Yeah, I think I've scared off a couple of hiring managers by quite clearly showing an interest in their own approach to the role.
It's important to me, I have to be able to work with these people. That means it's important that I know they're competent, and that they know that I expect them to do their job.
If you're thinking that I find it hard to find jobs, you're right. Always been happy with the jobs I've chosen though, so never regretted taking the time.
The irony is that I don't have 'flexible hours' but today I started with just before 7am, took a three hour break at 9.30, got some serious work done between 12.30 and 4pm then told my manager I was done for the day and have a great weekend.
He knows I'll hit my deadline, which was self-imposed anyway, without compromising the assistance I offer to my team, while pursuing a number of other interests. I get shit done. I enjoy it.
I'm also old enough to know how to work sustainably and avoid burning out.
So my manager is happy, my colleagues are happy, I'm happy, and my cats are very happy because at 4pm I switched off my laptop and played with them for twenty minutes, then let them sleep for a couple of hours before waking them up for some food.
Flexible hours can mean I'm doing a video conference trans-atlantic at 10pm, presenting to a team in Malaysia at 8am or going home at 4.30pm because I feel like avoiding the traffic.
So don't diss flexible hours or flexible working patterns, don't abuse them and find a company that truly understands them. Everybody wins.
Exactly. Making the passionate programmers passionate about the company is usually easy: give them a direct way to see how the code they're writing benefits the external customers, the internal users, the shareholders, the people around them.
Happy people are very good at keeping themselves happy, so you just need to keep the bullshit out of their way and make it easy for them to share their joy.
Passion doesn't excuse acting like a cunt. It's possible to be passionate with being argumentative or difficult to work with. In fact, it's preferable.
Do you want me to care, to really care? Or do you want me to just shut up and do the job? Because you can't have both.
I can, and I'll look for it in the next candidate.
I'm sorry. I like programming. I like people giving me difficult problems to solve and giving them working solutions. It's fun. It's creative. It adds value. It gives me a sense of accomplishment, repeatedly.
Because I like programming I also want to keep getting better at it. I learn because I enjoy learning, and because it means I can solve even larger problems even more effectively.
I don't see the working day as a slog that I have to get through, I see it as a lucrative hobby. It's fun. If it wasn't fun, I'd go and do something else.
Is that passion? I don't know. I'd rather employ a programmer with that perspective than one that sees it as a more comfortable alternative to chopping down trees all day.
I fear we have a fundamental disagreement on gender imbalances.
The structural challenges for women are there for men too. The stigma of working in IT comes mainly from women but applies to men too.
Counter the hurdles for women, but counter them in a way that benefits men too. Don't force men to suffer just to benefit women. That's wrong. Men didn't choose not to be born women, so don't penalise them as a result.
As for fucking societal advantages, right now women are heavily advantaged - in the UK. Educational, societal and economic metrics for the under-30s heavily indicate that men are being fucked, and yet everyone's still going, "oh, we have to do more for women". Fuck that.
I must work in a different fucking industry to you. Everything else is definitely not for men. It's for everybody. If anything, women are pointed at training resources, job opportunities, promotion possibilities ahead of men because of the perceived need to have more women in IT.
I don't see any fucking evidence of systemic exclusion of women. I see a lot of women rejecting the lifestyle and stigma of a career in IT and I have no issue with them making that choice.
You have to go a little bit in the opposite direction, temporarily, to rectify the imbalance.
No, you don't. Do women want equality, or superiority? I'm happy and keen to support equality but I reject outright being treated as inferior because I was born with a penis.
Where to even start answering. Your statement was not constrained to "in an IT field" and trust me, men are discriminated against in a massive number of ways, including within the family courts, health funding, genital mutilation, housing, the justice system, retirement age and education.
Within IT? I've suffered gender related discrimination myself but it's low level stuff. I see remarkably little discrimination of any form, because I work in companies with good cultures where discrimination is not acceptable to anybody.
But if you want some specifics: Where's the Anita Borg Institute for Men in IT?
What? No special funding for men? No special conferences for men? No training and guidance for men? No pressure on companies to employ more men? No demands for easier career routes for men?
Hell, I haven't even gone into shit like the law stating that if I apply for a job it's legal to give it to a woman instead because she's female. IT field or otherwise.
Gender may (and it's far from certain) be a factor in intelligence and problem solving but it's a triviality relative to environmental factors - nutrition, education, etc. Across a broad population there are no material differences by gender.
Female-friendly: emphasis on feeeeelings, consensus, political correctness, male nerdiness extinguishing, etc. is incompatible with CS
I'm not sure what the fuck 'male nerdiness extinguishing' is, but good IT teams do build consensus and do have respect for feelings.
Quite how political correctness comes into this I really don't know, either from a gender perspective or a CS one. Most people in IT that I've encountered are no more or less politically correct than people outside the field when you factor in education, background and intelligence.
every time you pointed out that you should not be expected to think and behave exactly like them, they mocked and derided you for "demanding special treatment?"
Oh, I know exactly how that feels. I have Aspergers.
What the fuck makes women special? Why shouldn't they act in a corporately acceptable manner when men have to too?
You seem to think that all men are the same, that being a sociopath comes naturally to them, that working long hours and getting stressed is fun for them, that they don't want time with their families?
You're wrong.
Don't even fucking ask how many times I've had a female manager or colleague that's given me shit because I don't think like her. Don't panic, many of the men have too.
Corporate cultures are not 'male', they're corporate. Fucking deal with it, or work elsewhere.
IT is not very man friendly either. Low social engagement, excessive hours, poor advancement opportunities, and underappreciated.
Who can blame women for choosing alternative careers?
She just wants to make people aware of issues SHE faced (which sounds similar to many hurdles I have heard from female developers)
It's the lack of appreciation that men also face a lot of issues, particularly when trying to gain a job in IT. The work in itself may be rewarding but the work environment and broader social attitudes towards it are not - and that's the point of most women that complain about the field, except that they always seem to think it's gender related.
I carry multiple recording devices into cinemas. I don't get arrested for it. I don't even get asked to leave.
I wear prescription glasses to the cinema. Nobody comments. Nobody cares. The theatre even design the 3D spectacles to fit over them.
Why is his recording device - switched off, unlike mine - different., Why are his prescription glasses different.
Why do you think he should carry a redundant pair of glasses around when he's already wearing a perfectly functional pair that are superior in capability to the second pair you're so keen for him to waste time carrying?
He may or may not be a jerk, but you're a cunt and you deserve to be fucked like one.
Handing them the (unlocked) phone while declaring, "You do not have my permission to search this phone" is both making it clear that they can only search it due to probable cause or a warrant, while also making it easy for them to search it.
Of course, there's also the comedy action of unlocking it for them, then switching the screen off as you hand it to them. Repeat until they realise you're taking the piss..
expect the police to up the pressure possibly including piling on the charges
Well, yes, the US justice system does appear to be missing the basic tenets of justice.
It's smaller than you think. Especially if you work at 2-3 large companies.
My current employer employs people that worked at the same company as me three jobs ago. Today I interviewed someone that worked at my previous employer - in another city half the country away.
Kevin Bacon is only 6 degrees away, professional colleagues are far closer.
The problem is, given it's Akamai the right answer could well be, "Ok, I'm going to need a whiteboard, and order some coffee."
I have the background and skills to interview for Director level there and I could probably fill the best part of a day covering how the Internet works without going off-topic for Akamai.
Not a good use of interview time, but it's a stupid question in that regard. My immediate response would probably be to query just what they wanted to know, so that I could give them the two minute answer instead, and that alone tells you it's a stupid question.
I don't look at Wireshark at work because.. it's in that class of system that needs director level approval to use legitimately on a work network, by someone with a genuine need, with appropriate controls and oversight.
I'd rather get someone with expertise at the protocol level and a regular need to use Wireshark to do that for me, as they'll be quicker and will already have the right governance in place to assure they're not misbehaving.
Next you'll be suggesting that web developers should be sacked if they don't run Nessus against the production servers.
No. A miracle may actually occur, in that the sequence of events declared miraculous could have a strong chain of evidence.
The declaration that the only explanation for those events being the actions of a deity makes them a miracle, whether that declaration has any credibility or not.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I think I've scared off a couple of hiring managers by quite clearly showing an interest in their own approach to the role.
It's important to me, I have to be able to work with these people. That means it's important that I know they're competent, and that they know that I expect them to do their job.
If you're thinking that I find it hard to find jobs, you're right. Always been happy with the jobs I've chosen though, so never regretted taking the time.
The irony is that I don't have 'flexible hours' but today I started with just before 7am, took a three hour break at 9.30, got some serious work done between 12.30 and 4pm then told my manager I was done for the day and have a great weekend.
He knows I'll hit my deadline, which was self-imposed anyway, without compromising the assistance I offer to my team, while pursuing a number of other interests. I get shit done. I enjoy it.
I'm also old enough to know how to work sustainably and avoid burning out.
So my manager is happy, my colleagues are happy, I'm happy, and my cats are very happy because at 4pm I switched off my laptop and played with them for twenty minutes, then let them sleep for a couple of hours before waking them up for some food.
Flexible hours can mean I'm doing a video conference trans-atlantic at 10pm, presenting to a team in Malaysia at 8am or going home at 4.30pm because I feel like avoiding the traffic.
So don't diss flexible hours or flexible working patterns, don't abuse them and find a company that truly understands them. Everybody wins.
Exactly. Making the passionate programmers passionate about the company is usually easy: give them a direct way to see how the code they're writing benefits the external customers, the internal users, the shareholders, the people around them.
Happy people are very good at keeping themselves happy, so you just need to keep the bullshit out of their way and make it easy for them to share their joy.
Passion doesn't excuse acting like a cunt. It's possible to be passionate with being argumentative or difficult to work with. In fact, it's preferable.
Do you want me to care, to really care? Or do you want me to just shut up and do the job? Because you can't have both.
I can, and I'll look for it in the next candidate.
I'm sorry. I like programming. I like people giving me difficult problems to solve and giving them working solutions. It's fun. It's creative. It adds value. It gives me a sense of accomplishment, repeatedly.
Because I like programming I also want to keep getting better at it. I learn because I enjoy learning, and because it means I can solve even larger problems even more effectively.
I don't see the working day as a slog that I have to get through, I see it as a lucrative hobby. It's fun. If it wasn't fun, I'd go and do something else.
Is that passion? I don't know. I'd rather employ a programmer with that perspective than one that sees it as a more comfortable alternative to chopping down trees all day.
I fear we have a fundamental disagreement on gender imbalances.
The structural challenges for women are there for men too. The stigma of working in IT comes mainly from women but applies to men too.
Counter the hurdles for women, but counter them in a way that benefits men too. Don't force men to suffer just to benefit women. That's wrong. Men didn't choose not to be born women, so don't penalise them as a result.
As for fucking societal advantages, right now women are heavily advantaged - in the UK. Educational, societal and economic metrics for the under-30s heavily indicate that men are being fucked, and yet everyone's still going, "oh, we have to do more for women". Fuck that.
I must work in a different fucking industry to you. Everything else is definitely not for men. It's for everybody. If anything, women are pointed at training resources, job opportunities, promotion possibilities ahead of men because of the perceived need to have more women in IT.
I don't see any fucking evidence of systemic exclusion of women. I see a lot of women rejecting the lifestyle and stigma of a career in IT and I have no issue with them making that choice.
You have to go a little bit in the opposite direction, temporarily, to rectify the imbalance.
No, you don't. Do women want equality, or superiority? I'm happy and keen to support equality but I reject outright being treated as inferior because I was born with a penis.
Where to even start answering. Your statement was not constrained to "in an IT field" and trust me, men are discriminated against in a massive number of ways, including within the family courts, health funding, genital mutilation, housing, the justice system, retirement age and education.
Within IT? I've suffered gender related discrimination myself but it's low level stuff. I see remarkably little discrimination of any form, because I work in companies with good cultures where discrimination is not acceptable to anybody.
But if you want some specifics: Where's the Anita Borg Institute for Men in IT?
What? No special funding for men? No special conferences for men? No training and guidance for men? No pressure on companies to employ more men? No demands for easier career routes for men?
Hell, I haven't even gone into shit like the law stating that if I apply for a job it's legal to give it to a woman instead because she's female. IT field or otherwise.
Yes, but no one will ever discriminate against you because you are a man
Now that is just so much total fucking bullshit.
Bullshit because if they could, they would.
erm. They do, because they can.
Gender may (and it's far from certain) be a factor in intelligence and problem solving but it's a triviality relative to environmental factors - nutrition, education, etc. Across a broad population there are no material differences by gender.
That'll be why many women still resist dating people that work in IT.
Female-friendly: emphasis on feeeeelings, consensus, political correctness, male nerdiness extinguishing, etc. is incompatible with CS
I'm not sure what the fuck 'male nerdiness extinguishing' is, but good IT teams do build consensus and do have respect for feelings.
Quite how political correctness comes into this I really don't know, either from a gender perspective or a CS one. Most people in IT that I've encountered are no more or less politically correct than people outside the field when you factor in education, background and intelligence.
every time you pointed out that you should not be expected to think and behave exactly like them, they mocked and derided you for "demanding special treatment?"
Oh, I know exactly how that feels. I have Aspergers.
What the fuck makes women special? Why shouldn't they act in a corporately acceptable manner when men have to too?
You seem to think that all men are the same, that being a sociopath comes naturally to them, that working long hours and getting stressed is fun for them, that they don't want time with their families?
You're wrong.
Don't even fucking ask how many times I've had a female manager or colleague that's given me shit because I don't think like her. Don't panic, many of the men have too.
Corporate cultures are not 'male', they're corporate. Fucking deal with it, or work elsewhere.
IT is just not very woman friendly.
IT is not very man friendly either. Low social engagement, excessive hours, poor advancement opportunities, and underappreciated.
Who can blame women for choosing alternative careers?
She just wants to make people aware of issues SHE faced (which sounds similar to many hurdles I have heard from female developers)
It's the lack of appreciation that men also face a lot of issues, particularly when trying to gain a job in IT. The work in itself may be rewarding but the work environment and broader social attitudes towards it are not - and that's the point of most women that complain about the field, except that they always seem to think it's gender related.
I bet a future version is utterly discrete and you can't discern that it even has a camera, let alone when it's recording.
Even if Google don't build it, someone will. That'll be the version I go for. With prescription lenses.
At which point the defence refers the jury to the repeated lies the police tell and the need for an independent witness to any conversations.
UK police : Corrupt.
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
Ergo, any glasshole who even wears the google glasses is under suspicion
Only by ignorant fuckwits.
I carry multiple recording devices into cinemas. I don't get arrested for it. I don't even get asked to leave.
I wear prescription glasses to the cinema. Nobody comments. Nobody cares. The theatre even design the 3D spectacles to fit over them.
Why is his recording device - switched off, unlike mine - different.,
Why are his prescription glasses different.
Why do you think he should carry a redundant pair of glasses around when he's already wearing a perfectly functional pair that are superior in capability to the second pair you're so keen for him to waste time carrying?
He may or may not be a jerk, but you're a cunt and you deserve to be fucked like one.
Handing them the (unlocked) phone while declaring, "You do not have my permission to search this phone" is both making it clear that they can only search it due to probable cause or a warrant, while also making it easy for them to search it.
Of course, there's also the comedy action of unlocking it for them, then switching the screen off as you hand it to them. Repeat until they realise you're taking the piss..
expect the police to up the pressure possibly including piling on the charges
Well, yes, the US justice system does appear to be missing the basic tenets of justice.
To which the obvious follow-up question would be how you'd handle angry customers without using physical dominance, bullying or aggression.
It is a different skillset, and the lack of phsyical options may actually increase your stress levels.
It's smaller than you think. Especially if you work at 2-3 large companies.
My current employer employs people that worked at the same company as me three jobs ago. Today I interviewed someone that worked at my previous employer - in another city half the country away.
Kevin Bacon is only 6 degrees away, professional colleagues are far closer.
The problem is, given it's Akamai the right answer could well be, "Ok, I'm going to need a whiteboard, and order some coffee."
I have the background and skills to interview for Director level there and I could probably fill the best part of a day covering how the Internet works without going off-topic for Akamai.
Not a good use of interview time, but it's a stupid question in that regard. My immediate response would probably be to query just what they wanted to know, so that I could give them the two minute answer instead, and that alone tells you it's a stupid question.
I don't look at Wireshark at work because.. it's in that class of system that needs director level approval to use legitimately on a work network, by someone with a genuine need, with appropriate controls and oversight.
I'd rather get someone with expertise at the protocol level and a regular need to use Wireshark to do that for me, as they'll be quicker and will already have the right governance in place to assure they're not misbehaving.
Next you'll be suggesting that web developers should be sacked if they don't run Nessus against the production servers.
How about a lack of rational thought, poor logic skills, aggression towards colleagues and rank stupidity?
No. A miracle may actually occur, in that the sequence of events declared miraculous could have a strong chain of evidence.
The declaration that the only explanation for those events being the actions of a deity makes them a miracle, whether that declaration has any credibility or not.
(hint: it does not)