Job Offer

The dreading email arrived yesterday with a job offer. This means I got the job I thought I tanked.

The salary and benefits were almost the same as I expected. It’s likely that I will accept this job for the following reasons:

1. Cover my basic life’s expenses.
2. Diversify my daily routine a little bit. I’m not the type who can stay all the time in front of the computer cranking out posts after posts.
3. X is a big international company, so I will definitely meet new friends, expanding my people circle. Currently, I know only a 3 or 4 people in the Czech Republic.
4. I need to interact with more people on a daily basis, or else I will go insane for spending the bulk of my time on solitary hobbies and projects.
5. A regular job will help give me a structured and balanced frame I need to concentrate on my personal projects which will take some time to be fruitful.

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Technorati Tags: Bohemian Biz, Job

1 Thing Nobody Told You NOT-TO-DO Before Your Job Interview

Setup a blog to showcase your resume (perfectly okay). Link the blog to your job application (brilliantly logical). Then post about “Your Ideal Job.”

(*) A few months ago, I picked up the book “10 simple solutions to adult with ADD” and read the part about ideal jobs for adults with ADD. I said “Wow,” jotted it down and posted it on the blog with a professional resume.

Here is the slightly modified list of ideal jobs:

• Fast-paced
• Change different tasks every day
• Allow you to move around the job during the day
• Support from assistant
• Intellectually stimulating
• Multi task
• Have firm due date for projects
• Offer frequent feedback
• Clear expectation
• Flexible schedule
• Include interaction with other people

I included the resume blog on a few job applications and forgot soon after. None of my previous job interviewers mentioned it so I thought it was no big deal.

Until this guy. “I saw your site and read about your ideal job, does this job fit at all to your ideal job?”

Busted. My cheeks (the ones on my face) were getting hot as I tried a little bit too hard to come up with a clever troubleshoot. (You’ll understand my word choice in a second.)

Now, you probably wonder what kind of job this interview was for. Let imagine this scenario:

Caller: Hello, I just lost my password, can you help me to recover it?
Me: Sure, no problem. What is your login name?
Caller2: Hi, My computer is down, don’t know why, can you help?
Me: Sure. Just a sec. (Frantically flipping through a troubleshoot manual to find the solution to this caller problem.

• Fast-paced: Might be.
• Task changing: You mean the callers asking me different questions?
• Moving around the job: not too often
• Assistant support: Are you kidding? Do you mean the people who forward the callers to me?
• Intellectually stimulating: You betcha.
• Multi-task: Let see, I can talk to about 5 callers at the same time or talking and playing around with my desk. Definitely.
• Have firm due date for projects: Yup. 5 mins per call.
• Offer frequent feedback: Oh yeah. The callers’ constant thanks when their problem solved or instant rage when they suspect that I’m about to end their calls.
• Clear expectation: Don’t worry. There is a daily, weekly, and yearly quotas of how many calls come in.
• Flexible schedule: Of course. There is more than one working shift.
• Include interaction with other people: This is the nature of the job.

Side note: By the time I finished this post, I had eaten two pieces of bread, boiled me a cup of tea, cleaned up some of my MS Outlook’s junk, suddenly discovered an old note titled “Increase your web traffic in a week by Jerry Lee Ford” and read a few feeds. If you don’t get this part, go back to the paragraph with (*).

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Tags: Bohemian Biz, Job Interview, ADD/ADHD

Know How to Write a Loop and You Might Snatch that Programming Job

Speaking on behalf of software engineers who have to interview prospective new hires, I can safely say that we’re tired of talking to candidates who can’t program their way out of a paper bag. If you can successfully write a loop that goes from 1 to 10 in every language on your resume, can do simple arithmetic without a calculator, and can use recursion to solve a real problem, you’re already ahead of the pack!

Well it’s not that simple. Read what this software engineer has to say, very practical, cut-to-the-point advices for CS students and those who prepare for their technical interview.

There are also links to other programming job-interview resources.

[via reddit]

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What to do when phone contacting our potential employers?

Contact potential employers by phone

• Be prepared – have a script at the ready. Not leaving a voice message unless it is clear you are not going to get the person live.
• Keep notes and keep track of your calls and contacts. Include the date & time, the contacts name and phone/email. Where did you find this contact (or who gave you the persons name and how do you know that person). And of course, the results of the call – and next steps. Yellow stickies in a situation where you could not keep track of the calls and contacts. The then put together a simple form and a note book.

Content taken from Job Stuff

Phone interview
Phone contact might be less effective with the lack of non-verbal communication. You can not sell yourself much unless you are verbally persuasive. However, for those who are easily intimidated in stressful situation like a face-to-face interview, phone contact might give them the extra confidence that would have vanished if they have to eye-contact the interviewers. Plus in phone interview, you don’t have to worry about the extra factors: looks and behaviors, instead you can focus on your strengths, skills, and talents, and sell them.
Although I get nervous in a traditional job interview, I still prefer face to face with the interviewers or my potential employers because I am an animated speaker. My personality is revealed through the way I speak. Without seeing me, people might as well read the script I prepare for myself and make an educational guess. Plus I like to be able to evaluate the big boss for whom I am about to work.