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Dr. Arbitrary
Mar 15, 2006

Bleak Gremlin

SaltLick posted:

After a year of waiting and political bullshit within the upper management I might be finally getting the server position they have wanted me to fill. Hopefully it all works out. Being liked can really take you far within an organization. Dress yourselves, be sociable, and smell nice people.

I have bad news about this server position:

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George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





I'd still do it for the pay they are suggesting

deedee megadoodoo
Sep 28, 2000
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one to Flavortown, and that has made all the difference.


I went a little crazy earlier and called out a bunch of people in email for doing a bunch of stupid poo poo. It was one of those spur of the moment things that I immediately regretted. Even moreso when I realized that a bunch of directors were copied on the message.

Cue 5 minutes of me worrying about getting bitched at until the head of my department emails me this:

quote:

Haha, nice note. Thanks for taking care of things.

A bigger sigh of relief has never been sighed.

He stopped by my desk about an hour later and thanked me for being "the only person on this project who knows what's going on and putting up with all the other people who don't."

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



HatfulOfHollow posted:

I went a little crazy earlier and called out a bunch of people in email for doing a bunch of stupid poo poo. It was one of those spur of the moment things that I immediately regretted. Even moreso when I realized that a bunch of directors were copied on the message.

Cue 5 minutes of me worrying about getting bitched at until the head of my department emails me this:


A bigger sigh of relief has never been sighed.

He stopped by my desk about an hour later and thanked me for being "the only person on this project who knows what's going on and putting up with all the other people who don't."

Congrats on having a reasonable boss. Now just watch your back around the coworkers you called out.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug

Docjowles posted:

Oh god it's already suitchat time again?

FWIW I've never worked anywhere with a dress code above t-shirt and jeans. Including two software startups. Wore a suit to every interview. I got a bit of "lol nice suit nerd" from interviewers in shorts and sandals but was told that at the end of the day it was a positive and they felt it showed I was serious about getting the job. I feel like being underdressed is always riskier than being overdressed, even at a startup, but that's just my personal opinion. The 1% of brogrammer idiots that will toss you out for wearing a suit to a job interview are probably not someone you wanted as a boss anyway.

I found talking about what car you owns turns more heads than the suit you wear.

Interviews and salary offers went up much more after I bought a BMW...

Maybe the whole "what car does he own" gives people an idea of what salary they make, but gently caress if I know.

Dr. Arbitrary
Mar 15, 2006

Bleak Gremlin
So... Maybe I should drive my purple Smart Car to a luxury car rental service before an interview.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
I took the train to the interview that got me hired.

Dr. Arbitrary
Mar 15, 2006

Bleak Gremlin

Fag Boy Jim posted:

I took the train to the interview that got me hired.

A train is a pretty expensive vehicle. How much do you think a 4,200hp four-axle passenger diesel locomotive costs? I think I'm seeing a pattern.

Dilbert As FUCK
Sep 8, 2007

by Cowcaster
Pillbug
Well sorry, every interview I have gone to I've been asked "So what car do you drive"

Is this some weird off the wall Hampton Roads thing?

Ever since I ditched the Lancer Evo, bids went up.

My apologizes, I am not trying to derail the thread(I might have a history of that).

Dilbert As FUCK fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Aug 9, 2014

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair
A recruiter who had just discussed my living in Brooklyn sounded really disappointed when I said that I didn't own a car.

NZAmoeba
Feb 14, 2005

It turns out it's MAN!
Hair Elf
Some people were discussing ease of migrating to certain areas a little while back.

I'll chime in and say that right now moving to New Zealand is pretty easy for anyone with a degree and a couple years work experience in any part of the IT industry as long as you're of good health. You don't even need a current job offer, it just helps.

You can find out how over-qualified you are by visiting here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/skilledmigrant/default.htm and then check out the points calculator.

Warning: The site is really bad and is an example of how badly you're needed here.

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
How does New Zealand even exist?

Methanar
Sep 26, 2013

by the sex ghost
.

Methanar fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 6, 2016

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
The PDF works, basically all of IT is critical shortage. But when I clicked Calculate on the points form it gave me an error that I'd entered some improper data.

In 2 years my wife will have her PhD (a level 10 education!) so between the two of us I'm sure we'd be a shoo in.

YOLOsubmarine
Oct 19, 2004

When asked which Pokemon he evolved into, Kamara pauses.

"Motherfucking, what's that big dragon shit? That orange motherfucker. Charizard."

Dilbert As gently caress posted:

Well sorry, every interview I have gone to I've been asked "So what car do you drive"

I have never been asked this in an interview. It's also a terrible way to determine anything about a person, so that's probably why.

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.

NZAmoeba posted:

Some people were discussing ease of migrating to certain areas a little while back.

I'll chime in and say that right now moving to New Zealand is pretty easy for anyone with a degree and a couple years work experience in any part of the IT industry as long as you're of good health. You don't even need a current job offer, it just helps.

You can find out how over-qualified you are by visiting here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/skilledmigrant/default.htm and then check out the points calculator.

Warning: The site is really bad and is an example of how badly you're needed here.

Totally up and moving to Middle Earth once I finish my master's.

jaegerx
Sep 10, 2012

Maybe this post will get me on your ignore list!


Dilbert As gently caress posted:

Well sorry, every interview I have gone to I've been asked "So what car do you drive"

Is this some weird off the wall Hampton Roads thing?

Ever since I ditched the Lancer Evo, bids went up.

My apologizes, I am not trying to derail the thread(I might have a history of that).

I tend to drive my bugatti to interviews and throw my keys on the table during the interview to show them that yes, I am a badass.


e: also delivery driver for pizza is not an IT interview, that's why they ask if you have a car.

jaegerx fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Aug 9, 2014

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.
I usually challenge the entire team to a drag race in the parking lot.

jaegerx
Sep 10, 2012

Maybe this post will get me on your ignore list!


It's obvious, you roll like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Pu_JuPILw

Dilbert as gently caress style.

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

It does make the first impression when they see you pull into the parking lot.

We hired a guy that drove a rape van. Strangest kid I ever met but he was loving obsessed with programming.

Fiendish Dr. Wu
Nov 11, 2010

You done fucked up now!

psydude posted:

Totally up and moving to Middle Earth once I finish my master's.

You have my sword!

And we shall be the fellowship of the nerds.

Comradephate
Feb 28, 2009

College Slice
We don't even have a parking lot. Also nobody has ever asked me what car I drive, including when I was interviewing to be a delivery driver.

fromoutofnowhere
Mar 19, 2004

Enjoy it while you can.
I've been asked if I have a reliable car, but never what type of car. Tickets today are all dealing with printers or headsets for some reason. Also, I have a program on one system that will not print, but every other program prints fine. Settings are all good, printers are all good, and the content that he's trying to print goes through fine on another system. He says that he didn't change anything, and that it was working yesterday. So I have to wonder if someone on the night shift changed something, or if I would be better off just uninstalling the program and re-installing. Which would be a pain in the butt. *sigh*

edit: ok, I'm going to go get some caffeine. I'm posting poo poo in the wrong thread while responding and my ability to trouble shoot loving blows today.

GreenNight
Feb 19, 2006
Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

Do any of you have tips for working at a startup? Gf got interviewed at a local tech startup (they make custom search algorithms and just got a contract with TI) to be their mobile app designer, and neither of us are sure what questions to ask. The last thing she wants is for the company to be purchase by Google or something and then she is out of a job. She's already interviewed with the CEO, the lead engineer and next week talks to their one HR person, who will detail their offer sheet.

Docjowles
Apr 9, 2009

GreenNight posted:

Do any of you have tips for working at a startup? Gf got interviewed at a local tech startup (they make custom search algorithms and just got a contract with TI) to be their mobile app designer, and neither of us are sure what questions to ask. The last thing she wants is for the company to be purchase by Google or something and then she is out of a job. She's already interviewed with the CEO, the lead engineer and next week talks to their one HR person, who will detail their offer sheet.

I'll preface this by saying I've worked at a couple startups, and I enjoy it. I don't mean to be bagging on them. That said, a couple things to keep in mind:

Startups are inherently unstable. How is her financial situation? Can she afford to be abruptly laid off at any time? Because the startup completely folding is honestly a much, much likelier outcome than Google buying them for billions of dollars. Obviously you can be laid off from any job, but a sudden cashflow problem or change of direction that makes her irrelevant are much more common in a startup.

Do not get suckered in by stock options in lieu of actual salary. Unless you're a founder or coming in as an executive you are probably being granted a trivial amount of stock. Then you're gambling on the extremely small chance that the company is bought or IPO's for a gigantic multiplier that makes your small amount of stock worth the years of lost salary. Sure, they might get "purchased by Google or something" but it's literally a million times more likely that the company either goes bankrupt or just continues chugging along, privately owned. Stock options are fine, but the offer should be "competitive salary, and also stock options". Not "half of a competitive salary, but wow, just look at all these <worthless> options!" For every Instragram or WhatsApp that wins the lottery, there's thousands that just fail and fade away. Most that do get bought are deals that won't make anyone but the primary investors a noticeable profit.

Getting bought by Google probably shouldn't even enter into her decision making process; it's not the likely outcome. She should weigh the job on whether the work sounds exciting, she likes her coworkers, and the company seems at least a little financially stable. In other words, the same reason you'd take any job.

Docjowles fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Aug 9, 2014

CloFan
Nov 6, 2004

Regarding carchat, I interviewed for a position that had about an hour commute from my house; they asked if I had a reliable vehicle, I said yes, but I also volunteered that to save gas I'd be riding a motorcycle most days. They pretty much said 'good luck with that', and I didn't get the job. Probably not because of the bike, but I got the feeling they didn't like that for whatever reason. I've ridden the bike to interviews before and usually it's a good conversation starter, chances are at least one person interviewing me rides or rode in the past.

GreenNight
Feb 19, 2006
Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

Docjowles posted:

I'll preface this by saying I've worked at a couple startups, and I enjoy it. I don't mean to be bagging on them. That said, a couple things to keep in mind:

Startups are inherently unstable. How is her financial situation? Can she afford to be abruptly laid off at any time? Because the startup completely folding is honestly a much, much likelier outcome than Google buying them for billions of dollars. Obviously you can be laid off from any job, but a sudden cashflow problem or change of direction that makes her irrelevant are much more common in a startup.

Do not get suckered in by stock options in lieu of actual salary. Unless you're a founder or coming in as an executive you are probably being granted a trivial amount of stock. Then you're gambling on the extremely small chance that the company is bought or IPO's for a gigantic multiplier that makes your small amount of stock worth the years of lost salary. Sure, they might get "purchased by Google or something" but it's literally a million times more likely that the company either goes bankrupt or just continues chugging along, privately owned. Stock options are fine, but the offer should be "competitive salary, and also stock options". Not "half of a competitive salary, but wow, just look at all these <worthless> options!" For every Instragram or WhatsApp that wins the lottery, there's thousands that just fail and fade away. Most that do get bought are deals that won't make anyone but the primary investors a noticeable profit.

Getting bought by Google probably shouldn't even enter into her decision making process; it's not the likely outcome. She should weigh the job on whether the work sounds exciting, she likes her coworkers, and the company seems at least a little financially stable. In other words, the same reason you'd take any job.

I appreciate this. The company is 2 years old, so not exactly brand new and they sound decently stable, financial wise. Her current job is extremely stable (doing Java for a billion dollar insurance company) and she already told them she needs to be blown away to consider leaving. Thanks for the advice.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

GreenNight posted:

I appreciate this. The company is 2 years old, so not exactly brand new and they sound decently stable, financial wise. Her current job is extremely stable (doing Java for a billion dollar insurance company) and she already told them she needs to be blown away to consider leaving. Thanks for the advice.
Age has nothing to do with the financial viability of a startup. (Aren't startups fun?)

Many startups are founded by venture capital. With a traditional bank loan, you're given money to start a business, and this money has interest attached. The idea is that over time, you make money, and you pay back the interest on the loan. These loans also tend to be fairly small. A business running on bank loans has a limited amount of time to become break-even or ramen-profitable before they start burning through their cash reserves and go out of business.

Venture capital is someone looking at your business, determining a valuation for your company, and saying "I'll give you $X for Y% of your business." The hope is that the business will explode, and be worth billions, like Instagram or WhatsApp. These are often larger cash infusions, sometimes enough to keep the company running for years at a time without ever being profitable or even cash flow positive. They also occur in multiple rounds, so the company may not even have enough to keep themselves running another month before they close a VC deal, and then suddenly they have the funds to live another entire year. Many startups running on VC funding approach the three, four, or five year mark having never turned a profit, but having the user stickiness to convince VCs to keep pouring money in.

The instability in this model is that you have a monopoly shareholder who's sinking money in, and if there's a failure to execute, you don't have a trickle of customers away from your platform -- you just have your only real source of money go away. Then you have a handful of months to monetize your assets to break-even, or everyone at the company is a rat on a sinking ship.

The other irony is that if a company is being too responsible with their VC funds, and trying not to burn through too quickly, their product may not develop at a fast enough rate for the VC to consider them a viable investment, and they may not fund future rounds because of it.

Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Aug 10, 2014

GreenNight
Feb 19, 2006
Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

Awesome, thanks for the info. A lot is going to come down to what they offer. She is still young (graduated college a year ago), where as I'm 33, so now's the time to do the start ups and so forth, if it makes sense, salary and benefit wise.

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Does anyone here work at a place like a firewall or antivirus company where the bulk of their day involves researching new viruses and vulnerabilities? Is it as glamorous as it might seem?

hanyolo
Jul 18, 2013
I am an employee of the Microsoft Gaming Division and they pay me to defend the Xbox One on the Something Awful Forums
Does anyone have any recent data on Internet Background Noise? The only data I can find is from ~2010 and is largely influenced by Conflicker and I'm curious to see what the traffic volumes are like now and how new vulnerabilities like Heartbleed have affected it.

http://conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2010/papers/p62.pdf

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
I have to unrack 4 DL580s by myself and ship them to another datacenter. I can lift that much weight but I can't even begin to imagine how I am doing this. Does anyone have suggestions? I can probably de-rack them onto the pallet jack or whatever they call those hydraulic jobs in the datacenter, but even that is tenuous. After that, I have to get them from the datacenter to FedEx, in the back of a Civic. I can't even fathom lifting a DL580 into a Civic without ruining every corner of the server and every bit of paint. Anyone have suggestions?

skipdogg
Nov 29, 2004
Resident SRT-4 Expert

Don't even try a 580. It's not safe. I can rack a fully loaded 380 by myself but those 580's can push 80 pounds. There's a reason those have handles (at least mine do) Unless you have one of those rack assist machines it's just not smart. Bring a strong friend.

Seriously it's not worth hurting yourself

the spyder
Feb 18, 2011

MC Fruit Stripe posted:

I have to unrack 4 DL580s by myself and ship them to another datacenter. I can lift that much weight but I can't even begin to imagine how I am doing this. Does anyone have suggestions? I can probably de-rack them onto the pallet jack or whatever they call those hydraulic jobs in the datacenter, but even that is tenuous. After that, I have to get them from the datacenter to FedEx, in the back of a Civic. I can't even fathom lifting a DL580 into a Civic without ruining every corner of the server and every bit of paint. Anyone have suggestions?

Don't try this. The damage to yourself, your property, and not to mention the equipment is not worth it. Are you relying on FedEx to package them? If so, good luck. We have had two dead monitors and a dozen servers get damaged because one of our field guys was to lazy to repack everything into the Pelican cases we shipped him and dropped everything @ FedEx.

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.
Y'all aren't thinking this through. Two words: workman's comp.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go

skipdogg posted:

Don't even try a 580. It's not safe. I can rack a fully loaded 380 by myself but those 580's can push 80 pounds. There's a reason those have handles (at least mine do) Unless you have one of those rack assist machines it's just not smart. Bring a strong friend.

Seriously it's not worth hurting yourself
No I mean, that's what I'm saying, I can't do this by myself, so like, what is my play here? I do have one of those rack assist machines, but that only allowed me to rack it initially. Unracking it and shipping it, I have no idea how this is doable.

Che Delilas
Nov 23, 2009
FREE TIBET WEED

MC Fruit Stripe posted:

No I mean, that's what I'm saying, I can't do this by myself, so like, what is my play here? I do have one of those rack assist machines, but that only allowed me to rack it initially. Unracking it and shipping it, I have no idea how this is doable.

What's stopping you from telling whoever is in charge the truth of the situation?

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
I'm re-reading my original post and I'm realizing that yeah, me post lovely. I didn't make clear that the problem was that I didn't think it was possible - my post comes across as though I'm asking for suggestions on which corners to hold as I carry this thing to Fedex on foot.

Che Delilas posted:

What's stopping you from telling whoever is in charge the truth of the situation?
There in lies the problem. I am in charge - this poo poo does need to get sent to another datacenter. I just don't know how. I suppose I'll need to hire professional services - I'll need two guys and a lot of padding.

Daylen Drazzi
Mar 10, 2007

Why do I root for Notre Dame? Because I like pain, and disappointment, and anguish. Notre Dame Football has destroyed more dreams than the Irish Potato Famine, and that is the kind of suffering I can get behind.

MC Fruit Stripe posted:

I'm re-reading my original post and I'm realizing that yeah, me post lovely. I didn't make clear that the problem was that I didn't think it was possible - my post comes across as though I'm asking for suggestions on which corners to hold as I carry this thing to Fedex on foot.

There in lies the problem. I am in charge - this poo poo does need to get sent to another datacenter. I just don't know how. I suppose I'll need to hire professional services - I'll need two guys and a lot of padding.

Rent a U-haul van and get some moving pads. Wrap the servers with the pads and shrink-wrap the whole mess. Get a cart and two bodies and load each server on the cart, take it to the van and unload it, then rinse and repeat. If your workplace balks at paying a couple hundred bucks for the cost then those servers ain't getting moved.

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dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?

Daylen Drazzi posted:

Rent a U-haul van and get some moving pads. Wrap the servers with the pads and shrink-wrap the whole mess. Get a cart and two bodies and load each server on the cart, take it to the van and unload it, then rinse and repeat. If your workplace balks at paying a couple hundred bucks for the cost then those servers ain't getting moved.

Pretty much this. If I move a server or a big UPS (some of those fuckers are so heavy and unwieldy) then I am getting someone to help me, i'm getting some form of trolley for it to go on and the person who's helping me lift has to at least have some muscke. Back injuries aren't worth it. The truck is self explanatory and I don't think its worth ruining a civics suspension for your company.

Can't you just draft a random dude who has a small workload to give you a hand for the day?

dogstile fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Aug 12, 2014

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