spectastic

all you need is look up a good fit video on youtube, get a camera, and find a software that lets you draw lines and measure angles while playing a video of you on the trainer (or MS paint + screenshot + protractor). The only thing extra the fit did for me was the fitter touching my hips to make sure it was stable upon the saddle, but anyone can do that.

I suppose at the fitters, there is readily access to various saddles, stems and handlebars, as well as arch insoles and wedges. I think that'd be the major obstacle if you want to fit yourself, but not really a major one, because you can get pretty close with the right sized frame, and get a good idea for what you would need.


oh. and you'll have to measure the width of your sitbones. I want to believe that LBS can do that for free.

mattm

The "degrees between clock hands" is a good start, I think.

Unless you're going for some kind of math job, or a watch maker.. maybe I'm just missing the point though, if it's a question for a banker.

mollusk

DING!

And also see if your first inclination is to blow smoke if you don't know something. Pretending you know something when you don't can really fubar a project and make you "that guy". You don't want "that guy" around.

spectastic

that was a trick question.

Jandro 

When I interviewed, one of my interviewers (out of 5) asked me to describe an ocean. I believe that was the only time I was asked an oddball question like that (that I can remember, anyway).

mollusk

The answer depends on the details of the clock mechanism if it is mechanical, the algorithm used by the programmer if it is a digital representation of a clock face, and not applicable if the clock read out is all digital.

You then turn it around and ask the person asking the question which one it is.

Homebrew01

African or European ?

spectastic

I remember during my very first interview for an internship, they gave me a 4"x6" piece of paper and a pen, and made me describe the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I totally screwed that one up, because I didn't know if I had a toaster, a knife, if I wanted to put the same knife that I used for the peanut butter into the jelly jar, and to what depth I needed to describe the procedure - whether I'm telling a human or a computer. Ended up scratching out half the things I wrote. Then, during the interview, the three interviewers just sat there reading papers, and pretending I wasn't here. I'm pretty sure within in 5 minutes of the interview, we all knew I wasn't going to get it.

mollusk

Exactly!

Screw the Bridge Keeper!

furiousferret

I've cheated on all my interviews, and got offers on my last 6. Tons of research down to practice interviews, getting the questions prior, a well designed resume packet, and intense scouring of social media about the interviewers. At the end of the day, 50% of the interviewees are going to do well enough to be hired, so the interview (so long as you know the questions) is more about the mannerisms and actions than the questions. In IT most people just don't get that, as they have the social skills equivalent to Dr. Evil or Ivan Drago.

My last interview we talked about dogs and baseball for the last 20 minutes, and although they claim I was hired because I was the most qualified, I know they were lying

To be fair, these plaes aren't Google or Facebook, but I'm still beating out 50+ people.

waterrockets 

The most important thing you do in these interviews is ask questions. Every interview I've conducted or been a candidate in has had technical questions that are poorly specified. This is on purpose to make sure you quickly work to discover what you don't know, and can communicate well enough to explain what you don't know and ask the right questions to get what you need to know. If someone says, "Write a function that reverses a string," you should instantly have about 10 questions that need to be answered before starting on a solution.

Yeah, well, there are exceptions, but there are a number of reasons why some of these companies have been absolutely disruptive in the tech world for more than a decade. As many candidates as they're trying to push through the system, they need to be as objective as possible and be able to detect the top-notch folks while quantifying what's better about them. Talking about baseball might be part of it, but not for the technical stuff.

mollusk

Age-ism!

furiousferret

I'm not an ageist I swear! I even have an old friend just so I show other old people that I'm not an ageist. His name is Dad.

ovoleg

LOL! You have to understand HR are basically trolling 90% of the time...

I interviewed people at my last job which was weird since I wasn't there for very long. They said they wanted someone that was "fresh" to screen out some candidates and pick others for a job.

I would facilitate a tower building exercise where the candidates would work in a team to plan out and build a tower with various materials. They would include cost, scrap, etc etc. Basically an engineering problem. We would then evaluate how they did. HR would doze off and not even pay attention, and they're the ones that wanted the candidates to go through this BS. Most of the time I would space out too and not pay attention because it's boring and dumb way to prove you can do the job. About the only time I cared(rare) is when people would argue among each other(super rare but funny when it happens).

What pissed me off the most was when I would say that someone is a bad fit or good fit, the HR person would do the opposite of my recommendation and the other engineers interviewing!

Example: The company I worked for had a very collaborative culture, aka lots and lots of cross functional communication to get stuff done. Well we had this one kid that was interviewing that was fairly anti social and talked at length about how he likes to do things on his own because that's when he knows they're done right. I told him we don't do things on our own here because the project would never end. We all kind of nodded that he was a bad fit...Guess what, 3 months later I saw him at work. Facepalm!

Then there was another guy who had a somewhat terrible GPA(2.8) but man I would totally work with this guy. He was down to earth, pretty smart, knew his way around different software and was very interested in the field/job. I was the only mechanical engineer there so I kind of had a say, and I said this guy is awesome(others nodded but didn't care). Guess what, he doesn't get hired because he didn't pass some stupid computer personality test. Is this for real? I met the guy in person, I don't care what the stupid computer said!

HR is out there to troll people, I'm convinced of it.

spectastic

hehe. yes, I'm inclined to agree. I participated in a interviewing thing out in Houston. They asked me to give a speech, which I completely botched. I was there for the free food and the kickass hotel, and I dressed in casual tshirt and shorts on day 2 (interview day); my duty was done the previous night, but it was still unprofessional. But of the people I met, none of the down to earth people who I liked got the job. Instead the people who didn't bother to talk to me, but instead spent their time kissing the interviewers' asses got the higher hiring priorities. I mean of course, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, but... c'mon!...

And I've learned a lot since my first interview. But I hadn't thought of planning out my interview down to a tee, like rehearsing all my responses ahead of time (I do a little bit, but not too much), and even internet stalking the interviewers. I mean it's smart thing to do, but in some ways, that's an unfair advantage. I suppose in the business world, you snooze you lose. That's why I can never be a corporate guy doing upper management. I'd much rather use my brain doing science in R&D or in academia.

spectastic

who in the world would name their son "Dad?"




actually, that'd be super hilarious.

TMonk

I view qualification and technical proficiency as more of a threshold, or gate, meaning you need to be skilled enough to do the job in the first place.

After that, it's mostly personal! Never underestimate the human component; cultural contribution and compatibiltiy is good for a workplace. People here are generally very physically active, but enjoy to have a drink (or three). It's not pleasant nor efficient to work with people you don't like, or that just suck.

spectastic

Yea, the interview thing I went to had this casino night event the night before the interview. But of course it wasn't really casino night, it was more of a social test. The smart ones went straight to work before the interviews even started.

ovoleg

I don't have a problem interviewing but I hate the whole process. It's generally a PITA. SOmetimes it's neat and you get to learn about different industries but typically I do my research before showing up at the company. I hate when they spend 45mins explaining what I already read on their website!

ovoleg

I'm delegating the old bike as my racing bike and keeping my current bike for training/weekend rides. The problem is I only have 1 power meter(Quarq). I can swap it via the 2 bikes no problem, I have all the tools and the job takes about 10mins, but then to ride the other bike I'd have to swap cranks back and forth(ugh).

I'm trying to decide on wether or not to get a PowerTap G3 rear wheel for my training bike and leave my Quarq permanently on the race bike? Or just swap back and forth?

Anyone have any good input?

Is Stages worth it now that they got their firmware upgrades in? Looking for a relatively inexpensive solution(must be ANT+ wireless).

bmcphx

I have stages and I really like it. Inexpensive, doesn't stand out, and seems reliable.

Its my first pm though so nothing to compare it to.
@ovoleg

mattm

Just ordered new shoes, pedals, cleats.. realized it'd been too long and my **** was old!!

This should increase wattage by at least 101%.

mattm

Unlike any interview I've ever done, the Apple phone interview I did today was cool - they just send you a problem, you work on it for ~45 mins, and then chat about it. You can google/use books/whatever too. (not that I needed to duh!)

And it wasn't some silly CS algo problem either, it was all about OO design.. I knocked it out of the park. Onsite interview will be next week.

furiousferret

Good luck MattM!

mattm

Ha I kind of like that question.

Steve Jobs (supposedly) used to ask people if they were a virgin, and if they'd done acid. At least in the early days.