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the talent deficit
Dec 20, 2003

self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture





ratbert90 posted:

drat, I would love for that. I would just do contract work while collecting my pay from IBM. double paycheck.

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself

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FlapYoJacks
Feb 12, 2009

the talent deficit posted:

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself

Oh, yeah, that would be terrible!

Shaman Linavi
Apr 3, 2012

mekkanare posted:

Having nothing to do is not fun at all.

qhat
Jul 6, 2015


the talent deficit posted:

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself

Did your director actually do anything within the company?

post hole digger
Mar 21, 2011

the talent deficit posted:

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself

this describes me a lil too well

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene

the talent deficit posted:

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself

consulting.txt

abigserve
Sep 13, 2009

this is a better avatar than what I had before
imo if they give you a computer and access to the internet with no concrete goals of what to do then you could just spend all day writing whatever code you wanted to write. do some open source stuff or whatever took your fancy. write your own fart app, whatever amuses you/

however the only time I've ever heard someone get the arrangement of 'we will pay you, but you're not allowed to work' was someone who had been hired at Defence, and they literally wanted him to show up at work everyday where he wasn't given a computer or allowed to use a phone and sit there for 8 months while they did his security clearance. He quit after two months and three passed certifications.

edit; also I've seen people get stuck in jobs without goals all the time but it's never a "do what you want" situation it's more like "do what we want - we just aint gonna tell you what the heck that is"

Diva Cupcake
Aug 15, 2005

the talent deficit posted:

it was awful. i still had a director and was expected to accomplish things, it was just that i had to do all the work to figure out what and how myself
same

AnimeIsTrash
Jun 30, 2018

I had a couple of friends that worked for IBM. One of them told me about how they setup a minigolf course on their floor and would play on it daily with his coworkers. The other one would just play MTG all day on his computer.

Cold on a Cob
Feb 6, 2006

i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually

College Slice
i've worked with ibm consultants several times (they managed the server infrastructure at a company i worked for ~2014) and i had to script releases so specifically i might as well have been doing all of it myself and they would call me 3 hours before the release outage window asking if they could start

that said i'm sure we were paying absolute bottom of the barrel rates and weren't exactly getting their a-team

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene

Cold on a Cob posted:

i've worked with ibm consultants several times (they managed the server infrastructure at a company i worked for ~2014) and i had to script releases so specifically i might as well have been doing all of it myself and they would call me 3 hours before the release outage window asking if they could start

that said i'm sure we were paying absolute bottom of the barrel rates and weren't exactly getting their a-team

joke's on you, there was no a team

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

Cold on a Cob posted:

that said i'm sure we were paying absolute bottom of the barrel rates and weren't exactly getting their a-team

Ohhhh "A-Team" we thought you said "A team"

DELETE CASCADE
Oct 25, 2017

i haven't washed my penis since i jerked it to a phtotograph of george w. bush in 2003
If you use ibm for general consulting then surely you have brought shame upon your house, but there must be SOME divisions inside ibm that have actual technical expertise regarding their mainframe infrastructure

Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


Another phone interview survived. Think it actually went well this time, which is either a red flag or a sign of improvement, not sure which :v:

Second time using something like "so what happens when your team misses a deadline" question myself. it's sort of enlightening how that changes the conversation--both times to the better, like i actually built rapport, rather than deconstructing it with the implied mild insult

Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Feb 28, 2019

qhat
Jul 6, 2015


Notorious b.s.d. posted:

joke's on you, there was no team at all

in a well actually
Jan 26, 2011

dude, you gotta end it on the rhyme

ibm has some hpc products at the high end and in storage

not ‘buy red hat’ money though

endless bureaucracy and you’re likely to be cut the next time they need to goose the stock price

Schadenboner
Aug 15, 2011

by Shine
I finally have an in-person interview next week for a NOC Jock role just north of my suburb.

DONT THREAD ON ME
Oct 1, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo
Floss Finder
interview today went well. we did a chess problem and I've made a chess game so it was pretty much comfortable territory. vibed well with interviewer.

Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


got scheduled this morning for final interview next week :toot: remote interview over hangouts too, hopefully being more comfortable at home helps me be less nervy

4lokos basilisk
Jul 17, 2008


Ciaphas posted:

got scheduled this morning for final interview next week :toot: remote interview over hangouts too, hopefully being more comfortable at home helps me be less nervy

make sure to set up your surroundings so that your bong or other potential embarrassing stuff does not show up in the frame - plain wall in a well lighted room should do it

DONT THREAD ON ME
Oct 1, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo
Floss Finder

Penisface posted:

make sure to set up your surroundings so that your bong or other potential embarrassing stuff does not show up in the frame - plain wall in a well lighted room should do it

wait, poo poo

Qtotonibudinibudet
Nov 7, 2011



Omich poluyobok, skazhi ty narkoman? ya prosto tozhe gde to tam zhivu, mogli by vmeste uyobyvat' narkotiki
gently caress it, light up during the interview

AWWNAW
Dec 30, 2008

Penisface posted:

make sure to set up your surroundings so that your bong or other potential embarrassing stuff does not show up in the frame - plain wall in a well lighted room should do it

bare walls creep me out

AWWNAW
Dec 30, 2008

I have those wall mount style guitar hooks but for bongs instead of guitars

4lokos basilisk
Jul 17, 2008


AWWNAW posted:

bare walls creep me out

i think it is professional courtesy not to sensory overload potential bosses/coworkers with the contents of my apartment. even if you have a bookshelf full of TAOCP and ancient unix manuals or whatever you think might impress the person you are talking with. just play it safe, dont take a chance that someone might see all the piss jugs if you get interrupted by some delivery guy during the interview* and you have to rush to the door, leaving your future boss make a mental inventory of what the gently caress

* true story, i was in the middle of a online coding test/interview and the bell rang so i apologised and went to the door

qhat
Jul 6, 2015


Whatever they don't need to see, don't let them see.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

AWWNAW posted:

bare walls creep me out

you're supposed to let interviewers hit the back walls

Kudaros
Jun 23, 2006
I'm coming up on my 1 year at my first job out of grad school. I took a different job title and negotiated it into a data science position, though I don't have the title (I'm "senior data analyst"). I was a bit uneasy transitioning from the PhD into industry, but now I feel way more confident. I'm still learning things too, which is the most important thing to me at this particular juncture.

I also feel underpaid. Going from stipend to 90k base salary without having to move was great at first. Its definitely adequate, and I don't mean to sound greedy, but I don't like the idea of leaving money on the table. I've since read the 2018 DS Burtchworks study, and saw an IEEE salary publication, and I feel like I could be making more (~110 to 140k for midwest). My manager wants me to lead and develop the analytics team, but I'm beginning to feel like this is unlikely to happen at this point. I'd be interested in actually developing teams like that, but this environment is ancient in terms of both tech and people. I've found many of the managers hesitant to make any real changes. Much of their work isn't setup in a way that is conducive to any sort of nice analytics approach. Data is a mess, people don't know where much of it even is, and so on.

On the other hand they gave me my own office. They are apparently stingy about that so I initially took it as a good sign. The office had been vacant for years, and the one next to mine still is.

In my review my manager said he wanted me to have a quicker turnaround, get to failure faster, etc. After two weeks of working on this particular project I had strong confidence that it would never work out, and was foolhardy. But he's the one constantly asking me to "see what if". So that's been awkward. I asked him about a job title change as a way of eluding to a future conversation about compensation and he said he'd look into it. Otherwise we have a good relationship.

I'm waiting to see what salary adjustments come in next, but in the meantime I'm looking at my options. For the time being, I'm geographically locked. I recently received an invitation to speak with some C level people at another midwestern company that does work that I think may be more interesting. I'm going to see whats up at least to build some network (I have little in industry as I originally intended to go the postdoc route).

Any thoughts? I read that Chapman salary negotiating book recommended in this thread and started kicking myself over the first interview. The salary range was "fixed" and he gave me the maximum, but looking back I bet I could have squeezed a sign on bonus or more vacation out of the deal.

qhat
Jul 6, 2015


Don't worry about screwing up at the beginning, you'll have plenty of opportunities in life to reassert your salary expectations either through promotions or completely new jobs. I switched jobs recently, I got my old job when I was new in Canada and unemployed and had no choice but to get chiselled hard by the CEO. 18 months later and I'm at a new company with 67% more compensation and p.happy.

Secondly, if your manager wants you to take on any significantly additional responsibility beyond what you were hired to do initially, demand a new compensation package (not just a raise). Moving into management is a big jump and you owe it to yourself to put these guys in a vice. If they won't budge, imo you could do what I did and still take the role as a way of increasing your negotiating leverage at another company.

Cold on a Cob
Feb 6, 2006

i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually

College Slice

qhat posted:

Don't worry about screwing up at the beginning, you'll have plenty of opportunities in life to reassert your salary expectations either through promotions or completely new jobs. I switched jobs recently, I got my old job when I was new in Canada and unemployed and had no choice but to get chiselled hard by the CEO. 18 months later and I'm at a new company with 67% more compensation and p.happy.

Secondly, if your manager wants you to take on any significantly additional responsibility beyond what you were hired to do initially, demand a new compensation package (not just a raise). Moving into management is a big jump and you owe it to yourself to put these guys in a vice. If they won't budge, imo you could do what I did and still take the role as a way of increasing your negotiating leverage at another company.

Agreeing with all this. Definitely put your best title on your resume, even if you weren't compensated appropriately.

fritz
Jul 26, 2003

flubbed a second phone screen w/ one place, got take home at another, sands thru the hourglass etc

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene

florida lan posted:

gently caress it, light up during the interview



apocryphally, the rap genius founders used to light up a joint and pass it around the room to see if their interview candidate was "cool" or not

raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice
onsite in 15m, feels like I’m walking to my grave

why do I care so much about this

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

raminasi posted:

onsite in 15m, feels like I’m walking to my grave

why do I care so much about this

You got this, just be confident in what you know and about your accomplishments. If its not a good fit, its not a good fit.

RedZone
Dec 6, 2005

raminasi posted:

onsite in 15m, feels like I’m walking to my grave

why do I care so much about this

I think the best lesson that I learned from interviewing at a bunch of places over my career is to not take it personally. I've passed interviews and gotten good offers, but I also have trail of embarrassing failures as well. If you're not a good fit then it's for the best, or its your unlucky day and the interviewer asked you the one question you didn't know. Move on and continue playing the numbers game.

KidDynamite
Feb 11, 2005

Had a phonecall with an internal interviewer that ended in those questions that determine if the actual hiring manager will look at your resume. The questions asked were open ended and also worded terribly so I had no idea what the gently caress was going on.

Here's an example. "What method would you override to find the root view controller?" There is no method overriding required for this. The answer is UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController. I said "I wouldn't override anything I would use this to find it" She tells me that's wrong and asks if I've ever heard of loadView. Which I explained is what you would do if you were creating a navigation UI programmatically to set something as the root, but of course that doesn't mean poo poo and I won't get a call.

What am I even supposed to do there?

Progressive JPEG
Feb 19, 2003

be polite

KidDynamite
Feb 11, 2005


I was definitely polite, but also trying to express like hey I'm not an idiot please just get me a technical.

JawnV6
Jul 4, 2004

So hot ...

KidDynamite posted:

What am I even supposed to do there?

can u expand what you mean here

"how do i get past a garbage hardcoded screen?" you figure out their game and dumb down your answers, get your resume to someone inside beyond the filter, or stop caring and move on numbers-game style

you're not going to have this teachable moment where you explain why the crude filter sucks and is bad fit for purpose, the person giving it likely doesn't care that much even if you broke out of the script

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Kudaros
Jun 23, 2006
I hate to ask what may be a simplistic question, but is there like a glossary of terms describing the various roles and components of an IT 'department' of an organization? I went from academia to data science in industry and I'm getting a feel for many of the relevant bits, but then I look at job listings at, e.g., Splunk, and I get the sense that simply understanding this might make me better at developing my current role.

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