strange job screening interview [Edit]

Here's a job req I got from a recruiter:

+Job Title: Delphi Programmer Analyst+
+Location: Remote+
+Type: Contract+
+Length: ongoing+

+Job Description:+
+Client located near Big City is seeking a senior Delphi Programmer Analyst for a ongoing part time remote work.  This role will focus on the migration of a several legacy Delphi custom applications to a new industry specific CRM front end and SQL Server database integrated to Great Plains. This are business-critical applications.  The contractor will provide technical design and development using Delphi, SQL, and SQL Server to code integration between legacy applications and the new COTS solution. Respon
sible for coding; unit, integration, and UAT testing; deployment; documentation; and user training.  Ideal candidate will be local to southern California and available for onsite meetings as required by client (one a month).+ 

+*Required Skills:*+ 

+1.     Minimum of 15 years overall software development experience encompassing at least 7 years+   

+2.      --Strong experience in gathering requirements, documenting high level BRD, designing the solution and developing Delphi applications.--  Delphi experience must be recent to be considered.+

+3.      Highly skilled in client server design and coding.+

+4.      Proficiency in Microsoft SQL server, functions, stored procedures, and T-SQL.+

+5.      Proficiency in Great Plains or another major accounting application is required.+

+6.  Working knowledge of Delphi 2007 and IDE as well as Xe5.+


I had a pre-screen interview with a guy who was supposed to take an hour to give me a "really detailed interview".  He spent the first 10 minutes talking about himself, his background, his firm, and how he's worked really hard to refine his recruiting skills to ensure that he only refers the "most highly qualified candiates" to his clients.

He went through my resume asking about this and that, mostly wanting to know which jobs involved direct database expertise, mainly MS SQL Server and TSQL. He was really only looking for UI vs. DB stuff. I said at one point that to me, SQL is SQL. He rebutted me saying it's really important to know the differences between each of the DBs and how to "nuance" the SQL queries and TSQL procs. However, he never asked anything specific about SQL, TSQL, or ... well ... anything at all.

In particular, there was not one single question about Delphi other than whether I was familiar with D2007 and XE5.

As I said, the intervew was supposed to go for an hour; he was 20 minutes late starting, and ended 15 minutes early. I could hear him yawing and drumming on the desk while I was talking.

They've apparently had trouble finding people to stick on this job for very long. I wonder why....

As an aside, #2 is overstated -- I was told the activities in the first sentence apparently aren't pertinent.

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When I've been on projects where I was tasked with building CRUD forms to deal with individual DB tables and virtual tables through stored procs, I'd usually take 15-30 minutes to build and test the SQL queries, then a couple of hours or so to build the form and add field validations. Then maybe adjust it to use stored procs.

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why someone would be obsessed with SQL / TSQL experience for a project like this? (Aside from the fact that they don't know squat about Delphi)

0 David 8/18/2015 8:51:00 AM

Was he a young punk?

0 John 8/18/2015 10:22:26 PM

>>David Schwartz wrote:

>> Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why someone would 
>> be obsessed with SQL / TSQL experience for a project like this? (Aside 
>> from the fact that they don't know squat about Delphi)

Their team must be a group of Excel and Access users.

0 Gilbert 8/19/2015 12:41:12 AM