[gameprogrammer] Re: Fire on the first day?

You flipping Americans!

The answer to what you should do is - use some teamwork!  You've
employed a smart person as a graphics programmer and on day one asked
him to design a reasonably complex system with no background to your
project?  And based on his initial response you're considering firing
him?  In the Uk that would be so ludicrous that I can't even concieve
of it.

Here's what I'd do.  First, I'd appreciate that the guy is intelligent
(assuming you at least got that right) and I'd work *with* him to get
to the end goal I was after.  You have some idea of how you want your
explosion system to work.  So why don't you actually ask for what you
want?  Of course, you think he has a good background in graphics, so
make him feel comfortable enough to discuss any ideas he has for
improvement with you.  Maybe sit down for 30 minutes together and hash
out how it's going to work.  Use some pen and paper to draw some of
what you want.

Ask for a simple prototype to be done by the end of the day (making
sure he understands that he only has to get something working to
demonstrate some progression, not that the entire system is expected).
Gauge his progress throughout the day by asking how it's going,
showing that you're interested in the explosion system rather than
making it sound like you're judging the guy.  When you see the
prototype running, discuss anything that seems different to how you
imagined it.  Compliment him on anything he's done better than you
expected - comfortable employees work better I hear!

Now you'll have an idea of whether the guy is worth his salt or not.
But firing a guy on the first day based on an answer to a tricky
question that in all honesty I don't think you should be expected to
answer on day 1 in a new job sounds totally ludicrous to me.

Of course, if you hired the guy with exactly this job in mind, surely
this kind of question belongs in the interview?

On 3/23/07, Kevin Jenkins <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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.

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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--
Paul Smith
Computer programmer

paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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