The Water Cooler

2:38 AM

Hello Workplace!

We have a question on PMSE which isn't really off-topic for us, but I thought I'd reach out to the Workplace SE community and invite anyone to answer who may have a better, or unique, perspective.

0

Q: How to find out the skills of a software developer in job interview?

It is the newest challenge in my career. I should manage some job interviews. And I must find the skills that the applier really masters the skills in his CV. Which way should I follow? Prepare an assignment? Asking concrete the technics that we need? Or something else?? Edit: We will be two p...

We have 5 answers already, but some members of our community really felt like leaving this community out of the mix would be a travesty.

Jim

Yay! People in The Water Cooler!

Thanks for sharing the question with us!

jmort253

lol, you're welcome!

Jim

Could definitely use a bit of editing...not sure I'm up to it right now

jmort253

Probably right :) We've been debating what to do with the question to where we didn't even look at those details yet.

Jim

Definitely a good fit for our The Workplace (althougn I think we'd prefer it a bit more general rather than specifically about a development job)

jmort253

2:42 AM

Right.

Jim

If only more people came to chat and got the chance to see it...

jmort253

Some people on PMSE suggested migrating it, but others felt it was on-topic for us.

Jim

alas, this is a lonely place :(

jmort253

There's more activity in here than PMSE's chat room.

I talk to myself a lot in there.

Jim

I'm not too familiar with your site, but from what I gather it could fit on either site

unless our mods have something to say to the contrary

jmort253

2:43 AM

PMSE is for project management questions.

Jim

Hiring could fall under that

jmort253

and one of our mods cited a reference to HR and hiring in the PM Manual, the PMBOK, so we figured it's on topic.

Jim

you do need to staff the projects you're managing, and make sure you do so with competent people

ah, ok

jmort253

Slight overlap is okay. In fact, we've never tried sharing questions between sites like this before, so it will be an interesting experiment.

Jim

There has been some discussion on META about it before

I beleive it was called a "soft migration"

but the details get rather complex, so I don't see it really happening

I think the end result will be "if you're that interested, just participate on both sites"

jmort253

2:45 AM

Don't get me wrong, cross posting isn't really something I'm for, but inviting another community to come weigh in could help multiple communities grow.

Right :)

Jim

It wasn't corss-posting

it was a compromise between cross-posting and migration

where the question actually "lives" on one site, but appears on both

jmort253

In a way, when a post is migrated, as long as the migration point isn't deleted, the link is still there to help direct traffic.

Jim

Right, but the stub just redirects to the migration destination

The proposal suggested that the origin of the mirgation maintain the question

I will see if I can find it

jmort253

Interesting idea.

Jim

Here we go

19

Q: Asking on Multiple Sites: "Soft-Migration"

Many of the newer sites have a certain degree of overlap. With the creation of Chem.SE, I noticed quite a few questions on Physics.SE which could have benefited from the chem community and vice versa. There also are a few that could benefit from bio.SE.. Now these questions don't warrant a migr...

feature-request migration site-crossover

Was inspired by the Chem and Physics overlap

Where a migration isn't necessary or really appropriate (since the question is on-topic), but another community could provide very valuable expertise to the issue

In theory, those interested would have already recognized the overlap and be participating in some degree on both sites

but c'mon, this is the real world

ideal just doesn't happen

and a lot of people just don't know about a lot of the SE sites out there

jmort253

2:53 AM

For sure.

Many people on PMSE, even some top users, only participate just on that site.

Hmmm, a twist to this idea may be to advertise the question on the other site instead of outright posting it.

Sort of like making it clear that site A owns the question, but members from site B are welcome to click the link and answer it on site B.

The implementation details for the devs would be less complicated, I would think.

Jim

That already happens to some degree, but I don't think it's target at any specific sites

and I think it might be limited with regards to Betas

jmort253

and those ads seem to be random.

I picture something more along the lines of a moderator ticking a box that says "also display ad on Programmers SE" or something like that.

Jim

Right

Could be quite useful

coincidentally, when searching for an example

I looked at this question on EL&U english.stackexchange.com/q/57144/11762

And found a link to the Workplace!

engine.adzerk.net/redirect/0/2663/3335/12057/…

hmm....not the url I would've expected...

Better link:

3

Q: Eager to Play sports in office gives Bad Image?

I have a ping pong facility in my office and I play during lunch and after work with my senior colleagues. I started playing after my first week in the office. It has been only a month since I joined and I am quite visibly eager to play it. I don't know how my seniors take that. Though I am fini...

work-environment

jmort253

Hmmm, wonder why it's going through the redirect.

Jim

No idea

But it does shout out to me that that title needs to be cleaned up

aaaand.....done

jmort253

3:03 AM

Hmm, the inconsistent use of caps.

Jim

Yes, that too

I've noticed that very often in questions across SE

Looking at the end of the question title would make me guess the asker is a native German speaker

but the rest of the title doesn't support that (Play, sports, office)

Sometimes I recognize a linguistic quirk and can guess what language might be the asker's native language, and then I feel really smart :)

other times I'm just left wondering what the hell they're taling about

jmort253

lol

Hi @jcmeloni!

Jim

I think jcmeloni is already gone...

Fortunately, by the time I saw this, it had long been deciphered

otherwise I would just have a headache for the next 4 weeks trying to figure it out

“Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?”

jmort253

ouch

that is a bit backwards

Sometimes it is hard to tell what someone is asking....

Jim

Even the "rephrased" version made no sense to me

That wasn't a SE question though, thankfully

jmort253

3:08 AM

Usually it's a combination of poor English and rushing.

Jim

would've been closed and deleteed real quick

Came from 4chan, was eventually deciphered

apparently meant "Has any video game company really taken such measure to make a game so realistic?"

Not sure how it got from A to B, but I'm glad it wasn't me banging my head against the wall until it made some sort of sense

jmort253

Luckily there were enough eyes on the thing to be able to find someone able to decipher.

Jim

4:45 PM

Never seen this in a job posting before

4

Q: What does the term "Flexible work ethics" on a job ad mean?

I came across this term some time back: Flexible work ethics in an ad for an IT job. Anyone know what it could mean? Im sure its not as dodgy as it sounds

job-search applications

jcmeloni

5:55 PM

-4

Q: Do interview calls reduce in November due to elections?

I am a computer science graduate student will be graduating this December. I did an internship over the summer at a software company and I really liked the team I worked with; the problem now is that I have been offered a full time position with another team at the same company, which I am not in...

job-search job-change internship student

one more community delete voted needed, fyi

Ben Brocka

6:35 PM

@jcmeloni that was quick

@Jim WTF. Run run run

Jim

run?

oh, the really bad translation

Ben Brocka

I see you also saw "High integrity - Flexible work ethics" in the google results

Jim

ha yeah

It was actually the result directly after that question

Ben Brocka

They really need to show those to an editor before they post them

Jim

Nice to see high Google rankings for our site

Ben Brocka

6:44 PM

I noticed that too

We were #2 and the EL&U question was #3

@Jim It's all in the subdomains, means we get a fair chunk of the "good site" reputation from stackexchange.com

Jim

Oh. I saw it before the EL&U question got posted

didn't know it was there

Will need to go visit EL&U

Ben Brocka

Neither did I until I saw it in google

thought it was a cross post

5

Q: Meaning of "work ethics" in Australian English

Inspired by this question, I'm left wondering if the phrase “work ethics” has a slightly different meaning in Australian English than in other dialects. I came across this term some time back: Flexible work ethics in an ad for an IT job. Anyone know what it could mean? Im sure its...

meaning australian-english

Their question was a bit better posed...ours is still interesting though, I'm surprised it's apparently not unheard of

Jim G.

11:26 PM

Don't try to compare this site to SO. Ever. That would be a serious error, if we ever want this site to take off (and I do). SO had an entire community of programmers rallying around it before it was even written. And even then, Programmers had to be created to handle those more language-agnostic questions. — pdr Sep 8 at 15:15

@pdr: I agree. Workplace.SE is a totally different animal.

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