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Are Job Perks Coming into Vogue Again?
Pharmboy asks: "The Register is reporting on a company that was awarded 'Best Small Company to Work for in America' by the Detroit Free Press, in part, for providing Free beer to their employees. They offer free breakfast, lunch AND dinner, gym and snacks. This sounds similar to the late 90s, where companies were offering extreme benefits to attract extreme talent, before the bubble burst and most workers were just glad to have a job. As the job market gains strength, what are companies willing to do in order to attract the best talent? Are we about to enter another era where employers are willing to make work fun again, in order to attract and keep talent? Will this have any effect on other employers, forcing them to again offer benefits to keep pace and talent? How important are these kinds of perks to the average employee anyway? What kind of perks would you have to have to switch to a job that pay the same?"
Would you really want to hire employees who would be motivated by "free beer?"
I can understand how it could be to a company's advantage to offer free perks, but I can think of dozens (okay, thousands) that would be better for the company than free beer but still motivate employees.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its July 30 report:
"There was no recession in the second quarter of this year, but BLS data show 131,000 fewer American computer software engineers employed in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2004--a decline of 15% in three months."
So, I seriously doubt that we are going to get anything at all like the late 90s going on for technical workers.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Also, note that with our current immigration rate- we need 300,000 jobs EVERY MONTH just for population expansion. 32,000 jobs is NOTHING.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
That's how they do it where my wife works. Medical and Dental and the usual stock purchase and 401k programs are non-optional for everyone, but the rest is a-la-carte. She gets so many "points" to spend: Membership at a fitness center is x points, free legal services is y points, etc.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Assuming you are not a troll - dude, toss some of those jobs *my* way!
Nope. Not a troll. I can't really toss them your way though - they're a little specialised. I can tell you how I got into the position I am in, though.
This assumes you are in a place with a reasonable population. I live in Seattle, but any city will probably do. I prefer to work for small companies and do interesting stuff. In this space, word of mouth and referrals are everything.
These tips are for people who want to get into software or electronics hardware with a bit more of an emphasis on consumer stuff rather than IT stuff. It also assumes that you are reasonably good at what you do. Word of mouth comes from making people proud to recommend you. It has taken me three years to get to my current position, and I did it as a sort of freelance contractor.
Here are some hints:
1:
Join the local Audio Engineering Society chapter, or if nothing else, go to some of their meetings. They are happy to see new faces. I think the AES is a particularly good one to go to because they attract all sorts of people - musicians, people with home audio setups, hardcore analog design engineers, students, DJs, software engineers, etc.
Talk to people. Be friendly, ask them what they are doing. Ask them about stuff that they are obviously interested in. If someone mentions that they need a person that can do such-and-such, and you know someone that is a good fit, offer to connect them and then do so. Don't recommend people you don't think are a good fit. Being someone who knows people who can help is a good long term thing to be. Eventually it will affect you directly because a person you have helped will probably recommend you for something.
Don't push yourself, but be enthusiastic about the technical stuff you like doing. If someone needs you, they will tell you. You are not selling yourself, you are just being you. This is important.
2:
Be willing to do odd jobs that would otherwise be beneath you. I have done things like install SSH chroot environments to allow secure uploads. I charged $60/hour, and it only took a few hours. As a result, there are now five people that think of me first when they want something technical on unix done.
3:
Be willing to accept jobs that you know you can do, but that you know you haven't done before. Be honest about this to a potential client. It's a wonderful way to to learn new things, and keep food on the table. Keep track of your time, and estimate how much time it would have taken you if you were an expert. Only charge for that time. Your customers should get good value for money - they aren't subsidising your learning directly.
This leads to an important corollary: If people know you accept things you have never done before and then do them well, you get a reputation as a person who can do anything. This is priceless, and is the main reason I am turning away juicy offers. People phone me when they are in a jam, and say things like "We know you don't do this sort of stuff normally, but we also know you finish things. Please help".
4:
Dont be afraid to say "no". Saying no, when done right, increases your value. These are the conditions: You have to say no for a good reason, like "I'm sorry, but I'm busy working on another project" or "I'm sorry, but I cant allocate that much time to a project, and I wouldn't be providing the kind of service that I think is a minimum requirement". If you need the work, take it, but realise that saying "no" isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you refer as per 5:.
5:
Don't be afraid to refer. After a while, you will know a lot of people that can do different things, and you would have worked with many of them. If someone offers you work and you can't take it, pass it on - refer someone you know will make them happy. People will learn that even if they aren't sure you can do something, you probably know someone
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