Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:20 am**

Right, I don't think what we're saying is that incongruous. If we were in an interview and I asked you that question, and you answered "I've never code outside of school or work", my follow-up would be, "why not?" and you'd say something to the effect of what you just said "I like to seek better solutions to do things, but code a tool I use to do that in my work life". I would naturally say "Cool, tell me about a time you found a better solution to something for fun." The point is to identify the passion for the work, not seeing a list of tests that were passed on a CV.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:02 am**

Good deal. I just have an aversion to the whole coding as a hobby, passion thing as something that is required to get a job.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:00 pm**

I applied for a job at a weed company today. Sadly, it was just as an IT manager and not a QC tester.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:02 pm**

Ænima wrote:My first interview question is "Tell me about something you built that wasn't for work or school". In my mind what we do is a kind of magic. We can build anything we want, and in my experience, people who just build what they're told won't pull their weight.

If only I could get people to just build what they’re told.

That opening question is a variation of what I do. When I review a resume, I’m looking for the kinds of things that they’ve worked on that they are representing as something that they played a meaningful role. Sometimes it’s a job, other times it’s something outside of their listed work experience.

The idea is to get them talking about something that they should know well, and are familiar enough to talk comfortably about it.

When I’m being interviewed, I usually do a similar thing there I focus on something that they do well, that perhaps a previous employer didn’t, and dig into how they overcame the problems that we couldn’t (so at least I learn something).

Oftentimes the conversation has very little to do with the actual job. I trust my ability to figure out if you know what you’re doing from our conversation. At that point it’s less important what you know. What can you learn?

No one comes into my current job with domain knowledge, and even on the technology side, we are generally so far behind the curve (military) that most candidates won’t know what we do (who coming out of school has any chance of knowing anything about running Microsoft Foundation Classes on Windows CE to support Artillery fire control?).

I need to know if you can learn it.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:21 pm**

What artillery work have you done outside of work or school?

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:48 pm**

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:21 pm What artillery work have you done outside of work or school?

Does potato cannon count?

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:53 pm**

Isgrimnur wrote:What artillery work have you done outside of work or school?

Exactly. Now, you can show up to this job with a lot of artillery experience, but not programming it.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:48 pm**

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:21 pm What artillery work have you done outside of work or school?

Is this a shot at me?

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 4:29 pm**

Not specifically. After all, artillery is more of an area effect.

It's a common theme for the vet tech slack advice for transitioning service members to have a stable of projects in addition to their education.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 4:40 pm**

Posted: **Sun Nov 29, 2020 12:29 am**

I've gotta admit, during this biggest e-Christmas of all time, I kind of miss running Curio City. But only kind-of. Aspects of it were fun, but it was a lot of work for little pay, and the tiny fraction of asshole customers made it a chronic PITA.

My income from Blue Hills this year will double Curio City's best-ever (payroll, not gross income -- 85% of BH revenue goes to payroll vs. 20% of CC's sales). It's not an impressive number because I only work 2-4 hours a day, but I consider it impressive for only working 2-4 hours a day. And unlike customers, all my clients love me.

Posted: **Sun Nov 29, 2020 12:38 am**

Got 3 phone/online interviews lined up for next few days. We'll see which one of them will get me into 2nd round. One customer service, one autonomous vehicle tester, and third... well, more of a technical support.

I am still applying of course, but I am tired of sitting at home.

Posted: **Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:47 pm**

Got an interview tomorrow with the weed company. Interviews are good...there's been so few in the past 6 months.

Posted: **Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:42 pm**

Strange, just got ghosted for my first interview, but scheduling something for Monday at 10AM is probably a mistake on my part. I had hoped he was free by then, even got a "confirmation" from Calendrly. Rescheduled for 1330. We'll see if he responds. I can try again tomorrow.

EDIT: I think he's not checking his email, and Calendrly was answering "confirmation" without him. Still showing him as available? I'm not rescheduling.

Just had my real interview today, I guess it went ok, but then I thought the previous one went okay too until I got the rejection notice.

There's one more for tomorrow. In the meanwhile, MORE resumes!

Posted: **Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:40 pm**

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:31 am
Ænima wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 11:55 pm "Tell me about something you built that wasn't for work or school"
I don't code outside work or school . I have other hobbies.

Yeah this would be an early exit for me as an interviewee. If you are looking for that guy, keep looking. I guess I could talk about the Formula D website... that may be the only thing I have built that wasn't for work or school in the past couple decades. Oh there was also the Letters from Whitechapel that I gave up on. Maybe I should revisit that... I know a LOT more than I did then.

Posted: **Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:26 pm**

Second interview went less well than I expected, but it's not a total washout. I am apparently bad on interviews, as I tend to talk a lot when I am nervous.

Posted: **Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:27 pm**

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:40 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:31 am
Ænima wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 11:55 pm "Tell me about something you built that wasn't for work or school"
I don't code outside work or school . I have other hobbies.
Yeah this would be an early exit for me as an interviewee. If you are looking for that guy, keep looking. I guess I could talk about the Formula D website... that may be the only thing I have built that wasn't for work or school in the past couple decades. Oh there was also the Letters from Whitechapel that I gave up on. Maybe I should revisit that... I know a LOT more than I did then.

Either of those would work fine. And it’s not an early exit, it just part of the picture.

Posted: **Tue Dec 01, 2020 6:32 pm**

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:26 pm Second interview went less well than I expected, but it's not a total washout. I am apparently bad on interviews, as I tend to talk a lot when I am nervous.

This happened to me a bit today. I need more practice, once a month (average since June) isn't enough.

I'm pretty sure I answered one question correctly:

"Why do you want to work for our company?"

My answer: "I'd love to be involved in the excitement of a growing industry. Especially after spending 10 years in a dying one."

Probably wrong answer: "Company discount on product."

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:21 am**

Found yet another good position and applied, and they just replied. I am scheduling interview on December 9 (next week). It may be a better fit as it's closer to my field of technical support. We'll see which one I can get for sure.

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:14 am**

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:26 pm Second interview went less well than I expected, but it's not a total washout. I am apparently bad on interviews, as I tend to talk a lot when I am nervous.

It was helpful for me to work with a recruiting agency for a while way back when. They actually get feedback from clients about what they did or didn't like about a candidate and shared it with me.

My first couple interviews through them came back as "too eager" and the recruiter told me to calm down, pretend I didn't need the job so badly and relax. My next interview came back with "didn't seem to want to be there" so he asked me to turn up the enthusiasm just a little. I landed the fourth one.

Interviewers seem to be scared off by the smells of desperation and indifference.

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 2:36 pm**

So far, the only recruiters that tried to call are Indians in India with US phone numbers.

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 4:39 pm**

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:11 pm
malchior wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:05 pm
coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 08, 2020 2:27 pm I give job fit interviews on the regular and am certified and have given many behavioral interviews as well. I am about 80% certain if I had to go through my employer's current interview process, I would not be hired.
I just went through a final round for a well-known tech company. 5 hours of interviews and an additional 1 with the interim head of the department. Only 1 was technical in the area involved for an Engineering Management spot! I'll find out next week but the interviews were off the wall IMO. I get values based interviews but 3 of them overlapped so much that I wish I had done them as a panel.
I did not find out the next week. I heard nothing and sent a note out about a week later thanking them for the interview and to reach out if they need anything more. I heard nothing and expected they passed.

Today nearly 4 weeks later I get an email that they still hadn't decided and wanted to know if I my situation changed. To put a start point around this, I started talking to them in late August. Now it's late October and they are still kicking it around. At this point, I don't know if I'd take it if they offered it. I'm about to hit the bench after a 3 year project and it'll be nice if I can take some time to decompress and upskill in the meantime.

And to coda this I didn't get an offer. I did get a courtesy email back but I knew because I saw them re-advertise this position. They've been trying to hire for it since at least June. Vaya con dios time wasters. Anyway, I hit the bench the beginning of November and got some AWS certs in my pure boredom. I also knocked out a few backlog games - aka the decompress.

That said, I've been very unhappy with my current work situation. I'm ridiculously underutilized. I'm getting paid to play Assassin's Creed pretty much right now waiting for a project to come along. Since I'm in a safe place, I haven't been actively searching but instead letting recruiters come to me. I'm in a hot field and passive is fine considering I'm drawing a paycheck watching training videos all day. Just before Thanksgiving a recruiter reached out about an immediate need.

The recruiter is hunting for a position at a competing firm where a decent cadre of people from my current firm all went to over the last 2-3 years. Two calls today later and I'm 99% sure I'm moving on to that competing firm. The first call was a catch up with a former colleague and the second with the head of the division I'd be reporting to. He had talked to *another former colleague* who boosted me by telling a story about how I saved his bacon on a project and it was clear he was selling me the company and not vice versa. So we agreed to terms on the phone and I'm waiting for an offer letter to come tomorrow morning most likely. That was one of the easiest "job searches" I've had in a long time.

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 5:49 pm**

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:39 pm**

Sweet can I have your job?

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:00 pm**

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:39 pm Sweet can I have your job?

I got the offer letter already in my inbox. As to my old job - if you want it...more people are leaving than joining so there are technically openings.

Posted: **Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:33 pm**

Okay, two more rejections, one was technically past the initial interview, probably decided I was too old. The other one I sent in a resume like a MONTH ago. Sure took them a while. We'll see if the other one will decide soon, hopefully before the Holidays. Next interview is next week.

Posted: **Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:24 pm**

Looks like the company I am working for now is being acquired by a larger company in the same vertical -- I was worried about trying to find a new job in the middle of a pandemic (There's lots of work in info sec, but I've climbed up the ladder quite a ways now and these types of roles aren't around as much) - but I received a retention bonus letter that pays me a fair bit of cash if I hang out until the end of 2021 (or if they terminate me early for being redundant). Either way it's enough to see me through to the vaccinated promised land.. If I'm to lose my job I'd like for that to happen in May so I can take the summer totally off.

Anyhow for all I know they will retain me in the new company too - my internet searching hasn't pulled up anyone in Canada working for them with a similar title; and the CEO seems to appreciate the work I do (and he's probably being taken on in the new company as well). Interesting times.

Posted: **Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:25 pm**

Posted: **Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:41 pm**

Well, I am getting rejection notices, so it's at least proof that it's getting past the ATS. Just got another one from a local company. It was a longshot as they are hiring younger people, and I am guessing they see enough of my job to notice I'm kinda old. Oh well.

I am changing my email address for grins to a @techie.com domain

The second job with interview didn't pan out either. I thought I was very professional talking about my customer support experience but I think I may have bombed my interview when I started talking about my technical experience instead. *sigh*

We'll see how the next one goes.

EDIT: Another application rejection. At least this one didn't say "not moving forward".

Posted: **Sat Dec 05, 2020 9:30 am**

Got rejection notice from weed company yesterday. No victory bong for me.

Posted: **Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:12 am**

I resigned my position as a nurse manager in October. The stress was causing health problems and emotional strain I could no longer handle.

I have accepted a position in an ICU that I'll start after I'm done with crisis nursing. I'm in Texas right now. I start working Monday.

Posted: **Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:01 pm**

Xmann wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:12 am I resigned my position as a nurse manager in October. The stress was causing health problems and emotional strain I could no longer handle.

crazy that working as a nurse manager is more stressful then working as a nurse in a covid ICU...

i am finding that a number of offers i'm getting over the past 6-9 months (Software Development Engineer in Test, Software Test Engineer and similar titles) have been _seriously_ lowballing on salary. one today was exactly half what i'm currently making! needless to say i am not taking them.

Posted: **Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:10 pm**

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:01 pm
Xmann wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:12 am I resigned my position as a nurse manager in October. The stress was causing health problems and emotional strain I could no longer handle.

crazy that working as a nurse manager is more stressful then working as a nurse in a covid ICU...

i am finding that a number of offers i'm getting over the past 6-9 months (Software Development Engineer in Test, Software Test Engineer and similar titles) have been _seriously_ lowballing on salary. one today was exactly half what i'm currently making! needless to say i am not taking them.

My wife is working at a nursing home where currently her unit is the only one not currently being ravage by Covid. She said the staff for the entire second floor of the building is out with it. Her one day off ever other week schedule continues, tomorrow's scheduled off day was canceled, so the next scheduled one is Tuesday. She's starting to doubt she'll be off on Xmas as originally planned.

Some days she's so depressed, there's a high mortality rate for nursing home patients and she's lost more than a few. That these people are dying alone upsets her most from a cultural stand point. Today though was an upbeat day, no additional cases that came to her attention, she passed another Covid test (twice weekly now) and we went hiking for almost 2 hours along challenging mountain biking trails just across the river from us (5 miles to get there, but we just finally "discovered" the place 2 days ago). This morning she sent a video regarding someone running a chicken farm operation, which is what she wants to go do in the Philippines. A few weeks ago, she told me about the condo in Manila she bought into. Today she admitted she also bought land in the province for her chicken farm, and some (but not all) building materials. Her intention remains creating the chicken farm and managing it remotely, and the condo paying for itself via AirBnB until we're truly ready to retire there.

Meanwhile, I got another interview tomorrow. The company is Harbor Freight Tools, not as much fun as the weed company would have been, but probably more practical a company discount as a homeowner. The job requirements are extremely well aligned with my skills, but I'm suspecting the salary is going to be an issue.

Posted: **Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:13 pm**

Jeff V wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:10 pm
hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 5:01 pm
Xmann wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:12 am I resigned my position as a nurse manager in October. The stress was causing health problems and emotional strain I could no longer handle.

crazy that working as a nurse manager is more stressful then working as a nurse in a covid ICU...

i am finding that a number of offers i'm getting over the past 6-9 months (Software Development Engineer in Test, Software Test Engineer and similar titles) have been _seriously_ lowballing on salary. one today was exactly half what i'm currently making! needless to say i am not taking them.
My wife is working at a nursing home where currently her unit is the only one not currently being ravage by Covid. She said the staff for the entire second floor of the building is out with it. Her one day off ever other week schedule continues, tomorrow's scheduled off day was canceled, so the next scheduled one is Tuesday. She's starting to doubt she'll be off on Xmas as originally planned.

Some days she's so depressed, there's a high mortality rate for nursing home patients and she's lost more than a few. That these people are dying alone upsets her most from a cultural stand point. Today though was an upbeat day, no additional cases that came to her attention, she passed another Covid test (twice weekly now) and we went hiking for almost 2 hours along challenging mountain biking trails just across the river from us (5 miles to get there, but we just finally "discovered" the place 2 days ago). This morning she sent a video regarding someone running a chicken farm operation, which is what she wants to go do in the Philippines. A few weeks ago, she told me about the condo in Manila she bought into. Today she admitted she also bought land in the province for her chicken farm, and some (but not all) building materials. Her intention remains creating the chicken farm and managing it remotely, and the condo paying for itself via AirBnB until we're truly ready to retire there.

Meanwhile, I got another interview tomorrow. The company is Harbor Freight Tools, not as much fun as the weed company would have been, but probably more practical a company discount as a homeowner. The job requirements are extremely well aligned with my skills, but I'm suspecting the salary is going to be an issue.

Yeah...if their salaries are priced anything like their tools, good luck.

Posted: **Thu Dec 10, 2020 5:00 pm**

stimpy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:13 pm Yeah...if their salaries are priced anything like their tools, good luck.

They aren't exactly offering a lofty job title for this position, so yeah. OTOH, if they can manage the magic acronym, "WFH," I can make it work for a lot less than I used to make.

Posted: **Thu Dec 10, 2020 5:09 pm**

Got another interview, and this one seems to have gone pretty well. But then she mentioned the hiring timeline... The actual hire time would be in January. and I would know if I get to the next round by next week.

Nothing else at the moment. Still applying, but not much progress. At least I'm writing better cover letters and resumes. (I think)

Posted: **Thu Dec 10, 2020 6:18 pm**

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 5:09 pm Got another interview, and this one seems to have gone pretty well. But then she mentioned the hiring timeline... The actual hire time would be in January. and I would know if I get to the next round by next week.

Nothing else at the moment. Still applying, but not much progress. At least I'm writing better cover letters and resumes. (I think)

It was odd, the weed company seemed very concerned about any other irons I might have had in the fire. But at approximately none, it didn't encourage a next round of interviews, only a "fuck you very much" email.

Posted: **Fri Dec 11, 2020 4:25 pm**

stimpy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 4:13 pm Yeah...if their salaries are priced anything like their tools, good luck.

And prognostication was correct. This would be about a 20% salary hit from my old job, which was consider to have already been underpaid compared with industry standards. However, the recruiter did seem very excited to be talking to me, and frankly it appears the job description could have been written from my resume. It's going to be at a new distribution center opening in Joliet (1 hour commute, no WFH). Some period of training to be done at their distribution center near their corporate HQ north of Los Angeles. It is a growing company (rare it would seem in the retail world), and they do give bonuses, which would close the gap some. If annual increases can at least beat inflation, I'll be back to where I was in a couple of years. Next interview would be a zoom with the hiring manager and a couple of peers. Might hear more by the end of the day.

Since they are putting together a whole new team, I also sent a message to a former minion who worked at our Bolingbrook logistics center. I told the HR lady that even if they pass on me they ought to make a pitch to get him. In April, he requested a transfer to a packaging plant that he also supported...a nominal thing, since he'd still be spending the same amount of time in each location, but would have been protected from getting sold off. Boss said he had nothing to worry about...and now he finds himself sold off to a company he is not particularly interested in staying with.

Posted: **Fri Dec 11, 2020 7:52 pm**

Got second interview scheduled for Wednesday with the hiring manager and my two would-be peers (same position at distribution centers in California and South Carolina). I have a good feeling that if I don't fuck it up, my chances are good.

Posted: **Fri Dec 11, 2020 8:03 pm**

After being unemployed since June I started a new job on Monday. I had to drive down to Wichita for training and spent the entire week down there.

I just got home an hour ago. I will have to give this job some time to see if I like it or not.

Octopus Overlords

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