Help with job interview

Seeing as there are loads of IT types here, could someone help me with a job interview that I have on Tuesday? I am going for a junior software engineer job, for Tessella, who make software for science. They are looking for people with a science PhD, who want to use their IT skills. Could someone please tell me anything I really need to know about MySQL, C++, java, fortran, J2EE etc. I.e. what they are used for and stuff. I won't need to know programming so much, but I would like to know what I am getting myself into!

Cheers.

These are stereotypes, they're certainly not always true, but I think it's a useful list.

MySQL, a very good open source database server. Is extremely widely used and is increasingly having enterprise features added. Not yet used for such major systems as you might find an oracle system, but getting there.

C++, object oriented programming language. Relatively low level so you have to do most things explicitly. Extremely powerful in the right hands, extremely buggy in the wrong hands. Is used for pretty much everything at some point or another.

Java, object oriented programming language. Completely type safe, so the bugs are rarely as serious as you might get elsewhere. Compiled into platform independent bytecode so can be run by an appropriate virtual machine on an computer. In reality not as platform independent as all that.
It's extremely useful for server based tools, not great for anything GUI related.

Fortran, fantastic for maths and science based stuff, a bit of a pig for doing anything else that you might want to actually use. Not something I'm experienced with, though.

J2EE is a set of Java standards and libraries which implement those standards. It's the enterprise level server side stuff. It's roughly analoguous to the server side .net stuff. Very nice apps can be built, but until the latest version the plumbing was more work than writing the code itself.

RTFM - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rtfm

MySQL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysql
http://www.mysql.com

Fortran - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran

C++ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B

Java - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_programming_language
http://java.sun.com

J2EE is a server side Java with libraries more suited for entreprise applications - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J2ee

Originally Posted by Warthog

Seeing as there are loads of IT types here, could someone help me with a job interview that I have on Tuesday? I am going for a junior software engineer job, for Tessella, who make software for science. They are looking for people with a science PhD, who want to use their IT skills. Could someone please tell me anything I really need to know about MySQL, C++, java, fortran, J2EE etc. I.e. what they are used for and stuff. I won't need to know programming so much, but I would like to know what I am getting myself into!

Cheers.

Alright.
MySQL, is fast. AFAIK its the fastest out there. You dont want to be running a bank on it though. Lock it to dump it. And, dont use it if you are needing to do writing of mission critical records. We use it as a fast data obtainer. (Ie, when I cannot fit everything I need in RAM.)
C++, yeah, so, I am not a big fan. If you want C, use C. If you want C++ use Java or C#. There are open compilers for both. I am sure that people will not agree with me here.

Java. The SUV of computer langs. Generally speaking its over engineered. But so what. Do not believe the "java is slow" people. Java is not slow. Java can outperform C++ in a lot of areas WRT speed. Tons of libs out there, big bioinformatic comunity using it. (Only really rivaled by Perl.) You can write very nice, clear, clean, well engineered JAva code. And the lang encourages this. As does C#. I have respect for both of these langs.

Fortran. Awful. Stay away. Unmaintainable. Nasty nasty nasty. Physisists are mad about it. But, Physisists are mad. Nuff said. Use C.

J2EE. Meh. Marketing. See Java.

Emm. I know a lot of people on the field that are Perlers. Including me. Perl is an insane lang. I have been learning it for about three years. Its still a bit of a mystery to me. Barking mad. The old joke is, you can mash your head into the keyboard, and bingo, you have a working perl script.

You can be cool and talk about things like... Python. And Ruby. And Ruby on rails.

I would say to you, learn Linux. Get familiar with the CLI. When you team up Perl with the Linux CLI, you become a bit of an animal.

Oh yeah. For the interview. Speak slowly, and concisely.
Think ahead clearly about what you are going to say. Pause if you have to. Let yourself think, give yourself 5 seconds ot just sit, and run through how exactly you are going to answer the question.
Breath. Then answer the question in a very conservative, measured way. Do not dismiss anything out of hand. Couch what you say with "as far as I am aware", "it seems likely" etc etc. As a scientist you will know that they almost never catagorically say anything ever. Its a habit. Be precise, do not use fancy long words, do not say more than you need to. Do not be mute, but do not just ramble off about things. You are providing them with rope to hang you with.

Be happy, queit and friendly. Smile.

Good luck mate.

[Quiff Wichard]

dont go out bank holiday monday and get drunk!..

best advice I can gove as all the IT stuff might as well be in swahilli!!.. to me at least.


good luck ... !!

tell em MySQL sucks and you want an Oracle job

Originally Posted by Gnan

tell em MySQL sucks and you want an Oracle job

Thats right Gnan. MySQL sucks. That's exactly what you do, go in and tell them where they went wrong. Thanks for the input there.

Originally Posted by philipMac

Thats right Gnan. MySQL sucks. That's exactly what you do, go in and tell them where they went wrong. Thanks for the input there.

I haven't a clue whether My SQL sucks or not. Seems to me that if they are asking for someone with a PhD they are looking for someone with opinions, who can think, devise new solutions to existing problems, and who can express themselves clearly. I wouldn't be put off by someone who told me that they could change things for the better, that's what I'd be paying them for - I'd positively expect innovation from a Dr. What I would be put off by is a bighead who wanted to take over.

Guys, thank you for the ace responses, including the general interview techniques one! I have only been to w few interviews, so I am not that familiar with what to do. Sadly the most relevant piece of advice to me is

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

dont go out bank holiday monday and get drunk!

hehe.

But yeah, they are looking for people with science PhDs to basically work with the good programmers to tell them what the customers in the scientific community mean (as they probably wrote the instructions for the new desired software on a napkin knowing most of my professers ). But they say there is a lot of in house training going on, and basically after a while I will be taking over small projects on my own and be expected to programme on my own. If I get the job.

But again, thanks for the responses, they are very helpful, and its always an honour to be on a board with so many clever people hehe. If anyone needs any helps with molecular biology or virology er.. I am hear to help!

Nick