Really weird programming interview

[DaveJ]

Awhile back I snuck away from my job to go out for an interview. Yeah, I'm non-faithful, sneaking behind my employer's back.

So after over a year, the weirdness of this interview is still hounding me.

I've LOVED programming computers ever since I was 16. It's all I've ever wanted to do. And I've done it pretty much ever day since those days of being a nerd in my parent's basement, when all the other kids were partying.

This is the weird question the guy asked: "How do you initialize a variable in Visual Basic?" (the answer is Dim x - It would be the equivalent of asking someone if they know how to turn on a light switch) It is easiest question one could possibly ask. The only way someone would ask such a question would be to weed out people who know absolutely nothing about programming. I would have had to have never programmed EVER to get that question wrong. Why would he ask such a question? Anyway, I was so nervous got it wrong. I also did not get the job. To this day, I wonder if that guy actually thinks I totally lied about being a programmer. Is it my imagination that I've been programming every day for most my life? Would someone really expect a nonprogrammer to interview for a job as a programmer, and fabricate decades of programming experience?

I'm sure there are other reasons I didn't get the job. I'm sure they didn't like me. (I'm just a bad person in general and deserve whatever badness comes my way)

But still, what a stupid question. I just can't get over it.