#1 obstacle — coding test (XR, CSY). This is true even though Wall St coding tests are easier than West Coast

David Leak said it’s possibly 30% lower, like $70/hr vs $100/hr on Wall St.

We all say “You can make mistakes. It’s normal….” Well, many everyday mistakes are not really OK or tolerable or normal. Many fellow programmers make obvious mistakes.

#1 example — Every time you turn a corner in your car, your competence is tested. If you aren’t competent you can easily cause a serious accident.

eg: first time you write a little algorithm or a class, your coding competence is revealed and evaluated.

eg: Every time a musician plays a note, her competence is tested. Don’t talk about violin or guitar. Even on piano, the touch would be obvious.

eg: Every time a sales person drafts a client letter or a management report, her competence is tested.

eg: The very first sentence a presenter said, shows her competence.

eg: As soon as you write a Chinese character with a pen, people know your Chinese basic training.

eg: Every interview is such a test.

(master copy -> pripri)

1) [Barc-prop, Jump2, Bbg-onsite, Barc-mtg, MIAX, VMware] low level details of the language + Linux.

I think on this front, I was never beaten in java, c#, perl …

2) coding — clearly-defined, easy-to-describe coding problems. As such, they only require the standard language features, and no advanced knowledge (except the threading problems). In theory, even a high school student could excel.

2a) [MS-FIX, MS-sg, MS-itr, Lab49, Jump1, UBS-HK, Barc-swing, Barc-sort, RBC, Amazon12, Baml, Gelber, JPM-OB, Macquarie …]

keyboard coding, with time limit from 30m to 2D (up to 1W, once).

I have issues with IDE, with code quality, with learning new stuff within a few hours.

2b) [FB, GOOG, MS-SHG, MS-IRD, Barc-SOR, Barc-EQD, WorldQuant, UBS-YACC, espeed]

Onsite Coding, on paper or whiteboard in any (pseudo) language, all about algo, or occasionally threading.

Am more confident. Beside some Silicon Valley veterans, most Wall St guys (Indians, Chinese…) won't beat me hands down. Except the MS Shanghai role, I probably impressed all the Wall St interviewers on this front.