Scott C. Reynolds was looking for a strong C# developer a while back. He was kind enough to share the tale of one of the many, many unqualified recruits (who we'll call “J“) with us.

The job description in the ad is pretty explicit about the level of experience required in .NET, C#, SQL, and app development in general. We get "J" through a headhunter. First, excerpts from the questionnaire the headhunter gave him, then forwarded to us: (spelling and grammar his...)

Tell me about your experience with:

.Net: I have used .net for about 3 yrs and c language for slight longer. I have programmed many application and programs using C# for numerous businesses.

C#: I use this to create programs over that of java in the .net application code behind the page or the creation of GUI's

HL7 or XML: I use this language to check my database information in .net application and access processing

SQL or Oracle: I prefer using these application in the creation of database information, write the script direct and modifying the table information

So...the resume was less than impressive. But he had some experience listed, we thought, maybe the headhunter phrased the questions strangely or typed in his answers in a weird way. We call him in for an interview.There's not enough time to go through the whole thing, but it was bad. The highlight was the following:

Me: So, J, you've told us about some stuff you did in VB.NET, what's your level of experience and comfort with C#?

J: Oh, C-Pound [yes, he said that], I use C-Pound all the time. I like C-Pound for the error handling [like the 15th time he's mentioned error handling to that point]

My Boss: So, you have had some good experience with C- SHARP then. That's good. Tell us about something you built with C- SHARP [emphasis his, not added]

J: Well, if you're going to talk about the language I'll just write with if I want to be comfortable, it's C-Pound. I like the code-behind-the-code of C-Pound.

Yeah....

Finally, we sent him on his way, and asked him to email a code sample. Something simple but non-trivial that shows his command of .NET. We get an email back, with the following in the body: (all spelling and grammar errors are his).

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Here are two simple examples of code,

(1)

Dim Slogan as String

Slogan = "J " & "is a good " & "canidate!"

(2)

Dim Slogan As String

Slogan = String.Concat(" ", "this is", "simple."

[#3 is just the method signature of a button click event for some reason....in VB.Net...I don't know. Then, he says in the email:]

(4) This is a cut out from a page Form on a program I development for a Company with a database

[this eloquent comment is followed by about 100 - 150 lines of IDE-Written code, primarily the contents of InitializeComponent(). There's a little database connectivity code at the bottom....but I really didn't bother reading it, except that my eyes caught on the following snippet]

"DELETE FROM tblCustomer WHERE (fldCustomerID = ?) AND (fldAddress = ? OR ? IS NUL" & _

"L AND fldAddress IS NULL) AND (fldCity = ? OR ? IS NULL AND fldCity IS NULL) AND" & _

" (fldCreditCardNumber = ? OR ? IS NULL AND fldCreditCardNumber IS NULL) AND (fld" &

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Needless to say, he's an immediate hire.