WXYZ web services



  • After leaving another miserable job, I'm back in the field interviewing. I had to share this gem with the group. This time, the joke's on me.

    The interviewer starts off with the standard fare, "tell me about yourself", etc. However, it starts to get interesting when he gets into "web services".

    He asks me a bit about my XML experience and seems puzzled when I give my reply.

    "That's a bit outdated, don't you think?"

    I bat my eyes cluelessly, and say, "Excuse me?"

    "All that stuff you mentioned is basic, early millennium practice. We use..."

    And he goes off into a series of acronyms I have never heard before in my life. I'm not kidding when he said something like WXYZ technology! I was at a complete loss. So much so that I was air headed the rest of the interview. He was asking me questions but I couldn't focus because I was trying to remember all the acronyms he used. I didn't want to ask him to repeat himself, because that would only make me look clueless (which I was).

    The scary thing is that he must have used at least 7 different acronyms I had never heard before. And no, I'm not talking about SAML, XSL, WSDL, or any of the common terms.

    The way he made it sound, it was as if these were the NEW web service/XML technologies and that SOAP was so yesterday.
     



  • Not smart at all CPound.

    Just do a Google search on "XML" and hundreds of acronyms will come up in reference to web services. This interviewer could just be using a subset that you've never encountered. Or more likely, he was rattling off his own company's homegrown flavor of XML/web services.

    Either way, you shouldn't have been sidetracked by all the acronyms flying around. I have been using/developing web services for years now, and the so-called "outdated" stuff works just fine. Even if there is a new XML development, it's not that deviated from its "basic" origins.

    It sounds like that guy was either testing you to see how you would respond, or he was bragging about what he thought was cool and new technology (but is really a derivation of the industry standard). 



  • Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acronym, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA". Next time when someone tells you they use WXYZ, you tell them "That's nice, but in my experience, the better technology is CPXA. The guy on the other side, who of course has never heard of CPXA, probably won't admit he doesn't know CPXA, so he'll just ask "why do you think so?". Then you just reply with the standard promises every new technology offers, like "performs better, better separation of abstraction levels, scalability, bull, shit."

    (Just in case the interviewer asks, invent a long name for the acronym,  like "Concurrently Processing XML Architecture".



  • @ammoQ said:

    Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acrony, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA". Next time when someone tells you they use WXYZ, you tell them "That's nice, but in my experience, the better technology is CPXA. The guy on the other side, who of course has never heard of CPXA, probably won't admit he doesn't know CPXA, so he'll just ask "why do you think so?". Then you just reply with the standard promises every new technology offers, like "performs better, better separation of abstraction levels, scalability, bull, shit."

    (Just in case the interviewer asks, invent a long name for the acronym,  like "Concurrently Processing XML Architecture".

    I'm more a proponent the FU protocol, implemented using LOLz while obsoleting PMP effects.



  • @ammoQ said:

    Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acronym, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA".

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.



  • @asuffield said:

    here are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

    By "free", I didn't mean "completely unused"; just make sure it is not the latest hype in web application development by pure accient. 



  • I think i'm going to start pimping XOR to my boss as the new internet wonder. 

    XOR   = XML on Rails

     



  • @stratos said:

    I think i'm going to start pimping XOR to my boss as the new internet wonder. 

    XOR   = XML on Rails

     

    lol 

    stratos for president! 



  • @asuffield said:

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

    Holy cow...while not a terribly huge number (26^4 is only 456,976) that's still a lot of acronyms. I just want to know what 'QQQQ' and 'QZZZ' could possibly represent... (I'm already disturbed enough by the fact that 'QQ' apparently means 'Quit Crying' somehow...) 



  • @too_many_usernames said:

    @asuffield said:

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

    Holy cow...while not a terribly huge number (26^4 is only 456,976) that's still a lot of acronyms. I just want to know what 'QQQQ' and 'QZZZ' could possibly represent... (I'm already disturbed enough by the fact that 'QQ' apparently means 'Quit Crying' somehow...) 

    Quidditch Quaffle-Quitting Quotum. 



  • @ammoQ said:

    Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acronym, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA". Next time when someone tells you they use WXYZ, you tell them "That's nice, but in my experience, the better technology is CPXA. The guy on the other side, who of course has never heard of CPXA, probably won't admit he doesn't know CPXA, so he'll just ask "why do you think so?". Then you just reply with the standard promises every new technology offers, like "performs better, better separation of abstraction levels, scalability, bull, shit."

    (Just in case the interviewer asks, invent a long name for the acronym,  like "Concurrently Processing XML Architecture".

    I've always been fond of the BOfH's ASIJMA: A Standard I Just Made Up. 



  • @bstorer said:

    I've always been fond of the BOfH's ASIJMA: A Standard I Just Made Up. 

    Is that anything like BYG MAAMA JAMA?



  • When faced with the same situation, I usually interrogate the interviewer about the acronyms I am not familiar with.  More often than not, as mentioned earlier in this thread, they have a home-grown solution and slapped an acronym on it. 

    It seems like you are treating these interviews as tests that you want to pass... (didn't want to look clueless, etc)

    The interview process should be as much about YOU interviewing THEM as about them interviewing you.  From some of your other posts it seems you are willing and able to decide that you don't want a job during the interview process, so I know you have it in you ;)

    Don't be afraid to ask questions during an interview.



  • @asuffield said:

    @ammoQ said:

    Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acronym, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA".

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

     

    http://www.mmmm.com/ 



  • @tster said:

    @asuffield said:
    @ammoQ said:

    Next time, first google for a free (not commonly used) pseudo-acronym, 3-4 letters, including one or more X, e.g. "CPXA".

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

    http://www.mmmm.com/ 

    Just because it's broken doesn't mean it's free. WHOIS database entry:

     

    Domain name: mmmm.com

    Registrant Contact:
       Rose & Associates
       Merlyn Rose (samrose@frontier.net)
       (970) 259-1128
       Fax:
       Ten Town Plaza, #410
       Durango, CO 81301
       US

    Status: Locked

    Name Servers:
       dns1.name-services.com
       dns2.name-services.com
       dns3.name-services.com
       dns4.name-services.com
       dns5.name-services.com
       
    Creation date: 21 Mar 1999 00:00:00
    Expiration date: 21 Mar 2009 00:00:00



  • One reason 4 letter domains and acronyms are almost all taken might be because radio stations have 4 letter callnames.  Just an idea.



  • @dhromed said:

    @too_many_usernames said:
    @asuffield said:

    There are no unused acronyms left at 4 characters or less (heck, there aren't even any domain names that short left). We live in a world of retarded soundbite marketing.

    Holy cow...while not a terribly huge number (26^4 is only 456,976) that's still a lot of acronyms. I just want to know what 'QQQQ' and 'QZZZ' could possibly represent... (I'm already disturbed enough by the fact that 'QQ' apparently means 'Quit Crying' somehow...) 

    Quidditch Quaffle-Quitting Quotum. 

    Apparently, it's the ticker symbol for "PowerShares QQQ Trust".   See: http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=QQQQ

    'Cause, y'know, GIYF.  (If you don't know what that one means, try googling it...)
     


     


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