I am a fairly junior programmer and have the task of interviewing an experienced mainframe COBOL programmer for a position doing C++ development for Windows Mobile. By experienced I mean that the candidate’s entire programming career has been COBOL.
I am not biased against any particular language, just slightly concerned about my ability to do a thorough interview.
Inside of an interview how can I, with no COBOL experience, get a good feel for the abilities of this interviewee?
Are there any specific things I should ask or look for?
I have already read up on a lot of general interview stuff on SO, what would be helpful are any specific things I look for given the nature of the candidate’s background.
The best thing is, give him a task, similar to what he will have to do at your company. Tell him he can use pseudo code (So no Internet is needed).
Also, The main problem Cobol people have is to grasp OO (Since Cobol is mostly procedural…I am aware of new OO versions).
One more pitfall Cobol people have is grasping the scope concept, As traditional Cobol each variable live from start to bottom of the app he is in.