[Jax.PM] Whiteboarding Perl

[Nate Campi]

This is related to perl but not really... well anyways sneex can kick me
if it's not suitable for this list. ;)

For some reason I've always been unable to demonstrate Perl proficiency
in a job interview when asked to stand up and write code on a
whiteboard. Last year I was turned down for a job at Yahoo because of
this, when I knew everything they wanted about UNIX and DNS (the
position was a DNS architect/DNS admin position).

They asked me back for another interview, and yesterday when I was there
I was able to write a couple correct Perl scripts on the board to parse
simple logs and report stats, and validate a correct IP address. Strange
thing was that I didn't practice in any way - I was simply able to do it
this time. I don't know if it's because I don't really care if I get the
offer this time (I just wanted to feel better about myself by getting an
offer this time around, I don't really want to leave my job).

Pretty weird. I always do well in interviews - I don't get tongue-tied
or otherwise get stumped on things I'd normally know outside a pressure
situation. It's just that damn whiteboard that seems to kick my butt.

Anyone else encounter this sort of thing - or am I just weird? :)
-- 
Nate

curses: May you be forced to grep the termcap of an unclean yacc while
     a herd of rogue emacs fsck your troff and vgrind your pathalias!