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You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

theregister.co.uk

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Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#91

Post by jpendry »

mhurron wrote: post #89
mgkimsal wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Broken in what sense? That "programming ability" is not the only criteria selected for? In this case, and in most interview cases, there's already been some vetting done via resume/portfolio/phone, and face to face interviews are as much about personality and team fit as they are about technical competence. Being able to demonstrate that you can think about others socially, include them in to a small ritual, and do i…

By your own words you were called not because any ability of yours stood out, but because you did the right thing to suck up on the right day. That makes it a good example of how little skill and ability mean in the interview process. That's broken; say the right thing or do the right thing and you're in.

Applying De Morgan's laws to fix how to determine if you're in or not then yields: say the wrong thing AND do the wrong thing

I would also like to point out that an ability of your parent poster clearly stood out, that of making themselves memorable. Hiring is a multivariate problem, focusing on just one of those variables could be the most broken solution within the space.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#92

Post by protomyth »

pagekalisedown wrote: post #50
salemh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

salary fee % n fee total 65000 0.2 3 39000 80000 0.2 2 32000 90000 0.2 1 18000 120000 0.2 1 24000 Simplistic EG (and a 2x 80,000 vs 120,000 is realistic), but, like a real estate agent, the cost of NOT closing the sale is greater then pushing for a marginal increase in the sale. EG salary, pushing for 115,000 vs 105,000 the difference in fee on 20% is 2,000. Which is ~200-400 dollars difference in commission. Losing…

Prefix a line with double spaces preserves the formatting: salary fee % n fee total 65000 0.2 3 39000 80000 0.2 2 32000 90000 0.2 1 18000 120000 0.2 1 24000

Your making some interesting assumptions like it is three times as easy to fill a $65k spot than a $120k spot. The recruiters I knew had pretty good contacts that gave them the ability to place highly paid salaries (Oracle DBA, SAP developer) at a pretty good clip, much better than the generic recruiter. Their shooting for the higher-end gave them the right reputation to do this well.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#93

Post by jiggy2011 »

MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #86
jiggy2011 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is getting people to understand the accomplishment especially if you have to do some heroic hack to get something mundane but important to work. Like this xkcd http://xkcd.com/664/

The cynic would say: Why were you working on a mundane problem? That's for some other nameless jr. dev to fix while you focus on the high-profile-yet-easy stuff.

True, maybe instead of working I should start producing weekly "website ROI & Key Performance Indicators Executive Report" and Email it to everyone.

All I would actually have to do is dump some google analytics screen shots into a word document..

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#94

Post by itmag »

What are your favorite career hacks?

A dude at a previous place of work took the following initiative: he emailed everyone at the company asking for their ideas for improvement, promising a daily prize in the form of movie tickets (which were presumably funded by upper management).

He did this for several weeks, collecting a ton of great, actionable ideas from the people in the trenches. It was all kinds of stuff, from IT to customer service to employee morale, etc.

Then, he went to upper management with a bunch of curated, highly relevant, enterprise-spanning improvement ideas. Win-win-win situation: employees get movie tickets and fixes, upper management gets a better-running business, idea-rally dude gets to take credit for all of it.

Brilliant move.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#95

Post by Roboprog »

orblivion wrote: post #84
hef19898 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not cynical only realistic and maybe a little bit sarcastic. The whole system is oscilating towards mediocracy (if such a word doesn't exist, I already apology for my English), and it seems a lot of companies, espacialy the big ones, have reached a point where the only choice left is either playing the game or try to get things done. The latter won't work. Regarding the pie picture, people care too much about the…

> mediocracy Just FYI, the word you're looking for is "mediocrity"

I like the original word better: a system of government by the middle? :-)

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#96

Post by billswift »

orblivion wrote: post #84
hef19898 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not cynical only realistic and maybe a little bit sarcastic. The whole system is oscilating towards mediocracy (if such a word doesn't exist, I already apology for my English), and it seems a lot of companies, espacialy the big ones, have reached a point where the only choice left is either playing the game or try to get things done. The latter won't work. Regarding the pie picture, people care too much about the…

> mediocracy Just FYI, the word you're looking for is "mediocrity"

I think his word choice was right, "mediocracy" means rule by the mediocre which definitely fits his comment.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#97

Post by billswift »

mvip wrote: post #61

...and that's why smart people avoid enterprises.

No, that's why honest people avoid enterprises. There are lots of smart people with slack morals working for big businesses and Wall Street. ADDED: There are also plenty of less smart and honest people working for big businesses on lower level jobs, I was just objecting to the claim that all smart people avoided them.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#98

Post by jyou »

My fellow readers, this article is definitely not cynicism or sarcasm, it has some very good suggestions for the "IT" people in corporate of America, especially Fortune 100.

If you think or use the word "hack" in your job, then it is not for you - and that is a good thing, isn't.

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#99

Post by hef19898 »

orblivion wrote: post #84
hef19898 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not cynical only realistic and maybe a little bit sarcastic. The whole system is oscilating towards mediocracy (if such a word doesn't exist, I already apology for my English), and it seems a lot of companies, espacialy the big ones, have reached a point where the only choice left is either playing the game or try to get things done. The latter won't work. Regarding the pie picture, people care too much about the…

> mediocracy Just FYI, the word you're looking for is "mediocrity"

Yeah, that'S what I was looking for. But after all it seems in getting it wrong I got it right in some way, didn't I? ;-)

Re: You're crap and paid too much for the little work you actually do

#100

Post by hef19898 »

orblivion wrote: post #84
hef19898 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not cynical only realistic and maybe a little bit sarcastic. The whole system is oscilating towards mediocracy (if such a word doesn't exist, I already apology for my English), and it seems a lot of companies, espacialy the big ones, have reached a point where the only choice left is either playing the game or try to get things done. The latter won't work. Regarding the pie picture, people care too much about the…

> mediocracy Just FYI, the word you're looking for is "mediocrity"

Yeah, that'S what I was looking for. But after all it seems in getting it wrong I got it right in some way, didn't I? ;-)
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