I had an interview with a company a few years ago -- on paper it looked like a perfect match. During the interview things seemed to go well, but things took a turn for the worse with the technical lead's interrogation.
He asked five or six questions related to C and C++ undefined behaviour, a very open-ended one about a technology I'd never used. I answered as best I can, but always opened with "I'd be referring back to the C standard and opening a JIRA task to fix the code". We got on to how I'd fix the code -- remove the UB, but only if there's a unit test covering it. What if there are no unit tests? What if there's no JIRA? Lots of what-if-maybes.
A few days later I was on a 3-way call with the recruiter and one of the guys that interviewed me. They spent the whole thing telling me how "any decent developer" should have known what the UB would result in, shouldn't have to refer to standards or books... and on and on. But as a courtesy, they'd be happy to make an offer.
Half the minimum posted salary, no benefits. It was right in the middle of the minimum wage and the "living wage" lines.
I declined politely, and the recruiter hung on the call...
"Wow. I don't know what to say. That's never happened before... do you mind if I share the recording of that call with my manager?"
They were still advertising to fill several positions when I last stumbled across them on Glassdoor a few months ago...
I thought the actual thing with C (and probably C++) UB is that, well, pretty much ANYTHING is allowed to happen (by the standard)? Including, but not limited to, nasal daemons.
He asked five or six questions related to C and C++ undefined behaviour, a very open-ended one about a technology I'd never used. I answered as best I can, but always opened with "I'd be referring back to the C standard and opening a JIRA task to fix the code". We got on to how I'd fix the code -- remove the UB, but only if there's a unit test covering it. What if there are no unit tests? What if there's no JIRA? Lots of what-if-maybes.
A few days later I was on a 3-way call with the recruiter and one of the guys that interviewed me. They spent the whole thing telling me how "any decent developer" should have known what the UB would result in, shouldn't have to refer to standards or books... and on and on. But as a courtesy, they'd be happy to make an offer.
Half the minimum posted salary, no benefits. It was right in the middle of the minimum wage and the "living wage" lines.
I declined politely, and the recruiter hung on the call...
"Wow. I don't know what to say. That's never happened before... do you mind if I share the recording of that call with my manager?"
They were still advertising to fill several positions when I last stumbled across them on Glassdoor a few months ago...
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