I currently work 20 hours a week at the local university. Dell offered me the same basic hourly rate to "test" their cr*ppy outsourced server code, but I passed at that opportunity.
IEEE is such a useless "tits on a bull" organization to anyone who works as an EE in this country. I can't believe they're still around for any reason other than people pay the dues to have the resume entry.
Back in the early 90s -- 100+ degrees (F) working on a cell phone prototype in a typical late Spring for Florida.
My a**hole employer, an Eastern European immigrant with a blimp-sized ego, faked MENSA membership, and the wildest anti-Semetic rants I'd ever heard, bought a window AC unit that was nowhere near adequate for the room and kept it focused on himself saying (I'm not making this up) "You do not understand Thermodynamics, and you will feel cooler if the vent is aimed at me."
For full effect, imagine that line in the accent of the "Wild And Crazy Guys" from the old SNL. That was the boss.
I was "Mr. Shrinkwrap" at a couple of Egghead Software stores in the Tampa Bay area in the late 80s. Most of my day was spent reshrinking returned software and/or products the employees took home to try.
If you purchased any productivity software from one of my stores worth more than $100, chances are you did not buy a package that was honestly "new". The dopey women who ran the local outlets were always taking car trunks full of stuff home to "evaluate". Fortunately, I was very good at my job.
No one was less surprised than me when the chain folded.
The big orange stains on the palmrest of the white Mac Books at my local CompUSA are bound to inspire confidence in any IT purchasing manager walking by the display.
The SideKick service is a great concept, and the software is slick. However, the hardware is lousy. Two months into my new SideKick service, the scroll wheel broke; T-Mobile sent a *refurbished* unit that still looked like it had been beat to hell. I'm on my third refurbished replacement. I can't wait for my service contract to end so I can move on to a new carrier and more solid hardware.
Self-published textbooks will only work when some sort of feedback mechanism is in place to offer an indication of the quality of the book.
For years, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the engineering college subjected undergraduates to an extremely poor thermodynamics text self-published by an influential department chair until the thermo scores started to slide on the state EIT exams.
My company had a lot of lazy/stupid people hired under quotas, nepotism, or because, in the case of one person I worked directly with, it was the "Christian" thing to do.
Management attempted to impose XP to keep these lunkheads busy, but it was a disaster. To quote Butthead, You can't polish a turd.
XP is many things, but it is NOT a solution for serious mistakes made by HR.
The installers who delivered my cable modem did a great job of setting up the physical connection -- running a line through my attic to the home office during a Florida summer. However, they were clueless about anything beyond the ethernet port on the back of the modem.
I received a "do it yourself" kit and a phone number to call if I needed help. They did not want to go anywhere near my PC.
At the very least, don't hire someone to do a technical task who isn't up to doing the work. I've dealt with plenty of folks who were hired because they told a hard-luck story, filled a quota number, or had connections.
I graduated with an EE degree and landed a "real" job in the field working for a contract manufacturer as a circuit board test engineer.
After six months in the board plant, working for a manager who is possibly the most profane individual I have ever met in my life, an entry level developer opening popped up at a major telecom company located in my city. I jumped and never looked back.
I believe that there are good EE jobs out there, but I was miserable.
As much as I loved my past HP calculators, the recent products left much to be desired. I bought an HP49 when the model was first released and was very disappointed. I understand that the firmware and documentation issues could have been resolved eventually (after two years, these problems persist), but the physical construction of the units in my experience was very poor. After four exchanges at the retailer and with HP under warranty, I gave up.
I convinced Office Depot that I received the 49 as a gift last Christmas, and received store credit towards a PDA. Good riddance, HP
I worked for Verizon up until last year. In our business unit, management received a budget for training, but since their compensation included an incentive percentage designed to limit spending, no one was encouraged to pursue company-paid education.
My manager drove a BMW Z3. Guess how much training we received.
My school created a Computer Engineering program using money from a Defense Department grant. The DOD funded and oversaw cirriculum development in the early 80s out of concern at the rising costs of personnel to do the grunt Ada programming and basic digital logic design. The classwork ended up being a watered-down combination of EE and CS -- enough circut design to do digial logic and sufficient programming to get by at a DOD contractor shop, but nothing in depth on either side of the hardware/software divide.
I graduated 10 years ago so things may have changed a bit.
In my experience, some companies and recruiting firms believe developers are so worried about "falling behind" that potential recruits will sign just about anything just for the promise of working with Java. Its a neat technology, but I'm not sure it is worth selling your soul to work with.
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The "shortage" is BS. Always has been.
I learned a new term last week sitting in a grad class -- "Fresher".
When an Indian identifies themselves as a "Fresher", it means they don't know squat about that field even if they hold an advanced degree.
My guess is that lots of Freshers from HCL will be running around UCSF very soon.
Or establish a sacrificial computer that you use just for getting your strange on.
Like the single mother of six kids whose hiring warms the hearts of everyone reading the story in the lifestyle section of the Seattle newspaper.
(Don't laugh. Saw it in my CS program.)
Now I'm sure that is curry I smell in the break room.
I am in grad school with an HPE employee who is here on an L-1 visa.
God help you if you work with that bozo directly.
What's that smell coming from the break room? Curry?
I currently work 20 hours a week at the local university. Dell offered me the same basic hourly rate to "test" their cr*ppy outsourced server code, but I passed at that opportunity.
If you don't fill the quota numbers, you still work 60 hours a week just for less pay.
Would you prefer to go back to Starbucks Mr. 40-something white male?
- Apple Bandley 3
- Former Atari HQ on Borregas.
- The original Sunnyvale Fry's "memory chip" building
IEEE is such a useless "tits on a bull" organization to anyone who works as an EE in this country. I can't believe they're still around for any reason other than people pay the dues to have the resume entry.
Back in the early 90s -- 100+ degrees (F) working on a cell phone prototype in a typical late Spring for Florida.
My a**hole employer, an Eastern European immigrant with a blimp-sized ego, faked MENSA membership, and the wildest anti-Semetic rants I'd ever heard, bought a window AC unit that was nowhere near adequate for the room and kept it focused on himself saying (I'm not making this up) "You do not understand Thermodynamics, and you will feel cooler if the vent is aimed at me."
For full effect, imagine that line in the accent of the "Wild And Crazy Guys" from the old SNL. That was the boss.
I was "Mr. Shrinkwrap" at a couple of Egghead Software stores in the Tampa Bay area in the late 80s. Most of my day was spent reshrinking returned software and/or products the employees took home to try.
If you purchased any productivity software from one of my stores worth more than $100, chances are you did not buy a package that was honestly "new". The dopey women who ran the local outlets were always taking car trunks full of stuff home to "evaluate". Fortunately, I was very good at my job.
No one was less surprised than me when the chain folded.
The big orange stains on the palmrest of the white Mac Books at my local CompUSA are bound to inspire confidence in any IT purchasing manager walking by the display.
The SideKick service is a great concept, and the software is slick. However, the hardware is lousy. Two months into my new SideKick service, the scroll wheel broke; T-Mobile sent a *refurbished* unit that still looked like it had been beat to hell. I'm on my third refurbished replacement. I can't wait for my service contract to end so I can move on to a new carrier and more solid hardware.
Self-published textbooks will only work when some sort of feedback mechanism is in place to offer an indication of the quality of the book.
For years, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the engineering college subjected undergraduates to an extremely poor thermodynamics text self-published by an influential department chair until the thermo scores started to slide on the state EIT exams.
My company had a lot of lazy/stupid people hired under quotas, nepotism, or because, in the case of one person I worked directly with, it was the "Christian" thing to do.
Management attempted to impose XP to keep these lunkheads busy, but it was a disaster. To quote Butthead, You can't polish a turd.
XP is many things, but it is NOT a solution for serious mistakes made by HR.
The installers who delivered my cable modem did a great job of setting up the physical connection -- running a line through my attic to the home office during a Florida summer. However, they were clueless about anything beyond the ethernet port on the back of the modem.
I received a "do it yourself" kit and a phone number to call if I needed help. They did not want to go anywhere near my PC.
At the very least, don't hire someone to do a technical task who isn't up to doing the work. I've dealt with plenty of folks who were hired because they told a hard-luck story, filled a quota number, or had connections.
I graduated with an EE degree and landed a "real" job in the field working for a contract manufacturer as a circuit board test engineer.
After six months in the board plant, working for a manager who is possibly the most profane individual I have ever met in my life, an entry level developer opening popped up at a major telecom company located in my city. I jumped and never looked back.
I believe that there are good EE jobs out there, but I was miserable.
Soon all "important" Verizon jobs will be in India.
As much as I loved my past HP calculators, the recent products left much to be desired. I bought an HP49 when the model was first released and was very disappointed. I understand that the firmware and documentation issues could have been resolved eventually (after two years, these problems persist), but the physical construction of the units in my experience was very poor. After four exchanges at the retailer and with HP under warranty, I gave up.
I convinced Office Depot that I received the 49 as a gift last Christmas, and received store credit towards a PDA. Good riddance, HP
I worked for Verizon up until last year. In our business unit, management received a budget for training, but since their compensation included an incentive percentage designed to limit spending, no one was encouraged to pursue company-paid education.
My manager drove a BMW Z3. Guess how much training we received.
My school created a Computer Engineering program using money from a Defense Department grant. The DOD funded and oversaw cirriculum development in the early 80s out of concern at the rising costs of personnel to do the grunt Ada programming and basic digital logic design. The classwork ended up being a watered-down combination of EE and CS -- enough circut design to do digial logic and sufficient programming to get by at a DOD contractor shop, but nothing in depth on either side of the hardware/software divide.
I graduated 10 years ago so things may have changed a bit.
In my experience, some companies and recruiting firms believe developers are so worried about "falling behind" that potential recruits will sign just about anything just for the promise of working with Java. Its a neat technology, but I'm not sure it is worth selling your soul to work with.