Category: Links and Quotes Page 16 of 25

Shared from elsewhere.

My favorite interview question

On March 15, 2016

Recently, I hired my teammate, then shortly after that my replacement and I went scouring the web for interview questions. Because that’s what you do when you have no idea what you’re doing.

I didn’t find this until now but I absolutely love it.

Suppose you could design your dream job that you’ll be starting on Monday. It’s at your ideal company with your ideal job title and salary. All you have to do is tell them what you want to do at your job and you can have it. What does your job entail?

Just like all good questions, it’ not about the answer. It’s about where the question takes you. The immediacy means what do you want to do now and not months or years from now.

At the end of the interview, he’ll sum things up. For example:

Okay, so let me see if I have this correct. In your ideal job, you’d be spending 75% of the day writing code (JavaScript, if possible) and 25% of your day meeting with others to discuss technology and code. You’d prefer to be on a team of about 5 people and you’d like to be mentored by someone with more experience than you. Is that right?

And when it summation matches inspiration, the reason for this question:

The reason I ask this question to people is because I believe it’s important to match people up to the correct position. I wanted to get to know you and your career goals to make sure we have a good fit for you. What I’d like to do now is tell you what I’m looking for and we can decide together if it seems like we have a fit. Does that sound okay?

That’s the interview I want to be in. With an interviewer who has an eye to the current needs and to the future. Since bored people quit. It’s good to know boredom isn’t in the game plan.

‘When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression’

By Carl

On March 15, 2016

In Links and Quotes

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

And things started making a little more sense to me. All this anger we see from people screaming “All Lives Matter” in response to black protesters at rallies. All this anger we see from people insisting that their “religious freedom” is being infringed because a gay couple wants to get married. All these people angry about immigrants, angry about Muslims, angry about “Happy Holidays,” angry about not being able to say bigoted things without being called a bigot…

They all basically boil down to people who have grown accustomed to walking straight at other folks, and expecting them to move. So when “those people” in their path don’t move — when those people start wondering, “Why am I always moving out of this guy’s way?”; when those people start asking themselves, “What if I didn’t move? What if I just kept walking too?”; when those people start believing that they have every bit as much right to that aisle as anyone else — it can seem like their rights are being taken away.

Every issue has two sides. It’s important to understand and acknowledge where the other side is coming from if you hope to ever bridge the gap.

Outside Perspective

By Carl

On January 16, 2016

In Links and Quotes

An outside perspective is always helpful.

I recently read Meeting in the Middle: Learning from a Luddite and it hit on something I often consider. The author is a digital native and comfortable with computers and the internet. Her husband is not.

A Luddite is someone who is actively opposed to new technology. That’s what my husband was.

She spent time online surfing and checking stats. He detested the world computers had made. But this is not a story of how her husband was wrong and eventually saw the light.

I became a little jealous: after all, his digital footprint was virtually non-existent while mine was a cluttered mess.

So she deleted. Vine. LinkedIn. Facebook served as a reminder of how much junk she had shard in the past. Something I’ve become reminded of as Facebook shows me the stupid pictures or signs or silly products I shared years ago.

There is a balance to find in your life. It’s not going to be the same for everyone. But it’s there. The trick is to find it.

I find a line between computers and mobile devices works for me. When I’m on a computer, I’m working. I’m writing or editing. I’m at work answering calls and fixing problems.

And when I’m mobile. I’m playing. I’m chatting with friends. I’m reading my favorite writers in blog or book or newsletter. But most often I’m listening.

Podcasts. Audiobooks. Music. There’s always something in my ears. I compose a complete soundtrack to my life. And that works for me.

If you’re feeling lost or off-balance I have some advice. Consider an outside perspective.

It’s hard to see your life clearly when you’re living it. I’ve fallen deeply in love with someone who made me a worse person. But I couldn’t see it. I was stuck in my life. I tried to make it work or change. I ignored my friends who told me how unhappy I was and how the relationship was terrible. But I didn’t listen.

Until it ends. And looking back, I can’t believe how miserable I was. I couldn’t believe what I had done to myself for so long.

Another prime example of considering an outside perspective is starting a new job.

I started a new job and went from working primarily alone to being part of an established team. Before, I made up everything as I went along and I had no one to consult. My word was law.

Now, I’m working in an established system with pre-defined habits. There’s the way we have always done it. Which is not always the best way. It made me smile last week when my team lead turned to me and said, if you see places we can improve information or processes, tell us about it.

I have fresh eyes. I don’t know how things are supposed to be done and I can bring that beginner’s mind to the team.

It’s valuable to look outside yourself and your normal. You can’t see the problems when you’re inside of it. But from the outside, the issues are crystal clear.

Michael Jackson was almost Jar Jar Binks

By Carl

On January 15, 2016

In Links and Quotes

Today I Learned:
1. Michael Jackson wanted to be Jar Jar Binks but George Lucas wanted to do the work with CG instead of prosthetics.
2. Jar Jar as Lian Neeson’s character from Taken would be terrifying.

The video is episode three from a series called These Are The Actors You’re Looking For where Jamie Strangroom tracks down actors who played lesser Star Wars rolls.

He has also interviewed Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) and Greedo (Paul Blake)

Savings is security

By Carl

On January 11, 2016

In Links and Quotes

How do you take a $35,000 investment and turn it into nearly $800,000,000 in sales? You pay your employees. You pay them twice the national average and you keep paying them to be the best.

Container Store founder and CEO Kip Tindell explains that the secret to the company’s high wages is what he calls “the 1=3 rule,” meaning that one great employee will be as productive as three employees who are merely good.

As a result, Tindell feels he gets ahead by receiving three times the productivity of an average worker at only two times the cost.

Everybody wins!

“They win, you save money, the customers win, and all the employees win because they get to work with someone great.”

He also has a plan to keep those great people by continuing to pay them well through raises.

Tindell then keeps these “great people” by giving them annual raises up to 8% of their salaries, based on their performance.

Not one-time bonuses, but real raises. This investment in the employee by the company tells the employee their company really cares about them and wants them to stay and be happy there.

Many people don’t love their jobs, but they’ll work hard if they feel the company is investing in them as much as they invest in the company.

“Everybody loves to say that it’s not all about pay,” he explains. “But pay is more important than most people realize, particularly if you’re trying to attract and keep really great people.”

It’s all about the money. Every time I’ve changed jobs, even jobs I loved, it was for considerably more money.

Money opens doors. Money is the great enabler. It allows me to save for retirement, afford insurance, and contribute to my savings account.