Can anyone help me with this?

FUCK THE POLICE

911 EVERY DAY
Got a remote interview coming up, to get the interview I have to complete an MS SQL coding challenge. The instructions are:

This is confirming your remote interview scheduled for Friday, 4/22, at 1:00 pm. A few minutes before that time I will email you with instructions. You will be completing a programming exercise where you will be creating a database, using SQL queries, and explaining the flow of a website based on a customer scenario. Please allow yourself up to 45 minutes for this.


I asked for a little elaboration and got this:

You will only need access to a computer for the programming exercise. I will share a google document with you a few minutes before 1:00 that you will work off of.

I dunno how to prepare for this really. I went and installed MS SQL Server and have an instance running right now, and I'm planning to build a database and do some exercises with it. But I'm not entirely sure what they want me to do. I assume they just want me working with SQL queries, but I'm worried they'll have me manipulate SQL queries with some third party langue (probably ASP .net) instead.
 
I feel like they would tell you the language they would expect you to work with. Not everyone is going to know every language so they can't just assume you'll know ASP (and really... who uses ASP these days)

Maybe they will just have you use a GUI to create the actual database and then use pseudo code? Did the job you are applying for state which languages you should know?
 
I feel like they would tell you the language they would expect you to work with. Not everyone is going to know every language so they can't just assume you'll know ASP (and really... who uses ASP these days)

Maybe they will just have you use a GUI to create the actual database and then use pseudo code? Did the job you are applying for state which languages you should know?

The job would be in ASP .NET and SQL. They have a training program, which I assume is because nobody actually knows ASP or teaches it these days. But they didn't actually mention ASP, so I assume I'll be manipulating the database directly with MS SQL statements.
 
Searching didn't help me much with the screening quiz google sent me, it was basically some Byzantine math riddle. But filling up a database shouldn't be so hard.

Still taking a refresher course to be safe of course.
 
My son Paul, who works for Cisco in London, has been offered a job with them in San Jose on a salary of $120,000, he is thinking about it! Not bad considering that he is less than three years out of university.

Yeah, this job would pay less than that. I went to the University of Southern Mississippi. You take what you can get.
 
My son Paul, who works for Cisco in London, has been offered a job with them in San Jose on a salary of $120,000, he is thinking about it! Not bad considering that he is less than three years out of university.
He will need it. The cost of living in San Jose is more than double what it is here in Cowtown but not quite as bad as London. You can live as well here in Columbus on $50,000/year. An 800 sq.ft. Apt here is around $700/mo in a good neighborhood. In San Jose it would be around $2500. Taxes, at all levels, are far higher. At $120,000/year being a home owner would probably be out of reach as median home prices are are close to a million usd. That's for something comparable to a standard ranch style 1500 sq.ft house. Which would cost about $175,000 here. Consider than payroll deductions for health and life insurance and retirement and taxes actual take home pay would be 55 to 60 kpy.
 
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He will need it. The cost of living in San Jose is more than double what it is here in Cowtown but not quite as bad as London. You can live as well here in Columbus on $50,000/year. An 800 sq.ft. Apt here is around $700/mo in a good neighborhood. In San Jose it would be around $2500. Taxes, at all levels, are far higher. At $120,000/year being a home owner would probably be out of reach as median home prices are are close to a million usd. That's for something comparable to a standard ranch style 1500 sq.ft house. Which would cost about $175,000 here. Consider than payroll deductions for health and life insurance and retirement and taxes actual take home pay would be 55 to 60 kpy.

He is still thinking about it, so I will tell him what you said. He told me that after applying for a H1B visa he is free to work anywhere. The ideal for him would be to get a transfer to Austin with Cisco.
 
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Shit, now that I look at it, at one of the two locations I'm applying to housing prices might be too high to make it practical. I would be spending half my income on housing.
 
HAHAHA, I just got the weirdest reply from one of the two companies I'm looking at right now:



Maybe. We have several projects in the bid stage that will require a junior .net developer so you are being considered for that IF we win those projects. The good thing about those projects is that there would be intermediate and senior people who would delegate work to you and assist you when you need help.

We are still looking for one person to work partially within *CENSORED* and partially on one of our client projects – for that position they said no interest to your background because we can’t someone with no experience for the in house portion – there is no one for you get assistance from.

If we win one of those new projects that we’ve got in the bid stage, we may have an opening for you and I’ll ask them to interview you. Please keep sending me an update email occasionally to remind me to follow up for you. Sorry that the news isn’t better but they haven’t said no yet.

These are not the guys I'm doing a SQL exercise with tomorrow. They're government contractors. They have like a two and half star rating on Glassdoor, but I'd still grudgingly accept a position with them for the experience. They're also located in an area where the cheapest apartments are like $1200-$1500 a month (Fairfax county Virginia). How incompetent do you have to be to advertise for a position you don't actually have?

The guys I'm doing the SQL exercise with are, comparatively, a great company to work with, also located in an area with low housing costs (would be New Jersey though), and I'm really excited about them. I'm just worried about how difficult the exercise will be.
 
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