[gameprogrammer] Re: Fire on the first day?

2007/3/23, Kevin Jenkins <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxx>:


I hired a graphics programmer for my 3D space game.  He sounded smart
in the interview and sounded like he had a good background.  His first
assignment was to develop an explosion system for a giant carrier.

When pressed on how he would do this, he said he would place explosion
billboards randomly inside the bounding rectangle of the carrier.
When asked why this would work, he said it would work because my test
carrier was a giant (hollow) rectangle.

For those that don't know it, the bounding rectangle of an object is
the rectangle that encloses the maximum extents of the object, and
unless the object really is a rectangle will have space outside of the
object too.



Well, I guess the concept you are referring to is the minimum bounding box,
since you are talking 3D. Another popular kind of bounding box in 3d
graphics is an AABB or axis aligned bounding box.

My 2 cc is that you should try to _communicate_ with the person before you
do anything. Jumping to conclusions based on one single answer, seems really
unprofessional if you ask me (how long have you been a manager..?)

If you are shipping in 2 months, why did you go for someone without
industrial experience? Of course he will need some time to learn your
environment/tools/language...


/Olof


My immediate reaction, and maybe I'm wrong, was that his answer was so

obviously wrong no graphics programmer could ever give it.  Even
non-programmers should know better.  Did he actually think our final
art was going to be flying rectangles?  Or did just not think things
through?  Either way, I should just fire him immediately.

On the other hand, I don't want to be an ogre that fires someone just
for asking a question. I always hated jobs where I had to spend hours
figuring stuff out because someone couldn't spare 5 minutes to answer
something.

Firing now will cost $200 and the time I spent interviewing.  Waiting
will cost me $1000 and that time, but has a chance that he will work
out in the end.

What should I do?

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