So say you have done all the things that I have said in previous posts about your social networking. Now you getting job offers left and right. Next thing you have to do is the interview. When you go in there will be lots of questions asked to you. But hopefully you will have a chance to ask your own questions. If you aren't given this chance, that might be a bad sign. So what should you do before you go in? Well first off, research the company you are going into.
Do a quick Google search on the company and maybe the position in your company. Find anything other than some news article and the job posting itself? Didn't think so. But here is what you can do. First thing go into advanced search and search by file type, or place this command at the beginning of your search "filetype:(pdf, excel, doc, etc.)" This will limit your search to only the filetype of your choosing. Now what can you gain from this? Well if you search by PDF or even powerpoint, you can get presentations that the company has created. You search by excel docs and you might find payroll. Not exaggerating here. I know a guy who trains this kind of stuff for a living. He used to put in the names of companies that were in His classes to see what they could find. That was until He found the commissions of all the managers of the CEO that was in his class. Needless to say, very awkward.
So the question is how does Google have these things? Is this illegal? Is Google hacking our networks? Well to answer those questions with the following; Magic, maybe...., and no. Google "crawls" the internet. Much like you surf the net, Google does, but much much faster than you or I. What happens is that say you attach a document to an email. You send your email and somewhere between here and that Nigerian prince that is giving you millions to hold, there is a place that is not encrypted, and allows open access to their network that your email crossed over. Google by happen chance finds this area and starts caching and downloading the email and the attachment. Or the more simple situation, somebody saved this doc to something the outside world could reach, meaning Google could too.
Google isn't doing this to be evil, it is just how their service works. It has to find everything on the internet in order to index it and make searches faster. If they didn't do this, then search results would be meaningless and take forever to get anything that was even close to what you were asking for.
Once you have done your research, go into the interview with your questions and maybe even some insight that would make it look like you are very interested in the company. Trust me, if I were interviewing two people and they were similar. I'd pick the candidate that actually seem to know what it was in fact our company did. Don't be the guy just looking for a job, be the guy looking to fill a role.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Linkedin and you!
Alright if you haven't been reading my posts on social media, you might should pay attention to this one.
So you have a Facebook? Now how would you like a version of Facebook that is simply for finding jobs? That is Linkedin. If you don't have a Linkedin, do yourself a favor and read this. Then go and create your account.
So first thing you need is a decent head shot. Linkedin is where professionals look to find employees. So depending on what job you're looking for, what you will pick for a profile picture will vary. If you are looking for an executive position, then a suit and tie is for you. If you use some picture of you drunk at a party, well expect to be spending more time drunk. As you will still be unemployed months down the road. I just use a basic headshot, nothing fancy. Think Senior photos, but more professional.
The next step is setting up a profile. You need to put your position that you are currently holding on your profile. If you are unemployed, say you are a consultant in whatever field that you want to work in. Java Consultant, .NET Consultant, Database Developer Consultant, etc. This title will come in handy shortly.
Now you have a summary section to put a basic information about yourself. Now where most people screw up is that they just transcribe their resumes onto this page. When a employer gets your resume and goes to look you up on Linkedin, they don't want to just read it over again. This is where you put your elevator speech. An elevator speech is just a short speech about what you are wanting to do and what you have done. I put a short life story and what my current goals are. I do this for two reasons. It makes your profile stand out, and it gives the person reading your profile a small glimpse into your personality. Now there is something very crucial that you need to remember when writing this out. Your job title, try to fit that in to your summaries as much as possible. This increases your weight when being searched by people for your job title.
The next step is filling out education and past work experience(if you have any) Once again here, do not just list off your resume in the summary section. Tell a story. Your resume has to be short and sweet, your Linkedin is where you put all your details. And like the general summary, put your job title in this summary as much as you can, if it relates. This will help elevate you in the search results.
There is an area for skills that you have. This can be anything that you can think of. These will be search terms. This will match your resume on skills that you have. Put down anything that you think is a good skill that you have that can help an company. Public Speaking, .NET, HTML5, CSS3, MVC, etc. These will help recruiters find you when they do an advanced search.
Now one big difference between Facebook and Linkedin is that while in Facebook you want to try and hide your account as much as possible, you need to be as open as possible on Linkedin. You are going to get tons of connection requests on Linkedin as you get your connection base built up. This is a good thing. Even if your direct connections can't directly get you a job, you better believe they are connected to someone who can. And the more connections you have, the higher you show up in a recruiters search results.
There are also groups that you can join. Some are helpful in that there are lots of connections and some of the information is helpful. Sadly, most of them are very, very, very, veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyy spammy. I tend to steer clear of them because my inbox can't take the abuse.
Lastly, this is just a side note that I learned the hard way. You can link your twitter account to your linked in. This allows twitter posts to go on linkedin or vice versa. Make sure if you do this, then you click the checkbox that makes linkedin check for #IN hashtag in your post before putting it on your linked in. If you forget this step, you will end up retweeting Pictures of Staph infections from Joe Rogan.
So you have a Facebook? Now how would you like a version of Facebook that is simply for finding jobs? That is Linkedin. If you don't have a Linkedin, do yourself a favor and read this. Then go and create your account.
So first thing you need is a decent head shot. Linkedin is where professionals look to find employees. So depending on what job you're looking for, what you will pick for a profile picture will vary. If you are looking for an executive position, then a suit and tie is for you. If you use some picture of you drunk at a party, well expect to be spending more time drunk. As you will still be unemployed months down the road. I just use a basic headshot, nothing fancy. Think Senior photos, but more professional.
The next step is setting up a profile. You need to put your position that you are currently holding on your profile. If you are unemployed, say you are a consultant in whatever field that you want to work in. Java Consultant, .NET Consultant, Database Developer Consultant, etc. This title will come in handy shortly.
Now you have a summary section to put a basic information about yourself. Now where most people screw up is that they just transcribe their resumes onto this page. When a employer gets your resume and goes to look you up on Linkedin, they don't want to just read it over again. This is where you put your elevator speech. An elevator speech is just a short speech about what you are wanting to do and what you have done. I put a short life story and what my current goals are. I do this for two reasons. It makes your profile stand out, and it gives the person reading your profile a small glimpse into your personality. Now there is something very crucial that you need to remember when writing this out. Your job title, try to fit that in to your summaries as much as possible. This increases your weight when being searched by people for your job title.
The next step is filling out education and past work experience(if you have any) Once again here, do not just list off your resume in the summary section. Tell a story. Your resume has to be short and sweet, your Linkedin is where you put all your details. And like the general summary, put your job title in this summary as much as you can, if it relates. This will help elevate you in the search results.
There is an area for skills that you have. This can be anything that you can think of. These will be search terms. This will match your resume on skills that you have. Put down anything that you think is a good skill that you have that can help an company. Public Speaking, .NET, HTML5, CSS3, MVC, etc. These will help recruiters find you when they do an advanced search.
Now one big difference between Facebook and Linkedin is that while in Facebook you want to try and hide your account as much as possible, you need to be as open as possible on Linkedin. You are going to get tons of connection requests on Linkedin as you get your connection base built up. This is a good thing. Even if your direct connections can't directly get you a job, you better believe they are connected to someone who can. And the more connections you have, the higher you show up in a recruiters search results.
There are also groups that you can join. Some are helpful in that there are lots of connections and some of the information is helpful. Sadly, most of them are very, very, very, veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyy spammy. I tend to steer clear of them because my inbox can't take the abuse.
Lastly, this is just a side note that I learned the hard way. You can link your twitter account to your linked in. This allows twitter posts to go on linkedin or vice versa. Make sure if you do this, then you click the checkbox that makes linkedin check for #IN hashtag in your post before putting it on your linked in. If you forget this step, you will end up retweeting Pictures of Staph infections from Joe Rogan.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Eh, close enough?
So some of you may know that I have started going to the gym and back to martial arts. Martial arts is my favorite thing to do. If I had enough money, I would quit my job and travel the planet and train Martial arts. First stop would be Fairtex Thailand learning Muay Thai from the best. But we will save pretend time for another post. Since I love martial arts, I thought a kickboxing class would be a good way to get an hour at the gym in and not dread all 60 minutes. I was wrong.
That 60 minutes was the most painful kickboxing class I've ever done, no literally it hurt. As I write this my knees are still in pain. I have never had knee pain from martial arts ever and I've been doing this for 15 years. So was the class hard? No. Did we hit each other? No. Did the instructor say, "Fuck form and let's go for speed!' You better believe it. This was the single biggest mistake I could have made taking this class. I knew I should have walked out when She was demonstrating the moves. There were a few flags right off the bat.
1. A jab, cross, uppercut, and a hook do not look the same at all. Yet she was showing everybody the same "jab" as all four punches. YouTube them if you have never seen them.
2. A proper kick generally goes above the knees. Especially a front kick, that shit is not to be aimed at somebody's shins.
3. Bouncing always is fine to stay moving. But trying to get everybody to kick one direction while jumping back the other way is a recipe for disaster. Hell, doing any jump kicks in tennis shoes are a horrible idea. In real life Jean Claude Van Dam would have busted his god damned ankle the first time He did some spin kick while jumping in running shoes.
4. Also this instructor is having us squat on our toes and you are doing it wrong if your heels are on the ground. Nearly fell over when I heard that.
I can only imagine how many people walked out of that class thinking that they actually did something other than put an expiration date on their knees with a date still in the teens. Now how does this relate to technology?
Form is key in everything we do. If you try to slam something out just for speed sake, you can expect that there will be pain when you are through. If you don't take the time to learn the proper way to do something, you can't expect your doing it right to begin with. I can't count the times that I have had to watch hotfix 5 go out on a project only to have to pretend to be shocked that another is going to be needed. That is pain that nobody needed. The project I inherited had great forms, and yes I mean that to be plural. It was piece parted from examples found all over the internet. So the pieces were pretty good, just not the whole. The problem is that nobody stepped forward to say, 'Hey, stop!'
When writing code, deploying code, or standing up environments. Have some standards, or proper form. Save yourself countless hours or even days of pain. Doing things fast is cool, doing them right is even better. It isn't a badge of honor that you can do something in 5 minutes, if you have to do it 10 times to get it right. Or even worse, you get it done in 5 minutes and shut down and don't even check your form. This is how an application blows out its knees.
So please, check your ego at the door. Start with a lower weight before you take on the heavy shit. And lastly, for everybody's sake, get a fucking spotter to help you. It is easier to have someone help you carry something when it gets too heavy, than to pull it up off your throat once you drop it.
That 60 minutes was the most painful kickboxing class I've ever done, no literally it hurt. As I write this my knees are still in pain. I have never had knee pain from martial arts ever and I've been doing this for 15 years. So was the class hard? No. Did we hit each other? No. Did the instructor say, "Fuck form and let's go for speed!' You better believe it. This was the single biggest mistake I could have made taking this class. I knew I should have walked out when She was demonstrating the moves. There were a few flags right off the bat.
1. A jab, cross, uppercut, and a hook do not look the same at all. Yet she was showing everybody the same "jab" as all four punches. YouTube them if you have never seen them.
2. A proper kick generally goes above the knees. Especially a front kick, that shit is not to be aimed at somebody's shins.
3. Bouncing always is fine to stay moving. But trying to get everybody to kick one direction while jumping back the other way is a recipe for disaster. Hell, doing any jump kicks in tennis shoes are a horrible idea. In real life Jean Claude Van Dam would have busted his god damned ankle the first time He did some spin kick while jumping in running shoes.
4. Also this instructor is having us squat on our toes and you are doing it wrong if your heels are on the ground. Nearly fell over when I heard that.
I can only imagine how many people walked out of that class thinking that they actually did something other than put an expiration date on their knees with a date still in the teens. Now how does this relate to technology?
Form is key in everything we do. If you try to slam something out just for speed sake, you can expect that there will be pain when you are through. If you don't take the time to learn the proper way to do something, you can't expect your doing it right to begin with. I can't count the times that I have had to watch hotfix 5 go out on a project only to have to pretend to be shocked that another is going to be needed. That is pain that nobody needed. The project I inherited had great forms, and yes I mean that to be plural. It was piece parted from examples found all over the internet. So the pieces were pretty good, just not the whole. The problem is that nobody stepped forward to say, 'Hey, stop!'
When writing code, deploying code, or standing up environments. Have some standards, or proper form. Save yourself countless hours or even days of pain. Doing things fast is cool, doing them right is even better. It isn't a badge of honor that you can do something in 5 minutes, if you have to do it 10 times to get it right. Or even worse, you get it done in 5 minutes and shut down and don't even check your form. This is how an application blows out its knees.
So please, check your ego at the door. Start with a lower weight before you take on the heavy shit. And lastly, for everybody's sake, get a fucking spotter to help you. It is easier to have someone help you carry something when it gets too heavy, than to pull it up off your throat once you drop it.
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