The Water Cooler - 2013-04-15

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1:38 AM

Looking for a question to delete enderland?

-8

Q: It is Arial 12 a good font or it is a little large?

I have always used Times New Roman when writing any kind of document. Recently I've read that maybe it's a fuzzy font for use in a resume and better use others like Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Georgia... However if I use them 12 sized (like TNR) they are indeed cleaner but also larger. If I down...

6 hours later…

7:56 AM

0

Q: Potential employer asks about other job offers?

If an employer asks me the details of other job offers - (company & salary offered), should i always tell them ? Once i had been asked both and i gave them that info. What happened next stunned me. The interviewer asked me if I could show the job offer letter. There was no "confidentiality agre...

interviewing job-offer

Pretty sure this is a duplicate

but cant find the original

5 hours later…

1:05 PM

@jmac good call :)

1 hour later…

2:33 PM

30

A: How can I deal with a difficult coworker?

Stop being so "politically correct" and tell him to knock it off! Is this some office culture that I don't know about where you have to allow ANYONE to be a jerk? You and everyone else doing nothing about his behavior allow him to act like a jerk. You know it is not right, so do something about i...

i dont understand why this is so highly voted, the advice is very poor advice

2:59 PM

0

Q: How can I minimise the damage to my career in this situation?

I am working for a small software company for the last 2+ years and the company is managed by a single person, so he can change the policy at any time without any notice. Recently he change the notice period from 1 month to 3 months and the salary will be held for the total notice period. There ...

new-job resignation relationships

is this question reasonable now?

@RhysW because it feels good... well until you do it then you feel like an ass, but when you are on the interweb tubes it feels good

@Chad i downvoted nearly every answer to that question, such poor advice being given and upvoted because ita all 'feel good' stuff. yours, beths and 1 other were the only i deemed acceptable advice

The rest basically say, stop him by being a bully back. which i disagree with wholeheatedly

59

Q: How can I encourage a culture of punctuality in a software company?

As a new technical lead in a new company, what are some additional strategies to employ to change the culture of the development team so that people show up at the time that I've requested? TLDR: My team doesn't show up on time. I've tried to compel them and it isn't working. Background Data:...

software-industry company-culture

look at those

do i want to is the big question...if they are as poor as the other one

let me guess

every one rants

The op wants to know how to change the culture... but most of the answers are you are wrong to try

saying that you shouldnt do it

yeah jsut as i thought

My rep is taking a beating but i will downvote until i begin to be content with the quality of answers

2

3:12 PM

On days when you have great answers that hit the 200pt cap you can down vote for free because the cap is 200 positive so any downvotes open up room at th etop :)

i dont ask questions on here, i never have any issues

and my answers tend to be too controversial lately

you cant work as a team effectively when half of the team isnt there. If everyone was solitary then the show up when you like idea would be fine, but if youre not at work when your clients are, you arent going to be able to address their problems in the shortest time possibble

and time is money to companies

215

Q: Is it rude to leave an interview early if you have already made your decision?

A friend of mine went on an interview recently for a software developer position at a well known company. It was a senior position, and he had very relevant business experience in the industry. I gave him the highest recommendation having worked with him in the past as a no-nonsense guy that cu...

interviewing hiring-process etiquette professionalism company-culture

can we edit this so it doesnt focus just on software development?

the answers seem to focus on software development side, just because thats the interview topic. but really this advice should fit to ALL interviews

3:28 PM

@RhysW If the question came in today then I think I would. But it is legacy and a big hitter I would be reluctant to change now

@Chad ok

seems like a prime candidate to me, more people are likely to see the big hitters and take their example from it

I would at least ask on meta before doing it. I do not really have a preference one way or the other

if you late 15 minutes your half day salary will be cut, wtf kinda of company is this

@enderland wheres that from?

@chad good idea, to meta it is

1

Q: How can I minimise the damage to my career in this situation?

I am working for a small software company for the last 2+ years and the company is managed by a single person, so he can change the policy at any time without any notice. Recently he change the notice period from 1 month to 3 months and the salary will be held for the total notice period. There ...

new-job resignation relationships

3:34 PM

@enderland The kind of company running out of money to pay its bills that is not going to be around to pay the salary if you give them 3 months to pay it

@enderland the kind of company that wont be around much longer

though if nobody signed anything then the changes polidies dont apply to them

It is sadly all too common with startups that are about to fail. Even if you sued now the company will be bankrupt before it gets to court

if it says on the contract, 1 month notice period, then thems the rules

@Chad true, a gaping loophole like that should never be allowed

@RhysW You have heard of the golden rule havent you... he who pays the gold makes the rules...

@Chad my outlook has always been similar, the rich and powerful make the rules, so that they stay rich and powerful

3:37 PM

@RhysW the flip side is if you owe them money their creditors could come after you for it too :p

@Chad thats ridiculour

@RhysW not really imagine that a big company owes them millions in royalties and you have workers who are owed months of wages that they didnt get/ checks bounced

@Chad hmm, i guess

but something tells me they will take the loyalties money and run...

then those workers can get their money from the RIAA... at least in theory :p I am still waiting for my check despite them having been ordered to cut them

ug, just got my first WP worthy moment

3:42 PM

@RhysW to the question pole RhysMan!

^ The above is funnier if read in the voice of adam west!

someone from work doing a run for charity, emailed everyone as a group except me as i was off last week, emailed me individually asking for donations if i would like to. Insanely awkward to deal with...

you cant ignore it, because he clearly cares enough to pick up on you, you cant so no without feeling guilty as he singled me out..

and im one of those people who struggle to say no XD

Are you "still working through my email from being gone". If so then you can let them know when you get to it.... and then just never get to it

or you can take the anti social route "I hate crippled children! Why would I want to help them they dont help me!"

It's annoying that there is no culturally acceptable way to say no i will not be sponsoring you

@Chad :P see thats exactly what ill get pegged as if im not careful. the guy who doesnt want to help anyone :P

Either way, i have 5 mins til the end of day, can leave it until tomorrow and devise a better plan

4:03 PM

@RhysW embrace the dark side young Rhyswalker.

@RhysW I would be happy to sponsor you at $200 per 100 miles run.

makes you simultaneously generous and a jackass

4:18 PM

@Chad pretty soon - "how do I deal with someone responding sarcastically and seriously to an email I sent asking for a charity donation?"

@enderland You know the answer to that I hope :P

@Chad your answer here is the only one which seems to address the core question

24

Q: Can bad working experience really hurt your career?

Can one hurt his career by bad working experience? By bad experience I mean a job with little challenges skill-wise, bad work practices within the company, and things like that. Let's say you have this sort of job for 2-5 years. I am in a similar position and I am having hard time finding a anoth...

career-development

I like @jmac's answer but it focuses nearly exclusively on the "so what do you do" rather than the "why is this bad" part

0

Q: Victim of callous screening

I have had this terrible experience twice in my life both while attending interviews as a developer for reputed MNC software firm . Even after shortlisting my resume for the interviews and after clearing successfully countless rounds of interviews , it ends up in the HR round where the HR says th...

interviewing pre-screening

is this a rant?

4:56 PM

@enderland I think it needs retitled. I also do not think there is anything to tell the OP besides you have been the victim of canned decline reason. The reason given is not necessarily the reason you were not chosen but it is the offical position of the MNC And its affiliates.

@enderland And of course we immediately get the do not apply to MNC firms answer... because that explains what happened.

I voted to close as dup because that is what the edited question is

2 hours later…

6:45 PM

@enderland I thought the same thing which is why I made my answer.

2 hours later…

8:17 PM

@Chad yeah but I can't give you 100 rep - how am I going to catch you otherwise ;-)

@enderland you could ask and answer questions... you know how se works :p

@Chad Nah I'll just tell people to quit for easy points

@enderland Ask questions about your boss slapping with your wife, and how you can convince people not to be stupid politily

the last question on SE I asked got me 900 rep so maybe I should find a good question to ask ;)

yeah I asked the one about the dress code so I could close the I dont like my dress code questions :p

and got like 400 rep for it

8:21 PM

err, only about 830 for this question

and you got someone else 4.5k :p

haha, yeah, what can I say, I'm a nice guy

@enderland for a non answer lol at least it is not just us

was a good question though

I basically can determine, "what security do I want for this site?" and the ability to make a better password is inversely proportional to this

plus I need to see good questions (which relate to topics I know enough about to write answers) before I want to write answers

3 hours later…

11:13 PM

-4

Q: How would you define invoiceable software R&D and likewise?

New development e.g. Java/C(++)/MIPS/Python/Scala/Kotlin/Lisp/Scheme/Haskell and so Corrections e.g. bugfixes Deactivations e.g. old versions must get removed in a proper manner Education and learning e.g. numerical methods Defining the problem if the client doesn't even know Modelling e.g. UML ...

software-industry work-environment new-job work-experience

I don't know how I feel about this question being around still

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