Career Advice and Discussions

Ummm....

feeds@yuku.com (1Aussie1 1Aussie1 1Aussie1 Oi Oi Oi) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:05:54 GMT

Remind me where the private forum is again .... ?

Indenture

feeds@yuku.com (1Aussie1 1Aussie1 1Aussie1 Oi Oi Oi) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:22:57 GMT

The labour hire gig I have at present....no names, no pack drill..... has, sort of, offered me a permanent placement. What's freaking them out is the labour hire agency buyout. The previous guy to come on board in this way left too soon to warrant, in their minds, the several thou it cost. To grease the skids....I really need this gig, guys....I've offered to sign a contractual arrangement stipulating...

Open question: where do you find actual curmudgeons in IT today?

feeds@yuku.com (G0ddard B0lt) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:43:39 GMT

Don't say this board, please. No easy guesses.

It occurs to me that all we hear about are companies that only hire young kids, and age bias in hiring in IT. I have not heard of companies or groups that keep around a pen of "real programmers" or older IT people.

Are there even older IT people any more with a few rare exceptions?

I'm quite serious - I am struggling with a blog article on...

Getting Into IT Security? Opinions?

feeds@yuku.com (ilconsiglliere) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:56:03 GMT

I am contemplating making an IT career switch. Want to hear others thoughts about it.

My background is very broad ranging from Unix OS development/app programming/systems admin, dba (oracle, db2, ims), architecture, MVS programming (Cobol, IMS, DB2), Windows, systems/business analysis, project/program management, IT cost management and IT vendor management. I know its a lot of stuff but the longest I was in one area was when I was involved with Unix. I am more of a jack of all...

Join Mensa and put on resume somewhere?

feeds@yuku.com (I D Shukhov) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:01:34 GMT

I think this has been discussed, but I can't remember what the advice is. I saw on an IT resume, which I thought was good, that the author had worked in the fact that he was a member of Mensa. I then went to the Mensa site and saw that I qualify based on an old GRE score from the 1980's. Is it worthwhile to pay them the $40 evaluation + $80 membership to join and then put it on my resume?

As a humorous aside, I'm almost thinking that I don't want to join if they...

Anybody here make money from their website?

feeds@yuku.com (benali72) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:22:36 GMT

Anybody here make money from their website?

If so, is it directly from the website (like ads)?

Or from add-on sales, or visitor donations, or selling your services through the website?

Or whatever?

It seems to me you'd have to have a really popular site to make money from ads, add-on sales, or visitor donations. But that's just my experience.

Some takeaways from a NY Times article about a job listing

feeds@yuku.com (G0ddard B0lt) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:57:46 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/us/22hire.html?em

C.R. England, a nationwide trucking company, needed an administrative assistant for its bustling driver training school here. Responsibilities included data entry, assembling paperwork and making copies.
It was a bona-fide opening at a decent wage, making it the rarest of...

Has anyone tried freelance teaching?

feeds@yuku.com (I D Shukhov) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:44:42 GMT

I'm thinking about something like How To Make Your PC Secure. The idea would be teach a class of 5-10 adults @ $75-$100 for 2 hours. A potential market might be anywhere where there are a lot of retirees. Some short day-trips might be required. One such class, 25 weeks a year, would then yield 10 - 25K / year. And the number of How-To classes/subjects could always be increased: e.g SAT classes to highschoolers,...

1st Rule in Creativity

feeds@yuku.com (pm4hire) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:48:05 GMT

Ignore Everybody!

SAAS is the way to go

feeds@yuku.com (Dennis Nedry) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:37:22 GMT

I think the best way to make money in I.T. is to build yourself a SAAS business. Pick a solution widely used by business, and dive in. Go for something where the average billing is going to be 500/month or more per customer. Target SMB, MidMarket, and Enterprise. Build it in .NET.

I just had lunch with a guy who built a SAAS service company you never heard of, and he's worth about 100M. He started from scratch 10 years ago. Another guy I know makes 4M per year out of...

A Business Idea - Opinions

feeds@yuku.com (Dennis Nedry) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:25:00 GMT

Here's a business idea that occurred to me because of a few conversations I've had with some business owners.

A lot of companies want to bring in contractors for project work, but have no idea how to scope or manage the project. What about offering a service for project management/ hiring contractors for small and mid-sized businesses? Most company managers have no clue when it comes to ways of hiring, W-2 vs. 1099, outsourcing, e-lance, etc. Many don't know the...

Failure Builds Character

feeds@yuku.com (pm4hire) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:50:49 GMT

As a project manager, I've had similar experiences depicted
in this video. Click here to learn more.

Open ended question: how important is self confidence for finding gigs?

feeds@yuku.com (G0ddard B0lt) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:19:58 GMT

I am interested in people's reflections on this subject.

How confidently do you present yourself to prospects?

How much self confidence do you have?

Does the presence of a third party (broker) in between you and the end client mess with your self confidence?

Or does your self confidence get seriously tested when dealing directly with a client?

What tears down your self confidence? What builds it up?

And can you actually fake it...

Looking for a major lifestyle change

feeds@yuku.com (unix) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:32:29 GMT

Sick to death of living in Wash. DC metro area with a perpetual feeling of going nowhere. I am supposed to be grateful because "I have a job" but somehow I am not, I want something more than that.

First, the RE prices are exorbitant, I don't see how I will *ever* afford real estate without going into major debt for decades, something that is against my "religion". I suppose I could but I don't really want to, or have to. I have zero debt at the...

#5 "Best" Job Drawback: Staff jobs can be outsourced to consultants

feeds@yuku.com (I D Shukhov) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:09:54 GMT

5. Information Technology Project Manager

Median salary (experienced): $98,700
Top pay: $140,000
Job growth (10-year forecast): 16%
Sector: Information Technology

What they do: Keep big tech projects like software upgrades running on time--and on budget. "We bring order to chaos," says April Ellison,...

Are resumes passe?

feeds@yuku.com (I D Shukhov) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:46:10 GMT

I was looking at the following blog yesterday: http://icoloma.blogspot.com/

It's not unlike dozens of other young software developer blogs I've seen. The thing is, nowhere could I find a resume for this guy. Are resumes out of date? Would one do much better to have a blog that gives someone a better feeling of what you know and what you can do? Something that is updated...

How should I go about selling myself @ $25/hr offsite?

feeds@yuku.com (ITWhore) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:19:22 GMT

For those who have been not following the Coffee talk, I will be going bankrupt, and have explained my situation there.

Anyway, with that burden to be lifted away, I am thinking that I can go market myself as just a regular coder who can do regular things in C++, C#, WinForms, ASP.NET, SQL, and soon to be WPF, WCF, LINQ, JavaScript, XML, etc. - whatever I can learn - I should be able to market myself to a client at a rock bottom rate of $25/hr (1099) for work that is spec'd out...

Is Google one of the the best employers?

feeds@yuku.com (Peter Codewrite) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:05:22 GMT

Of course like everything you read on the net you have to take this with a grain of salt ...

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9qeuq/i_quit_my_job_as_a_google_engineer_after_1_year/

Q:

"There were so many things that...

What was the best company you worked for?

feeds@yuku.com (Peter Codewrite) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:56:31 GMT

Either full time or contract.

( We always hear about the bad companies - let's focus on the good companies for a while. )

FTE Mindset

feeds@yuku.com (TRexx) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:08:32 GMT

It's been along time since I had to actually go to an office every day and see hoards of FTEs in action. The folks at my current gig seem to forget that less than year ago their company almost went the way of Lehman Bros. But instead of being thankful they still have jobs, they (and management) are rolling along as if nothing happened. Some of the things I see are rather funny and reinforce my decision to go into contracting.

The current hot topic is the dress code. When I...