User Controls

Are you good at job interviews?

  1. #21
    gadzooks Dark Matter [keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
    Originally posted by Ajax That’s literally why there is an industry of people who are a go-between who translate business needs for users who don’t understand code into use cases for coders who don’t understand business needs and vice versa.

    Business analyst? I think that's what they're still called.

    With things like User Stories and Experience Mapping, business analysts are becoming less and less needed.

    There are frameworks like Gherkin that are basically user stories + unit tests that are actually functioning code. Or, at the very least, they make the translation between business use case and unit testable code a LOT smoother.
  2. #22
    gadzooks Dark Matter [keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
    Originally posted by Flatulant_bomb We hire "tradesman" which might be different than corporate type jobs.

    There are definitely some jobs that are a lot more conducive to that kind of internship idea.

    Some jobs, though, like grade-school teacher, just wouldn't work too well in that kind of model.

    Can you really prove your abilities as a teacher in a matter of a few days?
  3. #23
    Flatulant_bomb Tuskegee Airman
    Well I did ask Soy what job he is going to beg for and I didn't see a reply. It doesn't work for all.
  4. #24
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Originally posted by Ajax That’s literally why there is an industry of people who are a go-between who translate business needs for users who don’t understand code into use cases for coders who don’t understand business needs and vice versa.

    Exactly, there are people whose job it is to figure out how to exploit my labor profitably. Some programmers like to be more involved in the business/product/design side of things or want to understand how their work affects the overall operation. I don't. It's not unusual for smaller employers to hold the tacit view that every employee has some degree of personal responsiblity to ensure the venture's success, this is not my view, failing to establish that can lead to awkward situations down the road.
  5. #25
    Flatulant_bomb Tuskegee Airman
    Originally posted by Lanny Exactly, there are people whose job it is to figure out how to exploit my labor profitably. Some programmers like to be more involved in the business/product/design side of things or want to understand how their work affects the overall operation. I don't. It's not unusual for smaller employers to hold the tacit view that every employee has some degree of personal responsiblity to ensure the venture's success, this is not my view, failing to establish that can lead to awkward situations down the road.

    If I read this right, you have experience with large corporations and that would make sense. I work for a very small company and every employee has a say in how we run the business. I like this better, I have worked for both types of company's.
  6. #26
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Originally posted by Flatulant_bomb If I read this right, you have experience with large corporations and that would make sense. I work for a very small company and every employee has a say in how we run the business. I like this better, I have worked for both types of company's.

    I've worked in both type of environment as well, although I think we're in pretty different industries. "Employees having a say" sounds nice but I've become increasingly skeptical of it in practice. If the employees don't own a chunk of a company to go with their say what do they have? It's not real power in the sense of being able to vote or override the the decisions of the actual owners.

    Even in the best case where everyone has the opportunity to put their ideas forward and you do so, you're donating your creative/intellectual efforts to your employer without compensation, or perhaps for an unsure possibility of advancement. In the worst case "having a say" is code for being responsible for the success of the business, and when success isn't happening that can mean there's an expectation for the non-owner employees to pick up the slack.
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  7. #27
    gadzooks Dark Matter [keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
    Originally posted by Lanny Even in the best case where everyone has the opportunity to put their ideas forward and you do so, you're donating your creative/intellectual efforts to your employer without compensation, or perhaps for an unsure possibility of advancement.

    That's very true.

    But I, personally, enjoy the rush of making bold suggestions at work.

    For one thing, unless what I'm working on is 100% customer-facing, I use python. I don't care what language they want it in. I give them code that does what they want it to do, but I do it in python. And, luckily, most of the work they have me do isn't customer facing, so I have that freedom.

    Like, as an example, they needed an AWS Lambda script to automatically search for and remove test/dummy Cognito users. The company generally uses JS/Node, but I was like "nobody but me has to actually see this code, so..." and I just wrote it in python.

    I mean, I know JS, and other languages of course, but Python is like executable pseudocode. If I want to get from idea to functioning code, python is by far the quickest route.
  8. #28
    Flatulant_bomb Tuskegee Airman
    Originally posted by Lanny I've worked in both type of environment as well, although I think we're in pretty different industries. "Employees having a say" sounds nice but I've become increasingly skeptical of it in practice. If the employees don't own a chunk of a company to go with their say what do they have? It's not real power in the sense of being able to vote or override the the decisions of the actual owners.

    Even in the best case where everyone has the opportunity to put their ideas forward and you do so, you're donating your creative/intellectual efforts to your employer without compensation, or perhaps for an unsure possibility of advancement. In the worst case "having a say" is code for being responsible for the success of the business, and when success isn't happening that can mean there's an expectation for the non-owner employees to pick up the slack.

    Yes we are in very different industries and we are also in very different cultures. You are (I think) in Northern California and I am in the deep south. You probably live in the "union" culture and I live in the "right to work" culture. I think we are worlds apart in that sense.

    As a small company, we all work for the company to be a success because we all know that if the company succeeds, we all do, we all get to feed our families. As the company grows, we do too in the sense that we can then demand pay raises etc. It works for us here.

    It's a family business, we look out for each other. Very much different from the larger corporations.
  9. #29
    Ajax African Astronaut [rumor the placative aphakia]
    Originally posted by gadzooks Business analyst? I think that's what they're still called.

    With things like User Stories and Experience Mapping, business analysts are becoming less and less needed.

    There are frameworks like Gherkin that are basically user stories + unit tests that are actually functioning code. Or, at the very least, they make the translation between business use case and unit testable code a LOT smoother.

    User stories, that’s what I was trying to think of. We are going through a massive multi-year multi-campus overhaul of our core systems and processes and there are so many user stories. I’m on the end-user side of things actually doing the day-to-day business stuff, but I’m considered a “subject matter expert” plus a bunch of other jargon for what it’s worth, so I can appreciate the nature and the need for translation. The consultants who are writing the bulk of the code have no idea how we run our business, nor do I have any idea how they write their code. I have a couple main points of contacts who I go to and they translate my needs and defect reports and what not to the people who can resolve it in a way they can understand it.
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  10. #30
    Flatulant_bomb Tuskegee Airman
    We are using ESC at our office and it seems to work good but I hear they are phasing it out WTF?
  11. #31
    gadzooks Dark Matter [keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
    Originally posted by Ajax User stories, that’s what I was trying to think of. We are going through a massive multi-year multi-campus overhaul of our core systems and processes and there are so many user stories. I’m on the end-user side of things actually doing the day-to-day business stuff, but I’m considered a “subject matter expert” plus a bunch of other jargon for what it’s worth, so I can appreciate the nature and the need for translation. The consultants who are writing the bulk of the code have no idea how we run our business, nor do I have any idea how they write their code. I have a couple main points of contacts who I go to and they translate my needs and defect reports and what not to the people who can resolve it in a way they can understand it.

    That massive divide between end-user and coder is narrowing by the day.

    In the near future, there will either be fewer programmers, or fewer end-users on the business side describing what they need the software to do. These jobs will eventually merge into one.

    Agile methodology is making a pretty good effort at singularizing all of these tasks. "Acceptance criteria", "User stories", Etc.

    A common "Rosetta Stone" type of intermediary is arising.

    Also, now-a-days they're teaching kids to code and everything. It's pretty much the future.
  12. #32
    Yes. I will tell a story about a job I had as an example.

    I once had a Russian neighbor. He said a bad word about me, but not to my face. Apparently I did something one time that he did not like. I heard his say this not nice things with methods that I will not disclose. But he did say it, and I was listening in because I don't trust Russians who I don't know if they are nearby; I am Russian, so I know why I don't trust them.

    When he moved, I kept keeping tabs on him, because I thought that he had a problem with me because of the not nice thing that he once said. So I decided to let him know that I know all about him. Just in case he thought that he can move, and know where I live, without me knowing where he himself lives. So I contacted him on VK. I told him "oh, *****, I miss you man. Did you move? I hope you're doing alright". He asked who I was, so I told him my apartment number.

    Then I told him that I need work, and he for some reason let me get my foot in the door. On the first day on the job, he didn't say anything, though I saw him. He looked terrified. There was no interview, only work. I started at 12 an hour, then kept telling him to give me raises until I was making 21 an hour. I will spare a lot of details.

    After a week of working I had an interview, where the guy was trying to tell me all these things, but he coulnd't bring himself to say it using words. He resorted to hand gestures and generally beating around the bush. Him and 2 other bosses were sitting all around me, as if to intimidate or something. I simply locked the door behind me, and said "oh theres 3 of you to choose from, like prostitutes all lined up".

    Oh and by the time that I was making 18 per hr, one of my conditions was that I also be given a candy bar (of my choosing) and also a coffee every morning.
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  13. #33
    Originally posted by Lanny I'm pretty good at the technical part of interviews, at least relative most people interviewing for the same kind of positions. And I'm not quite enough of a social retard to totally wreck that during soft skills type questions, so interviews tend to go pretty well for me.

    im sure your skills isnt the only thing soft.

    I figure it's better to be up front about it: I don't really know what my employer's business goals are or how I'm going to make them happen, don't really care. I do my thing pretty well in an industry that has a lot of incompetents. Dentist doesn't need to know why his clients need healthy teeth and an attractive smile, Lanny doesn't need to know how your website or app or software package makes money.

    sounds like a good defense for a nuremberg styled trial.
  14. #34
    Originally posted by gadzooks That's very true.

    But I, personally, enjoy the rush of making bold suggestions at work.

    For one thing, unless what I'm working on is 100% customer-facing, I use python. I don't care what language they want it in. I give them code that does what they want it to do, but I do it in python. And, luckily, most of the work they have me do isn't customer facing, so I have that freedom.

    Like, as an example, they needed an AWS Lambda script to automatically search for and remove test/dummy Cognito users. The company generally uses JS/Node, but I was like "nobody but me has to actually see this code, so…" and I just wrote it in python.

    I mean, I know JS, and other languages of course, but Python is like executable pseudocode. If I want to get from idea to functioning code, python is by far the quickest route.

    the next guy who replaces you will have nightmares.
  15. #35
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Originally posted by vindicktive vinny im sure your skills isnt the only thing soft.

    My penis is always hard during interviews. The whole time. But when I stand up to shake their hand at the end I make sure to stand with my hands at my sides for a moment so my future employer, particularly if they're a woman, can appreciate what I bring to the bed, as well as what I bring to the table.
  16. #36
    GGG victim of incest [my veinlike two-fold aepyornidae]
    Originally posted by Lanny My penis is always hard during interviews. The whole time. But when I stand up to shake their hand at the end I make sure to stand with my hands at my sides for a moment so my future male employer can appreciate what I bring to the bed, as well as what I bring to the table.

    fixt
  17. #37
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Originally posted by GGG fixt

    Nothing wrong with that. You're the bi-guy around here my dude.
  18. #38
    WellHung Black Hole
    whats a job interview?
  19. #39
    Ghost Black Hole
    I keep setting up interviews and not going to the interview.

    Or I will get a job and quit a week later.

    I blame immigrants
  20. #40
    Originally posted by Lanny My penis is always hard during interviews. The whole time. But when I stand up to shake their hand at the end I make sure to stand with my hands at my sides for a moment so my future employer, particularly if they're a woman, can appreciate what I bring to the bed, as well as what I bring to the table.

    im sure they think its a prosthetic if you dont show it to them.
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