I have a job interview tomorrow with the secretary of state and I'm supposed to know a few things about .NET and programming in general.

I just began to learn .NET this week as I set up an interview. I have used other Frameworks but most of which were with PHP directly instead of a true OOP language for model-view-controller web design.

Specifically, I was told to understand using ADO.NET to communicate with a back-end database. I've read up a bit and have learned that .NET uses disconnected data with the standard relational model. You create an SQL connection object and instantiate it with your datasource/login crap to establish a connection. Then data is queried/copied into a Dataset and the connection is closed? I understand the connections are supposed to be brief. Essentially the dataset is a cache of records from the Database but is completely independent from it? You can then manipulate this dataset (CRUD) and re-establish a connection to database and put this dataset back into it or into an XML?

Is that essentially how ADO.net works? I'm not too familiar with communicating using this method instead of directly with PHP.

Also, they told me to have an understanding of visual studio web applications. I have VS2013 installed and have played around with it by creating an MVC5 project and following a few tutorials to create a movie database/web app. Is there anything I should specifically know about these applications? I understand that it allows you to program in a variety of languages from VB/C#/J# etc.

I doubt John Kerry knows much .NET, so I wouldn't be worried about it.

Just had to throw it in there.

i suggest not bothering trying to write MVC5 code in such short time. just watch a few youtube vids to get the gist of it. i learned ASP.NET before the MVC framework, so i can't help you there.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Nov 13 2014 09:16pm

Eh I'm not too worried about MVC as I've used MVC with other frameworks and creating MVC web apps from scratch. I'm just not familiar with ADO.NET or really anything ASP.NET. I have a book and have been looking up stuff online as well trying tutorials but I'm still worried they might ask me something about ADO.NET and I'll have no idea lol they said just have a general overview of it all

Well see here is where we find out about your integrity. I am torn on answering your questions. On one side, I enjoy teaching, and love to inspire learning in others about a field of study I am passionate about. On the other hand, I have been on the receiving end of people like you managing to skate by tech screening by formulating a semi-coherent sentence using buzz-words and a minor understanding of the source material. It sucks. Because then that person becomes a burden. He can't complete the tasks assigned to him, and so that onus falls on the rest of us. We try to be optimistic and say, "well, they just need time to catch up." Which is fine if we knew about that from the start. But you didn't get hired into an entry level position where it is expected there to be some mentoring. You got hired in as a full staff developer and are expected to hit the ground running. So, kudos on scamming yourself an extra 20-30k a year, but you can't do the work.

So back to the question of integrity. Right now you are doing the equivalent of cramming before an exam. Which is a horrible practice, and defeats the point of paying for the class. You don't learn anything. You just want to convince your teacher that you deserve an arbitrary mark on a piece of paper. But instead, you are trying to convince your prospective employer that you are worth some large amount of money a year. You are trying to convince them that you are a good investment. But you aren't, are you? Here is some advice: if they ask you about ADO.NET then you will be expected to utilize it on the job. So if you are worried about them asking you about it, whats going to happen when you actually have to prove you can use it?

Perhaps, it would be more honest to look for a position more aligned with what you know, and broaden your skillset with personal study on the side.

Otherwise, be prepared to talk about LINQ, Entity Framework, and design patterns for establishing a DAL. If they ask you about ADO.NET they are going to want to know more than what the definition is. In fact, they aren't going to ask you "What is ADO.NET?" They are going to ask something along the lines of, "describe to me a project in which you utilized ADO.NET to solve a problem?" They don't give a shit about the definition. They want you to show that you know its capabilities and how to use it.

.net is easy man just learn vb .net

Vbforums good help.

I suggest you make a database and then make a windows form application to manipulate the data, this will help you learn. Use sql express mysql. If you use mysql you will need the .net connector.

In 3 months of self teaching I had already written very useful business applications

I suggest vb .net because you already have a web background, and vb helps you move into c# very easy

I was told for the interview to just have an overview of the concepts. I told them ahead of time I did not have experience with this framework but have experience with other web languages and JAVA instead of C#. It's just an entry level developer position as it'll be my first developer position.

Ado is basically a way to communicate from .net to sql

Dim cmd as dbcommand = commandtext
Dim conn as db conb = conn string
Cmd.conn = con
Etc etc

just look at code examples and you should see how easy it is: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dw70f090(v=vs.110).aspx

As someone who is, like OP, on the opposite side of the interview desk, I disagree with your premise.

If I'm trying to find an entry level job as a developer or programmer of some sort, and I know x, y, and z languages, but company A I'm applying for wants me to know 'a' language, company B wants me to know 'b' language, and company C wants me to know 'c' language, then I have a problem. I don't know a b or c.

As an interviewer, if your questions are not specific enough to weed me out with regards to technical questions, that is in no way my fault.

As a job applicant, I really don't care to learn the ins and outs of this entire language if there is a very high possibility that, after my interview and weeks or months worth of work, I'm told, "Meh, we chose someone else."

Not only that, but it's pretty dumb to, as an interviewer, expect your applicants to know the ENTIRE ins and outs of a language, when what really matters is their potential to learn, think, create, and manage a variety of concepts, projects, and languages. It's pretty often that the former is a natural byproduct of the latter, but it's not always the case. Which is why, as they should, most technical interview questions are more focused on concepts and design as opposed to mostly syntax or language specific knowledge. Doesn't hurt if some of that is in there, but it shouldn't be the focus.

After all, if you're a business, not only is the language you're using evolving, but so is the world, and the ability of your employees to learn new things is quintessential. If you have that, knowing the ins and outs of a language suddenly doesn't become important.

Find someone who is actually smart, dynamic, and can think in terms of programming, offer them the job, and then give them x amount of weeks to learn a specific language, and that's the happy medium between applicant and company.

So if someone in your company is slacking off, it might just be their work ethic... and if it's just them taking time to learn the material, then that problem will solve itself in a few weeks.

If you really really insist on your applicants having all those traits AND knowing your specific language to its fullest extent, then more power to you, but you're gonna miss out on a lot of great candidates, and you're gonna have to pay a lot more.

You missed the entire point of my post. My point was not that you should be a guru. My point was that you shouldn't be disingenuous and FAKE knowledge of a core piece of technology that is required for the job. I agree with you that the interview tech screen should be rigorous enough to weed out the unqualified, and I also agree that as developers we are flexible enough that we can apply what we know of one language to another and learn it efficiently.

However there is a big difference in saying "I have never used X before, however, I have read about it and feel like it is something I could pick up very easily. From what I understand it is used for Y and reminds me of Z. Here is how I would use Z for Y." rather than "I have used X in many different projects, the last project I used it in was [proceeds to bull shit his way through the explanation because he has never actually used X and is instead just reciting what he read off wikipedia and a simple tutorial on some dude's blog]."

Big fucking difference.