> >>No, no, John, your follow-up question is supposed to be about how one would go >>about measuring the height of a building with a barometer, wherein you see >>whether or not the many alternatives to the "intended" answer (e.g., "I go to >>the buliding superintendent and tell him I'll give him this fancy new >>barometer if he just tells me the height of the building") are sufficiently >>entertaining or not. :-) >> >>There is sometimes a blurry line between "this is intended to be a >>straighforward problem and you should make any reasonable assumptions >>necessary" and "this is something of a trick question and you need to proceed >>like a lawyer unraveling the tax code to have any hope of ascertaining the >>answer we've deemed as correct." >> >>---Joel > >This is not a sit-down test. This is a thing I scribble and talk >about. There is no intent to be tricky, but I need to know if the >person understands fundamantals. I've been given similar "tests", but I don't like them. I keep looking for the hook. "Self, why would they ask this dumb question?" For the current position they asked the gain of a couple of opamp circuits and what the function of a few transistor circuits was (a pass FET with an RC on the gate didn't know why they would do such a thing, but an RC and a voltage follower is pretty simple). Pretty simple, still. I found out later that I was the only one they've ever interviewed that had the first clue. >I use this one too: > > +10V > | > | > | > R=1K > | > | > +-------- A > | > | > R=1K > | > | > | > gnd > > >What's the voltage at "A" ? > >I'm not kidding. Lots of people don't know. They mumble about not >remembering the equation. They had to be spooked. Did they think they'd get a pass for the rest of their life? |