Interviewing a replacement

Interviewing is always a tedious process. There are several reasons for this: people want jobs, recruiters want to fill those jobs, etc. In preparing to move to Redmond, I'm interviewing potential replacements for the project that I am leaving. I've been trying to go beyond just waiting for the recruiter to call and I'm actively trying to find a good person to replace me. I am completely agast at the audacity of people who tell me they have certain experiences and feel they are qualified to do a job when (1) they cannot even answer simple questions and (2) THEY DON'T EVEN PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW! Whatever you do when you come to an interview, you should be prepared. And for heaven's sake, if you can't do the job, don't take the interview! Let's try to be clear:If you apply for a C# coding position,
Y O U
S H O U L D
B E
A B L E
T O
C O D E
I N
C #

To be honest, it really goes beyond that. If you want to be a developer, you have to keep learning. You can't do the same job for 20 years then loose it because of some market conditions (economy, downsizing, etc) then expect to pick up a book and be marketable over a weekend. It just doesn't work that way. You have to keep learning, you have to keep coding, you have keep reading and studying and thinking about code and design and architecture. If you don't love what you're doing for a living, then do something else!


OK, I'll step off my soapbox now....