This interview went very differently.
I warmed up by writing qsort beforehand (starting like half an hour before). I was debugging it by the time I got the call. (checking the value at one index while decrementing the other index, as it turned out. Oops). I was pretty technically able, but didn’t do as well on the nitpicky (and sometimes important) details of language questions. (are virtual static member functions legal? What are the advantages and disadvantages of inlining a function? (I had thought he was talking about an inline function declaration in the class description. Afterwards, talking it over with simon, he was thinking it was a function tag telling it to treat the function like a precompiler macro)) And I only know about ip multicasting what may be gleaned from the name, and a few minutes thought about the implications.
But I asked better questions “What skills are you looking for?” These interviews leave me feeling smart-but-ignorant. “What skills would you suggest I work on developing?” Which prompted him to ask me whether I was stronger in math/algorithm stuff or language/software architecture. I responded the former, which, given his response, may save my bacon (since this is a math-heavy operations/simulation group that’s actually useful). And in responding to his question about “why amazon” I was all “location and corporate culture” and that got us into a more casual chat, where friendliness and laughter occurred.
He said if there is another interview it will be on site. Here’s hoping.
You’ve been out of industry for too long.
This is the sort of shit you pick up on the job.
Yay! Go Stevie!