The Water Cooler

@PatoSáinz In all honesty though, I've made a (less atrocious) version of that as a cover letter. I used the company's website layout for introducing products and adapted it to promote myself instead. It didn't work, but I was very pleased with the finished product anyway.

Anonymous

@jmac that's cringeworthy, i tihnk

@PatoSáinz Why? I mean, if you have hundreds of candidates applying for a position, what is wrong with doing something that stands out?

Anonymous

12:40 AM

@jmac >implying HR droids know their own website

Anonymous

also, I misread your idea, I thought you did a "My Little Cover Letter"

@PatoSáinz The company I applied for was the type I'd assume has the HR people actually using their website/products, but I could always be wrong. I know my current company definitely wouldn't have the first clue, but my current company is in a very different industry.

Anonymous

@jmac oh ok

Anonymous

also, did that company had a nice-looking website?

@PatoSáinz Yes.

1:31 AM

@jmac That's a very volatile topic. If you look at my Facebook feed, you'd think the end is near.... which does lead me to ask... what's up with Fukishima?

@jmort253 That's a very volatile topic. If you look at my Facebook feed, you'd think the end is near.... Though in all honesty, it would seem as if it's being handled, the long-term impacts to humans have been much smaller than they could have been, and barring any serious unforeseen problems with cleaning up the spent fuel rods, the worst is behind.

(from foreigners in japan, there seem to be two major sides regarding Fukushima. One refuse to believe anything TEPCO says due to the inept handling of the crisis in the early days., and start posting alarmist articles from people not qualified to say one way or another. The other look at what the official reports are about what's going on from Japanese and international authorities, and figure things will be fine)

1:58 AM

@jmac I know people who are out of work, but I also know people doing quite well, economically speaking...

I can say the decision to get a computer science degree worked out well for me.

As to the volatility, I think this explains some of the hype:

cracked.com/blog/…

Cracked is awesome.

@jmort253 Yeah, I suppose there isn't really an authoritative answer as to whether or not I will be able to find a job. Living overseas makes it virtually impossible to apply for positions effectively due to the time difference and handicap of signaling issues with relocation and start-dates and coordination.

@jmac I'd say the key is preparation.

Having money in the bank, enough to live for 6 months of expenses, including the job-hunting expenses, is key.

Also, I want to suggest that being a professional or in some professional field will yield much better results.

Most of the people I know who are out of work either don't have 4 year degrees or have degrees that aren't in high demand.

Having a positive attitude and outlook....

you'd be surprised how many people here have a poor attitude and expect to just get hired....

I hope you're reading that Cracked article.... David Wong is a freaking genius!

:)

@jmort253 Money isn't an issue. Nor is lack of professional skills (though I may want to swap industries). I will read the cracked article when I get home (promise).

I have a 4 year degree, I've been in the same industry for the past 7 years doing sales/contract negotiation, which is pretty universal at any rate.

Having a positive attitude is probably something I can muster. It's just the crippling doubt and uncertainty that gives me pause.

@jmac I believe that if you put your mind to something, you can do anything.

@jmort253 Yeah, I suggest working in Japan for a decade to put that hypothesis to the test. It is a different (soul-crushing at times) world here.

2:12 AM

My grandmother always told us that, and I can't really think of a time when she's been wrong.... at least not about that.

In my 10 years in Japan, I have seen people who want to do anything end up giving up and compromising because the act of changing takes at least a decade in most companies here, and it's a career killer if you actually push change that someone above you doesn't want.

I've seen very talented people tossed in positions where they are told, "You can cause the least trouble here. You will never be promoted or listened to by anyone of value in this company again. Do your best to keep your nose clean."

@jmac I don't have experience with Japanese business culture, but my grandmother's analogy still holds true. The difference may involve a slightly different approach or finding a different employer. Sometimes doing anything can mean doing something different.

Change in the US is even something greatly feared.

@jmort253 Not many people swap jobs in Japan. It is career suicide in many cases. I would estimate that 98% of the employees of my company have never worked in any other company in their life, and it is similar for most companies in Japan. Not to say your grandmother's advice is bad, it just isn't realistic in all situations.

Q: Improving the System to Deal with Bad Answers

2:44 AM

Also, I added the improvement to handling poor answers question to meta.so with a bit of simplification based on Shog's advice:

0

When someone asks a bad question, the closed question system is designed to have three goals: Prevent bad questions from causing harm as-is Allow time for editing/improvement of the question Auto-cleanup if the question is closed and not edited/improved With answers, we don't have that same l...

Q: What should I do about the discovery that a manager is not flushing the workplace toilet after use?

4:56 AM

@jmac - Hmm, I guess I didn't think that folks would try to answer the cw post...

But you handled it well. :)

gnat

7:43 AM

can we please flush this stinkin' repetitive nonsence away somehow?

5

Several months ago, our small company (around 20 people), hired a marketing manager (which is a new position within this company, he doesn't actually have any marketers to manage). It was not long after this time that I would use the toilet in one of our offices, and discover that someone had de...

work-environment manager

I could cool it down by title edit but it stinks too much of repetition and hotness desire

10:02 AM

Hi Jen, welcome to The Workplace. I'm sorry to hear that you feel treated unfairly and I'm even more sorry to have to tell you, that questions about legal advice are off-topic for this site. You have to ask a lawyer about this. — CMW 42 secs ago

gnat

11:17 AM

What's wrong with downvoting bad answers? — Bill the Lizard 9 hours ago

Feb 28 at 6:36, by gnat

whenever I read what these guys write it just screams: educate me

Q: Protected questions and editing

11:48 AM

what are edits from anonymous users?

gnat

12:02 PM

@CMW in high view posts, these are sometimes used to sneak in spam. Otherwise, these can be normal suggestions...

16

I have an answer on Ask Different that gets 2-3 spam edits a day. The other two answers also receive near daily spam edits when the posts are not locked. The question has been protected however this just seems to stop new answers could the protection be changed to stop edit suggestions by those ...

feature-request protected-questions anonymous

0

Q: Copying a question that had a misfortune of being widely exposed in the hot list

This question had a misfortune to be widely exposed in the hot list: Some of the employees don't check if everything has been flushed properly and that the bowl is clean Newer question is a slight variation of above, and is in the hot list too (why wouldn't it, having magic combination of wor...

discussion questions quality hot-questions

Q: What to do when a team of mature programmers won't support a new younger tech lead?

Actually it was this one:

workplace.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/8695

and had me kind of confused, because it reads like by the OP, but is anonymous

Different topic: is it possible that SE is being DDos-ed again? Certain parts seem to not load properly for me

Yannis Rizos

Want this?

0

I'm observing a situation where a team of middle-aged programmers have obtained a new tech lead for their current project. The project manager is also a contractor so is keen to free himself from responsibility. For various reasons, the team appears to have turned on the tech lead, channelling ...

teamwork team team-leader team-building team-spirit

@YannisRizos I think we have one of those already

let me see if I can find it

@YannisRizos I would add them as a comment to the original question, but can't seem to log into programmers, so here goes: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18248/… and workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/9603/… are possible dups or at least helpful posts to read for the OP