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My dad's resume and skills from 1980

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Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#381

Post by metadat »

aidenn0 wrote: post #163
QuarterReptile wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think much about the different platforms, it makes perfect sense that there are specific and varied requirements. Presumably they're pretty flexible about who flies a C-5, considering it's big enough to carry Chinooks or M-1 tanks [0]. OTOH, ejecting out of a fighter jet probably doesn't go very well if your knees are smashed up against the dashboard. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-5_Galaxy

Sitting height is just as important for safe ejections as leg length. My dad was 5'10" but with a tall sitting height and he was just barely under the safety line for a seat in an S-3.

Having short limbs and a long body can indicate the presence of a medical condition known as "Hypochrondroplasia".

> Hypochrondroplasia is a genetic disorder characterized by small stature and disproportionately short arms, legs, hands, and feet (short-limbed dwarfism). Short stature often is not recognized until early to mid childhood or, in some cases, as late as adulthood.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#382

Post by nomdep »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #253
nervousvarun wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We probably are close to the same age. My dad was an engineer who also learned to program FORTRAN in the 70's. When I asked him a similar question his reply was (quotes are paraphrased): "It was way too tedious to do. You'd spend hours getting the cards just right. We used to put them in a shoebox and mark them with a pen in case we dropped them on the way to the lab. Then you'd wait until the next day to get your re…

> "I didn't thought this thing about computers would go too far." I almost didn't major in Computer Science because in the late 90s, there were so many negative articles in the New York Times, vis-a-vis software. People don't remember it now, but the media and the culture were utterly hostile towards us, and loved to say our jobs were going to India, that everything there was to know about Computer Science could be s…

> ...in the late 90s, there were so many negative articles in the New York Times, vis-a-vis software

In retrospective, the New York Times is always wrong about everything. Maybe it should be adopted as a useful heuristic

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#383

Post by znpy »

freedomben wrote: post #370

Two thoughts immediately jump out to me: 1. As much proprietary stuff as we still have to deal with, we've really come a long way. 2. The approach that our parents took of working at one company for many years (or a whole career) (and retiring with a pension) really disappeared quickly.

Regarding 2. : I’d stay at a company many years no problem if that meant i could get a livable wage, start a family, buy a large enough house, save money AND save for a pension… all on a single income.

The reality though is that nowadays if you want to reach a salary level where you can start thinking about some of such things you have to do quite a bit of job hopping.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#384

Post by drewg123 »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #253
nervousvarun wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We probably are close to the same age. My dad was an engineer who also learned to program FORTRAN in the 70's. When I asked him a similar question his reply was (quotes are paraphrased): "It was way too tedious to do. You'd spend hours getting the cards just right. We used to put them in a shoebox and mark them with a pen in case we dropped them on the way to the lab. Then you'd wait until the next day to get your re…

> "I didn't thought this thing about computers would go too far." I almost didn't major in Computer Science because in the late 90s, there were so many negative articles in the New York Times, vis-a-vis software. People don't remember it now, but the media and the culture were utterly hostile towards us, and loved to say our jobs were going to India, that everything there was to know about Computer Science could be s…

I was using objdump and cordumps to debug a kernel crash just last week. Not tedious at all. More like working a difficult puzzle. And very rewarding if you figure it out and fix the crash.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#385

Post by stepanhruda »

VancouverMan wrote: post #244
itsoktocry wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's just business for crying out loud. Umm...there's some administrative and legal overhead related to hiring, firing or otherwise replacing an employee you seem to be overlooking.

Pretty much all of that is completely artificial, and only exists because it's imposed by government. Things would function just fine, if not a lot better, without such unnecessary burdens being forced on employers and employees.

This is such a terrible take worthy of not making it past Econ 101. Yes in theory a completely free labor market is cool. In practice, centuries of labor exploitation and history of workers’ right show that this will quickly devolve in employer’s favor.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#386

Post by eastbound »

nogridbag wrote: post #148
rmnclmnt wrote: post #6

Can we bring back this form of resume, please? Information is clearly organized, easy to read, easy to remember. No need for 5-star skills ratings, dual-colored backgrounds, unreadable fonts, and whatnot...

This resume has better UX than 80% of the resumes I've seen - which is particularly frustrating especially if it's a FE resume. These days I'm happy if the candidate can correctly spell the technology they claim to have been using the past N years. Most are full of bullet points with every other word bolded. If the bulleted skills list is greater than 5 lines chances are it has the same skill duplicated multiple time…

I need React devs but I’ve dropped the ball — I just hire Java people and they’re better at front-end. Usually more savvy about libraries, they at least ask who did the lib and what license it uses.

I’m sure thousands of competent frontendists exist but they’re drowned out by people from bootcamps who can’t even spell “bartender” properly (and I have a bartender who’s the best of the class in my team, so again, nothing is set in stone, but I was losing my time with front-endists).

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#387

Post by still_grokking »

triknomeister wrote: post #375
still_grokking wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nah, those were different times when bits and bytes mattered. Obviously not. We're talking about mundane business software. Also the "optimizing compiler" that couldn't reach such levels of "perfection" wouldn't be a thing if this would really matter. > Mel's tricks were just how things were done back then. Obviously not. Otherwise there wouldn't be any point in this story. It points out, with a lot emphasis, how e…

What are you smoking? :-P

I won't tell you.

But it's quite strong. B-)

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#388

Post by apurtbapurt »

aj7 wrote: post #320
nervousvarun wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We probably are close to the same age. My dad was an engineer who also learned to program FORTRAN in the 70's. When I asked him a similar question his reply was (quotes are paraphrased): "It was way too tedious to do. You'd spend hours getting the cards just right. We used to put them in a shoebox and mark them with a pen in case we dropped them on the way to the lab. Then you'd wait until the next day to get your re…

I learned Fortran 4 in high school in 1967-1968. That’s how good the NYC exam schools were — Stuyvesant in this case. We had our own 1130. This came in handy in college, I did the programming in a physics group, immediately. But it seemed too tedious to do as a career. I still feel that way.

So what you gonna do when you grow up? :-)

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#389

Post by unsignedint »

bobsmooth wrote: post #323
dottedmag wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the countries where this is practiced?

I know in Japan head shot and blood type are expected with a resume.

Headshot yes, blood type typically not. They do require to reveal a bit of other information including age, number of dependents, marital status, expected length of commute, etc.

Funniest aspect is that a lot of employers expect applicants to handwrite their resumes and some actually goes as far as rejecting non-handwritten resumes.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#390

Post by still_grokking »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #379
still_grokking wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was fascinated by this story as teenager. But looking back on it, I would say out of my current perspective this Mel guy was not a genius, but one of the worst programmers you could probably hire: He written unmaintainable and even unchangeable "write-once" code that was so complex that nobody else could handle it either. He refused to do what he was payed for and just went away as he lost interest. One of this kin…

He can be a genius to be admired while also being one of the worst programmers you could hire, at the same time. Someone to appreciate, but not to emulate. A highly optimized human being, optimized for the "wrong" thing. More in the realm of art than anything else.

Ok, take your up-vote. I think I can agree on that perspective.

Maybe that's even the point that makes me like the story as such very much.

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