17 y.o and i got a Job Interview

[vitinho444]

Hi there guys,
In my country there are several colleges, one of them (not the best ) made an event called ISELTECH. It was basically a E3-like but for companies in the various IT branches. For the people that couldn't go there, and they were looking for a job they could drop the Curriculum and they would hand it to the companies.

One of them, picked mine and called me for an interview .
When i got the call... i was shaking.. my legs, my arms, everything shaking.. I was so nervous... but i made it. I went to the interview and it was very cool.

They asked me some questions regarding php web services ( the job was to work as a PHP consultant / dev), about apache and i couldn't answer any of them. Before i went to the interview i had to do an exercise to prove my skills, the exercise was to do a comment system with pages with a web service.. i don't know web services so.. i just created my own

So.. they asked me: "if you get in.. do you plan to learn web services", and i said: "Of course, if I need it, i'll learn it ASAP"

In the end i felt like relieved.. but sad because i just lost an opportunity for a minor skill....

2 hours passed... they called me again.. saying my exercise was very good and i just passed to the next phase
I died for a couple of seconds..

So.. this all went Wednesday. I don't have my hopes high of course, but for what you've read, do you think i can get in? What "language signs" should i look for to know if I'm out?

Thank you

[a_bertrand]

Well, first of all well done! Job interviews may make any very nervous unless you are not much interested to pick the job

Odd that they use PHP to create web services, as it is one of the worse platform I ever saw for web services (sorry you all PHP fan, it's the sad truth). Anyhow showing that you are willing to learn is one of the most important thing in a job interview. Why? Because you can never know all what a company needs, so showing that you are actually willing to adapt to the company needs, and learn what you don't know yet is a very good sign.

Funny thing is that we will soon start to look for somebody as we have a position here. However not mainly PHP, more toward C# with Oracle as database, ASP.NET as well as others .NET technologies (services, network, and much more). The "fun" thing is that I know it will be very hard to find a good candidate.

[Elvar]

Congratz mate, that was pretty cool, think of how much you could learn from them . The first job interview is always a bitch, but in the IT. world you always have something to talk about, so they always drag out. Hope you get it.

Well, first of all well done! Job interviews may make any very nervous unless you are not much interested to pick the job

Odd that they use PHP to create web services, as it is one of the worse platform I ever saw for web services (sorry you all PHP fan, it's the sad truth). Anyhow showing that you are willing to learn is one of the most important thing in a job interview. Why? Because you can never know all what a company needs, so showing that you are actually willing to adapt to the company needs, and learn what you don't know yet is a very good sign.

Funny thing is that we will soon start to look for somebody as we have a position here. However not mainly PHP, more toward C# with Oracle as database, ASP.NET as well as others .NET technologies (services, network, and much more). The "fun" thing is that I know it will be very hard to find a good candidate.

Why is that odd? All the things you just stated, are all relative. It all depends on which system you use, for instance you can create a solid SOA interface using Drupal, within a small amount of time. Also you can quickly build a great REST interface in multiple PHP frameworks, Symfony, CakePHP, Flow, Zend, just to pick a few. As a .NET dude, which i assume you are, therefor prolly also are a sucker for SOAP, and while SOAP has many advantages when speaking from .NET to .NET platform, SOAP really falls short when other system needs to adapt to it. God we have had many headaches over SOAP integration to Sharepoint servers, at times it can be worse than fixing style errors in IE7. Your comment just proofs the typical arrogance of dudes who been trapped in MS world for too long :b.

Seriously all you need is a REST api, and you will be loved if return your data in simple and plain JSON, and free us all from shitbombs of XML in SOAP.

Oooh but if i were to pick a team, i would say go for Ruby on Rails, its routing system is built on REST, it's absolutely amazing to work with.

[vitinho444]

Congratz mate, that was pretty cool, think of how much you could learn from them . The first job interview is always a bitch, but in the IT. world you always have something to talk about, so they always drag out. Hope you get it.

Thank you, I'm not sure atm if i would accept if they picked me.. Only the time will tell

Well, first of all well done! Job interviews may make any very nervous unless you are not much interested to pick the job

Odd that they use PHP to create web services, as it is one of the worse platform I ever saw for web services (sorry you all PHP fan, it's the sad truth). Anyhow showing that you are willing to learn is one of the most important thing in a job interview. Why? Because you can never know all what a company needs, so showing that you are actually willing to adapt to the company needs, and learn what you don't know yet is a very good sign.

Funny thing is that we will soon start to look for somebody as we have a position here. However not mainly PHP, more toward C# with Oracle as database, ASP.NET as well as others .NET technologies (services, network, and much more). The "fun" thing is that I know it will be very hard to find a good candidate.

I don't know anything about those web services, never used them, everything i use is made from scratch, it helps getting better at it (no copy paste no sir) and helps getting to know what you need to have in a website.

They threw me questions about apache like what apache does to recognize the webpage and stuff..

[Jackolantern]

Web services aren't really difficult. 90% of the code of a "web service" is going to be the same type of code you would make in a regular web app. Really only the interface to the user is different, since you are receiving and delivering data over a REST interface instead of through a web page. Or possibly SOAP if they are wanting to use an outdated web service setup, but I doubt it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Congrats. I told U all you had to do was be enthusiastic and show a want to learn. That's what hiring managers want .

6 years ago I applied for a IT job. I had no college or degrees to back me up. No certificates. I went into the interview head on though. Showed a will to learn and basically told them it doesn't matter who you hire I am the most willing to learn, most willing to get the job done. I got hired and did nothing but learn everything I could.

6 years later I am building dialer systems and last week coding a .Net site with C# and SQL on the back end that uploads files with over 140k dials a day that I use to build charts, tables and graphs using google APIs. So I am using ASP.Net, C#, Javascript, HTML, and SQL in the site. May not be much to those here who are true programmers but I am not, never been to more than high school. It is an accomplishment I am very proud of and I would be no where near this if I did not try my hardest to land the job I wanted.

Stick with it no matter what. You reap what you sow.

[a_bertrand]

Well, sure you can very easily produce and consume JSON based REST with PHP, where actually you transfer data with key/value structure, however you don't really have an OO anymore, as the functions are not linked anymore to it. If you are in a PHP world only, then you can as well simply serialize your objects and deserialize them, but good luck working with such on other languages.

The advantage of PHP over typed languages like Java and C#, is that you don't have to worry about knowing the classes you work with while consuming a REST service. You just build up your structure and then you can do whatever you want with the data. Same for the production, you create your array, and push it back as JSON.

The advantage of a good working SOAP which works great both in the .NET world as in the JAVA world and much less so in PHP, is that you have true classes with data AND functions. Basically you ask for an object to the SOAP server and then you can use the functions of the objects as if the functions was on your side.

So where do you need REST and where do you need SOAP? Rest is a bit simpler due to the simplicity of the protocol. It works also much better if you want to make the client side a JavaScript for example. SOAP on the other side is great if you have a SOAP service running and maybe not a web application as client but a full blown client which consumes it and is written with an OO language. SOAP is the successor of Corba, while REST is more a simple data protocol for me. More like an XML file you transfer (BTW yes you can use XML instead of JSON in REST).

I tend to call SOAP a web service, while REST for *me* is not. Sure even in C# you have now libs which makes you work with REST nearly as easily as with SOAP. I still somehow prefer SOAP as I don't need to share the class structure as it's already there visible to all, while with REST you still need to communicate your class structure if you want to work with strongly typed language.

Call it arrogance if you want, call it as you want it. For me PHP, Python, Ruby or many other non compiled language don't work all that well for business. While Java and C# do have quiet a few advantages. Is that due to Microsoft? No. Did I worked with PHP? Yes. Again it's all question of personal experiences and feeling. You could have a different opinion sure, I'm just sharing mine here.

[overras]

Call it arrogance if you want, call it as you want it. For me PHP, Python, Ruby or many other non compiled language don't work all that well for business. While Java and C# do have quiet a few advantages. Is that due to Microsoft? No. Did I worked with PHP? Yes. Again it's all question of personal experiences and feeling. You could have a different opinion sure, I'm just sharing mine here.

PHP is the most powerfull web language

[Jackolantern]

Lets not turn this into a "which language is best" conversation here. The simple answer is that pretty much any language that can make web applications (which is a lot of them) can do most anything you want it to. Anything beyond that is personal preference, which Bertrand did state. I have used several different platforms, and I see benefits and reasons to use all of them (my favorites are .NET, PHP and node). Each platform is just a tool in your toolbox, and some jobs will make one tool more relevant than another.

[vitinho444]

Web services aren't really difficult. 90% of the code of a "web service" is going to be the same type of code you would make in a regular web app. Really only the interface to the user is different, since you are receiving and delivering data over a REST interface instead of through a web page. Or possibly SOAP if they are wanting to use an outdated web service setup, but I doubt it.

Well i really never touched one so i don't get it It like a mcdonald's guy looking at java per example But with training and learning I will get it

Congrats. I told U all you had to do was be enthusiastic and show a want to learn. That's what hiring managers want .

6 years ago I applied for a IT job. I had no college or degrees to back me up. No certificates. I went into the interview head on though. Showed a will to learn and basically told them it doesn't matter who you hire I am the most willing to learn, most willing to get the job done. I got hired and did nothing but learn everything I could.

6 years later I am building dialer systems and last week coding a .Net site with C# and SQL on the back end that uploads files with over 140k dials a day that I use to build charts, tables and graphs using google APIs. So I am using ASP.Net, C#, Javascript, HTML, and SQL in the site. May not be much to those here who are true programmers but I am not, never been to more than high school. It is an accomplishment I am very proud of and I would be no where near this if I did not try my hardest to land the job I wanted.

Stick with it no matter what. You reap what you sow.

Yeah my attitude was precisely that one, she asked me if i would be willing to learn what i needed and i said hell yeah, i will do everything i need to complete my task.

Well, sure you can very easily produce and consume JSON based REST with PHP, where actually you transfer data with key/value structure, however you don't really have an OO anymore, as the functions are not linked anymore to it. If you are in a PHP world only, then you can as well simply serialize your objects and deserialize them, but good luck working with such on other languages.

The advantage of PHP over typed languages like Java and C#, is that you don't have to worry about knowing the classes you work with while consuming a REST service. You just build up your structure and then you can do whatever you want with the data. Same for the production, you create your array, and push it back as JSON.

The advantage of a good working SOAP which works great both in the .NET world as in the JAVA world and much less so in PHP, is that you have true classes with data AND functions. Basically you ask for an object to the SOAP server and then you can use the functions of the objects as if the functions was on your side.

So where do you need REST and where do you need SOAP? Rest is a bit simpler due to the simplicity of the protocol. It works also much better if you want to make the client side a JavaScript for example. SOAP on the other side is great if you have a SOAP service running and maybe not a web application as client but a full blown client which consumes it and is written with an OO language. SOAP is the successor of Corba, while REST is more a simple data protocol for me. More like an XML file you transfer (BTW yes you can use XML instead of JSON in REST).

I tend to call SOAP a web service, while REST for *me* is not. Sure even in C# you have now libs which makes you work with REST nearly as easily as with SOAP. I still somehow prefer SOAP as I don't need to share the class structure as it's already there visible to all, while with REST you still need to communicate your class structure if you want to work with strongly typed language.

Call it arrogance if you want, call it as you want it. For me PHP, Python, Ruby or many other non compiled language don't work all that well for business. While Java and C# do have quiet a few advantages. Is that due to Microsoft? No. Did I worked with PHP? Yes. Again it's all question of personal experiences and feeling. You could have a different opinion sure, I'm just sharing mine here.

I've heard of SOAP in php.net but didn't look into it yet. It's all a matter of will power to learn, i have that, but i will learn it when I need it... Scratch is my thing for now.