>A CS + MBA from 2002-2004 merely means "I couldn't remain
employeed during the downturn".
... and when I show up... and have full employment from B.S.
graduation to MBA graduation, you say what, exactly?
You hit it on the head: it says that he, like 99% of all other
employers, have neither have the faintest idea as to what makes a good
candidate, nor how to interview her to discover this information.
Instead they rely on mostly-useless resumes and/or pull something
from the "Big Book of Interview Questions":
There are jobs out there that offer decent raises along with the ability to telecommute. If you current employer doesn't see the value in keeping his employees happy, then that's his tough luck.
BTW: no one is going to give you anything. You have to negotiate it. If you don't have good negotiating skills, well, maybe that's what you need to work on.
It was for Exxon (of all places), and I could tell because he wore a ill-fitting (i.e., tight over his rotund toso) shirt that left nothing to the imagination.
>Maybe your interviews are a little different over in Europe than in the US.
God, I hope so. I'm tired of these Wankers in the states who think "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" to be the Ultimate Interview Question.
There are features about your face that don't change, even if
you look outwardly different to everyone else after kissing your
steering wheel at high speed.
Right, that software will matched your smashed, broken face to the
appropriate database record, no sweat. That's why
you're not allowed to smile when you get your picture taken for your
Passport.
~ I think it would be awesome if they could somehow create a
"broadcast flag" that specifies some level of indecency. Then have
TV's [sic] do the censoring according to the viewers
[sic] taste.
It is called the "off" switch.
Perhaps if people exercised some self-control and personal
responsibility, instead of asking Big Bother to do it for them, we'd all
be better off. There are certainly enough alternatives that people like
you can safely drain their brains in front of the TeeVee without
subjecting the rest of us to your morals.
If you don't like it, turn it off or change the channel. It's not that hard.
I would point you to Slashdot Editor Training, where all Editors learn how to avoid dupes, perform thorough spell- and fact-checking, and (best of all) write well-crafted, bug-free code.
The game costs $50 ($80 for the collectors edition, but we won't even worry with that).
That means that when you go to your local store to buy it for $50, the upstream (Blizzard + wholesalers) are actually only getting $20, maybe (where I used to work, retail price was 250% of wholesale).
Take out the cost of printing, pressing and all the freebees they had to give away and replacement disks they had to send out for defective pressing, and your profit per item drops way down.
It is still up there, but nowhere near the hundred-million mark you put it.
> One suggestion is that labels want to introduce variable
pricing - so they can charge more for top selling tracks.
You know what? I'm all for it... if it means they are willing
to discount the less-popular stuff in exchange.
So, you think that the record companies, who are already in a frothy
panic because they think they're losing all their profits to those
"p2p pirates" are going to suddenly become magnanimous and
cut you a break by lowering their profit margin?
*chuckle*
Let me guess: you also swallowed that line about how the government
will restore those pesky civil liberties you used to have once the War
on Terrah is won.
Yes this is the administration's position, but didn't the Supreme Court knock that down?
Rehnquist will be dead soon.
Shortly thereafter, look for SDO'C to step down, and then ShrubCo will have Scalia + Thomas + Thing 1 + Thing 2 to pass any agenda he wants, no matter how wacky.
I really have a problem with people who dismiss a theory from
someone because they come from a religious background. They have just
as much a right to test your theories and challenge your beliefs as
you do theirs.
I do not think the word "theory" means what you think it means. A
scientific theory is a thesis that has been proven by
numerous experiments, has many peer-reviewed papers published exploring
it, and is generally accepted as "truth" by the scientific
community.
A (layman/religious) "theory" is a guess that could be disproven at
any moment, and which has no basis in fact, except the coincidental.
Now then, when we debate a scientific theory, we know there is a
large body of work that supports the theory. We can reference it, and we
can reproduce the experiments. When we debate a religious theory, it
generally comes down to who can shout the loudest, because there are
NO reproducible experiments, and precious-few
peer-reviewed papers (How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Discuss.)--certainly not in any respected journals.
As for the desirability of "testing religious theories" there is
really no point. As one of my profs put it, If someone comes to you
with a 'proof that any angle can be trisected', it doesn't matter how
long the proof, how elegant the introduction, how many sources cited, or
how clear the abstract. There is no point in reading it, because you
know somewhere, buried deep in the discussion, there is a tiny error
that renders the entire proof meaningless.
There's a reason why (a variation of) this is written on every prospectus: it is the dead honest truth.
If you want to know how well a given firm will do, ask them to do one of your pages up front. Of course, you will not use their code if they are not selected (and you will sign a contract to that effect).
It has been my experience that most firms will not do this -- but then (as others have noted), those are not the firms you want to bother dealing with. The few who do provide a "live sample" will be the ones that you will want to do business.
Think of it this way: when you're accepting bids for a design for your new building, you make the design firms submit their designs up front. You don't say, 'Oh, let's see your portfolio. Okay, that building you did __ years ago looks good, so you win the bid. Now design our building.'
I don't think too many programmers are making 91k nowadays.
I believe you're right, but not for the reason you allude. In my experience, most programmers don't make that much because they are 1) young and 2) inexperienced.
By 'inexperienced', I mean they don't know how to negotiate salary properly. These are probably the same people who buy Saturns for their "no price negotiation" policy. Contrast that with my last position, where it took about three days to negotiate the final compensation ($$ + benes).
Bottom line: those who can negotiate get better compensation. Those who don't, don't.
A+ means that you paid CompTIA your cash, not that you are able to be on a help desk or come to my office and swap out my old laptop for a new one without screwing the whole thing up...
That's how it works in other industries where projects are managed properly.
In industries/companies where "Project Management" is a punchine to some joke, it is usually the norm to work insane hours, make lots of mistakes, and waste time & money. Oh, and have "deadlines" that are fantasy at best.
Require in the buyout contract that all employees work no more than 8 consecutive hours in any 24-hour period, no more than 5 consecutive days per week, and mandatory 4 weeks vacation (take it or fired).
You can program in the much more powerful JSP using freely downloadable Tomcat, or you can go Ruby on Rails and do your thing with the available free tools.
ASP is dead. Please upgrade to the current century.
I am a Project Manager, having worked my way up from the trenches. I've been a PM for 6 years, developer for > 15.
My advice to you is to get the hell out now while you still can.
All joking aside, get yourself certified; that will give you a base of knowledge that will help you understand what you're doing.
The following a Must Reads:
The Mythical Man-Month
Code Complete
Rapid Development
I personally don't jive with RD, but the book is an excellent source of knowledge and is applicable outside of RD. Also, get yourself educated in risk management and estimations (work breakdowns). I haven't seen any good books on either -- maybe I need to write one:)
A few hours ago, I attended a requirements function seminar.
One of the slides that stuck in my mind said that 60% of all tools purchased for a typical organization are never used, and of the ones that are, 90% are used by only one person.
So, when you buy a tool, you're basically trying to force-fit a round peg into the square hole. Most people won't/can't use such a generic tool, and if they do, they're probably evangelists and therefore irrational. Is this good for the company? WGAF?!
Slashdot Mirror
You hit it on the head: it says that he, like 99% of all other employers, have neither have the faintest idea as to what makes a good candidate, nor how to interview her to discover this information.
Instead they rely on mostly-useless resumes and/or pull something from the "Big Book of Interview Questions":
There are jobs out there that offer decent raises along with the ability to telecommute. If you current employer doesn't see the value in keeping his employees happy, then that's his tough luck.
BTW: no one is going to give you anything. You have to negotiate it. If you don't have good negotiating skills, well, maybe that's what you need to work on.
>Maybe your interviews are a little different over in Europe than in the US.
God, I hope so. I'm tired of these Wankers in the states who think "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" to be the Ultimate Interview Question.
...the guy who was interviewing me was wearing Birkenstocks, he sported a really long beard and was wearing nipple rings.
You're thinking of the Wyfe line.
The most you'll get from Girlfriend 1.0 / 1.5 is an ACK flood at odd hours, or a Transport DDoS (usually by KEYing).
Right, that software will matched your smashed, broken face to the appropriate database record, no sweat. That's why you're not allowed to smile when you get your picture taken for your Passport.
It is called the "off" switch.
Perhaps if people exercised some self-control and personal responsibility, instead of asking Big Bother to do it for them, we'd all be better off. There are certainly enough alternatives that people like you can safely drain their brains in front of the TeeVee without subjecting the rest of us to your morals.
If you don't like it, turn it off or change the channel. It's not that hard.
I would point you to Slashdot Editor Training, where all Editors learn how to avoid dupes, perform thorough spell- and fact-checking, and (best of all) write well-crafted, bug-free code.
Take out the cost of printing, pressing and all the freebees they had to give away and replacement disks they had to send out for defective pressing, and your profit per item drops way down.
It is still up there, but nowhere near the hundred-million mark you put it.
So, you think that the record companies, who are already in a frothy panic because they think they're losing all their profits to those "p2p pirates" are going to suddenly become magnanimous and cut you a break by lowering their profit margin?
*chuckle*
Let me guess: you also swallowed that line about how the government will restore those pesky civil liberties you used to have once the War on Terrah is won.
Shortly thereafter, look for SDO'C to step down, and then ShrubCo will have Scalia + Thomas + Thing 1 + Thing 2 to pass any agenda he wants, no matter how wacky.
I do not think the word "theory" means what you think it means. A scientific theory is a thesis that has been proven by numerous experiments, has many peer-reviewed papers published exploring it, and is generally accepted as "truth" by the scientific community.
A (layman/religious) "theory" is a guess that could be disproven at any moment, and which has no basis in fact, except the coincidental.
Now then, when we debate a scientific theory, we know there is a large body of work that supports the theory. We can reference it, and we can reproduce the experiments. When we debate a religious theory, it generally comes down to who can shout the loudest, because there are NO reproducible experiments, and precious-few peer-reviewed papers (How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Discuss.)--certainly not in any respected journals.
As for the desirability of "testing religious theories" there is really no point. As one of my profs put it, If someone comes to you with a 'proof that any angle can be trisected', it doesn't matter how long the proof, how elegant the introduction, how many sources cited, or how clear the abstract. There is no point in reading it, because you know somewhere, buried deep in the discussion, there is a tiny error that renders the entire proof meaningless.
If you want to know how well a given firm will do, ask them to do one of your pages up front. Of course, you will not use their code if they are not selected (and you will sign a contract to that effect).
It has been my experience that most firms will not do this -- but then (as others have noted), those are not the firms you want to bother dealing with. The few who do provide a "live sample" will be the ones that you will want to do business.
Think of it this way: when you're accepting bids for a design for your new building, you make the design firms submit their designs up front. You don't say, 'Oh, let's see your portfolio. Okay, that building you did __ years ago looks good, so you win the bid. Now design our building.'
By 'inexperienced', I mean they don't know how to negotiate salary properly. These are probably the same people who buy Saturns for their "no price negotiation" policy. Contrast that with my last position, where it took about three days to negotiate the final compensation ($$ + benes).
Bottom line: those who can negotiate get better compensation. Those who don't, don't.
A+ means that you paid CompTIA your cash, not that you are able to be on a help desk or come to my office and swap out my old laptop for a new one without screwing the whole thing up...
In industries/companies where "Project Management" is a punchine to some joke, it is usually the norm to work insane hours, make lots of mistakes, and waste time & money. Oh, and have "deadlines" that are fantasy at best.
Require in the buyout contract that all employees work no more than 8 consecutive hours in any 24-hour period, no more than 5 consecutive days per week, and mandatory 4 weeks vacation (take it or fired).
ASP is dead. Please upgrade to the current century.
Thank you.
Too bad. The single best thing they could've done security-wise would be to kill Active X dead once and for all.
Many people have been where you are now; tap their experience and avoid the pitfalls they got to live through.
You can find a bunch at the local PMI Chapter.
My advice to you is to get the hell out now while you still can.
All joking aside, get yourself certified; that will give you a base of knowledge that will help you understand what you're doing.
The following a Must Reads:
- The Mythical Man-Month
- Code Complete
- Rapid Development
I personally don't jive with RD, but the book is an excellent source of knowledge and is applicable outside of RD. Also, get yourself educated in risk management and estimations (work breakdowns). I haven't seen any good books on either -- maybe I need to write oneGood luck.
Then you can make a lot of money!
* BDLC JD Certificate is for entertainment purposes only.
We need to eliminate those damn solcialist institutions that our lovely government keeps trying to set up and move to a pure market-based society.
One of the slides that stuck in my mind said that 60% of all tools purchased for a typical organization are never used, and of the ones that are, 90% are used by only one person.
So, when you buy a tool, you're basically trying to force-fit a round peg into the square hole. Most people won't/can't use such a generic tool, and if they do, they're probably evangelists and therefore irrational. Is this good for the company? WGAF?!