They just hired a new VB.NET coder right out of college. He has to be no older than 19 or 20 years old. He looks that young. I know he just graduated because he goes around telling everybody that he just finished school. And he tells everybody how much he makes! He was talking to a group of people today saying stuff like "Yeah, I just graduated. I'm making 85k! Life is good!" That's his big line: "Life is good." My problem isn't the salary and I'm not hung up on the fact that he's young. I have an issue with him going around telling everyone about it. I just think that's bad form. And also, if this kid is no more than 19 or 20, he has no concept of how "good" life can be, or how bad for that matter. He just hasn't lived enough yet. Not that I'm jealous, but I can't imagine what a single 20 year old would do with an 85k salary right out of school. Comments?
newguy
@newguy
Best posts made by newguy
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Tell me what you think about this...
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RE: Tell me what you think about this...
@skippy said:
What part of the world are you in, btw? Maybe 85K in your location barely covers expenses.
Oklahoma City. 85K is pretty decent for this area. I'm barely making more than he is, and I've been in the industry for many years...
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RE: Tell me what you think about this...
@CodeWhisperer said:
My comment: I still think you sound an awful lot like CPound.
And I still think you sound an awful lot like ammoQ. But I don't go on about it, now do I?
It would be funny if it were revealed to the forum that all 4 of us were actually the same person...ammoQ, CodeWhisperer, CPound, and newguy. Makes you curious, no?
Latest posts made by newguy
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RE: Is it too late to make money off of old people who are confused by the internet?
You rat bastard.
I do hope that you are just trying to be funny. My "granny", as you put it, was completely cleaned out by a jerk HTML opportunist. She would always say that "Johnny" was working on her website and continually making "improvements".
It was a simple HTML site which focused on genealogy. I would have helped her on it, but this "Johnny" lived down the street from her and she felt obliged to help him out financially. To the tune of $75 an hour. Yes, you read that right. $75 and hour.
I told her on several occasions that it didn't look like anything was changing on the site, and that she should see the work done before she payed him. However, she was such a nice lady that she gave him the benefit of the doubt and continually paid him. She eventually bankrupted.
Was it her fault? I don't think so. She was an innocent, kind lady who only wanted to help. She had no idea that "Johnny" was going to drain every last penny from her.
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RE: Interview Cruelty: CPound Would be Proud
@CodeWhisperer said:
the question itself wasn't inappropriate, cruel, or tricky.
Ok then. Let's hear what your answer would have been.
And don't copy/paste something you found on Wikipedia.
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Interview Cruelty: CPound Would be Proud
Today I witnessed the most evil of interviews. I was asked to sit in with my supervisor/technical lead on a candidate interview. Keep in mind, this was for a junior level position.
The kid comes in looking like he's straight out of college. Innocent and everything. My manager, who has always been a cruel kind of guy, gets this sadistic grin and asks the guy one question: Tell me the difference between an object and a class.
My mouth dropped when he asked that because on the surface it sounds like an easy question. But the potential minefields are staggering. The candidate proceeds to give a fairly adequate answer, considering his level of expertise, and I actually think he's going to get away with it. That's when my supervisor ripped him a new one.
He goes on for 30 minutes straight (I'm not kidding) explaining his personal philosophy on objects and classes. By the end of the thing, I was almost snoring. The kid however looked terrified. I wanted to tell the kid to get up and walk out, but I was too chicken to contradict my boss in any way. After my boss's tirade, he says "Thank you for stopping by" and walks the kid out. No "Do you have any questions?" or anything like that. Just one unbelievably cruel trick question posed to the candidate and a walk out. My boss is an asshat.
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RE: Jobs you won't list on your resume
@real_username_witheld said:
the only thing changed was that I listed the current job (with some lame description like "developed enterprise java applications for global trading environment").
Are you sure they were enterprise and not just "enterprisey"?
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Jobs you won't list on your resume
The current CPound "knickknack" thread reminded me of a job I had in the past. I'm ashamed to even mention that I worked at a place like this, and I definitely don't list this one on my resume. I thought I would share my experience because it gives some perspective on the "get rich quick" and knockoff type mom & pop stores.
Back in the dot bomb days, I did a stint with this wholesale lingerie site. It was bad. Very bad. For several reasons.
First of all, unlike many lingerie sites back then (and even now), their stock was in house. Meaning, they did not place an order with an off-site supplier after a customer clicked submit. That being said, you can imagine what it was like. Their "warehouse", which was essentially a back room, was stuffed with all sorts of knockoff lingerie. It was extremely disorganized. There were boxes all over the place and when the guys had to go back to fill the orders, they rifled through the stuff to find what they needed. There was no concept of "put it back where you found it". If a box was torn open, it was left open, with all the clothes strewn about.
Now on to the clothes themselves. And this is where it gets shady. I'm pretty sure they got their deliveries from Singapore or some third world country where manufacturing standards aren't the highest. We had the highest customer complaint ratio for orders shipped because the goods were...shall we say...cheap? You could tell right off the bat they were poorly made. The fabric basically disintegrated in your hands. Or it would have runs in it or would be coming apart at the seams in places. The order fillers wouldn't care and stuffed whatever they could in a cheap envelope (or small box) and shipped it. There weren't even professional shipping labels. It was all handwritten.
Another thing that anybody with eyes could tell, was that the lingerie was not in any way, shape, or form...sexy. These were frumpy outfits that look like they were made for people shaped like tree trunks. So it wasn't like employees got "hot and bothered" looking at this stuff all day. Honestly, I'm surprised they shipped any inventory at all.
Needless to say, the company folded rather quickly. The guy in charge made a fortune of course and disappeared from the scene, as most of the bad business guys did back then.
I don't list this job on my resume because a) the type of industry raises eyebrows and b) they were a bunch of crooks who sold cheap merchandise.
So be careful when you see these posts about how great an upcoming mom & pop site sounds. It's usually too good to be true.
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RE: We Sell Knickknacks on the Internet
@bighusker said:
This sounds like a throwback to the late 1990's
Does anyone want to go into business with me and sell porcelain clowns on the internet?
There's money in this!!!
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RE: We Sell Knickknacks on the Internet
@Rotary Jihad said:
You'd be surprised what people will pay for that kind of stuff in the midwest.
You're not kidding! I did a search on "porcelain clowns" and all I can say is wow, I'm in the wrong business!
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RE: We Sell Knickknacks on the Internet
CPound:
- Be thankful you can be employed by such a company. The economy is hurting right now and it surprises me that a website selling porcelain clowns is making any kind of profit.
- A 4100 square foot building with an ID system? Sounds more like a large suburban dwelling...it hardly seems worth it. I used to work with ID systems and I'm guessing your company chose the cheap route. Trust me, there is a cheap route. It would amaze me if their system really works the way they think it's working. But on the plus side, they probably didn't invest much $$$ in it.
- How is this company staying profitable in this economy?!?
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RE: Interview Advice
The interview questions which cause me to sweat aren't the technical ones. They're the psychological ones.
In one of CPound's posts, the Mr. Grunt one, he mentions a question where they ask "if you had to choose between purchasing a car or paying half of your mortgage, which would you choose?"
I have never been asked this question, but I have heard of it before. I know it is a trick, but what is the correct answer?
If you say "pay half your mortgage", then that labels you as a financially savvy person, because of course buying a car would be frivolous.
But there's a catch. Most people need a car to drive to work, so the car purchase would be just as savvy. And some might argue that paying some money (even half) on a mortgage is useless from a financial standpoint unless you BUY the home (meaning fully purchase it).
So I can see the trap. But which is the more correct answer?