interviews – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Software Hiring Handbook: The Software Developer’s Guide to Conducting a Job Interview

By Scott J. Pearson | March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

As Michael Kahn states in this book’s introduction, there exist many guides to giving interviews generally along with guides to being interviewed about software development, but there are few guides to giving interviews specifically to developers. This 2006 book tries to fill that niche. It is short and certainly not comprehensive – as if that were even possible. But it advances wisdom that people like me need in finding a software developer, especially for the…

A Word on Words: The Best of John Seigenthaler’s Interviews

By Scott J. Pearson | March 15, 2023March 12, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

This book is hard to categorize or to compare to other books. It is comprised of interviews with authors spanning several distinct subjects: the civil rights movement, literature, music, sports, and presidential histories. Because the interviewer John Seigenthaler read these books in detail, he asks smart questions and drew out deep answers. And because the interviewees wrote the books, you have expressive, informative answers. When added is the fact that these are the best of…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare HIV/AIDS

Wise Before Their Time: People with AIDS and HIV Talk About Their Lives

By Scott J. Pearson | December 24, 2021December 24, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

In 1991, HIV/AIDS was an immensely scary topic for the public. AZT had just been released, but no one saw it as a cure. Some were even frightened of the long-term side effects. In the decade following, multi-drug HAART therapy transformed HIV into a livable condition, at least for patients in the developed world. But in 1991, the fear the words “HIV” and “AIDS” invoked – especially in those given this diagnosis – needs to…

Software-Technology

Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming

By Scott J. Pearson | November 26, 2020August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Software developers are typically bright people but possess few social contacts who approach the world like them. Such loneliness is famously parodied by stereotypes. Even the most social among us have a difficult time relating to others what programming is like. In this work, Seibel provides interviews with 15 accomplished programmers and alleviates some of that alone-ness. In so doing, he explains to the English-speaking world how computer programming has grown and is currently practiced.…