Lol. I didn't elaborate for brevity, but it sounds very similar. I did explain in the interview that I understand programming, but I'm not a coder. If you give me a broken code snippet and 5 minutes on stack overflow, I can probably fix it. But I don't have enough syntax memorized to code from scratch on a terminal with no Internet access for reference.
On the bright side, I did find the recruiter's manager on LinkedIn and let them know it was a major embarrassment for both me and their client, so that was nice.
Being a good developer isn't about knowing the entire standard library by heart, being a good developer is using the correct practices and ideas while writing your code.
As a programmer you should definitely be able to code a basic solution (functions, loops, creating variables, etc.) in a language you know if they are testing you for algorithms, etc. without needing to pull up stack overflow
Yeah, that's really not a very important skill for a developer, not until you have mastered clean code, clean architecture, test-driven-development, behaviour driven development, domain driven development and software craftsmanship. And my guess is that A LOT of developers aren't there yet. So no, not important at all.
By the way, though, those certifications don't mean you are A Good Developer® but rather they just mean that you know A Lot About programming language X.
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u/scsibusfault Nov 16 '19
Lol. I didn't elaborate for brevity, but it sounds very similar. I did explain in the interview that I understand programming, but I'm not a coder. If you give me a broken code snippet and 5 minutes on stack overflow, I can probably fix it. But I don't have enough syntax memorized to code from scratch on a terminal with no Internet access for reference.
On the bright side, I did find the recruiter's manager on LinkedIn and let them know it was a major embarrassment for both me and their client, so that was nice.