Ξ March 28th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Wow, its been a full week of unemployment already. I haven’t actually been totally out of work though. I have a project with the telecommunications group I work with and have spent most of my time at their offices in Downtown Manhattan (Wall Street Area). It’s a little more lax then working at a full time gig, because I can come and go as I please, but generally speaking I’m working really hard and getting lots of code complete.
I’m finishing up the interview process at a few places. I should have full time employment in a few days. I’ve successfully passed nearly all the hurtles at one place and we are working out a deal. I am also finishing up the processing at a few other places and should have a few options next week. I’m excited about the opportunities that have been in the works and look forward to some degree of disclosure sometime soon.Regards
Biff
Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Who can resist a video of someone flinging cars with a Trebuchet. Anytime you can fling a car with something … it rocks!!
A few weeks ago I read on CNN.com that Mary Ann Summers from Gilligans Island is serving six months’ unsupervised probation after allegedly being caught with marijuana in her car. After reading this article I did a little web surfing and found out that this wasn’t the first time that Dawn Wells was implicated with marijuana
I suppose this finally answers the age old question Mary Ann or Ginger. Grrrr baby
Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Welp, Michael Busch III will not be doing any further Alltel Geeks commercials. I’m kind of disappointed. He was definitely the best one. It’s said that he didn’t renew his contract because he didn’t want to be stuck as “the sprint geek” for the rest of his career. Personally I think the guy is funny as hell. I’ve seen him in a few other things and have kind of become a big fan of the guy.
For the guys in my Red Hat class OR any other UNIX Systems Engineers who will be doing technical interviews, I’ve compiled a list of some of the questions that you’ll come across on a good number of these interviews.
Shell Scripting: What is the variable that tells the outcome (success/failure) of the previous command. $?
Networking: Describe the TCP Stack: TCP/IP Stack
Perl : what are the three types of variables you can have in Perl: Scalars, Hashes and Arrays
UNIX: what is an Inode : read this
UNIX: What is the default signal sent by the kill command: SIGTERM .. read this on UNIX Signals
UNIX: what is the difference between a hard link and a soft link: Read this for the answer
More to come as I think of them
I’ve been out of work a total of two days. It’s not so bad. I can kind of get used to this. I’ll be working next week at the telecom gig writing Java code for the new billing system starting Monday. I’ve been writing quite a bit of Java recently and have been getting fairly good at it. I’m picking up a ton of stuff along the way. It’s so much easier then C++. Threaded programming in C++ is kind of bogus to have to do, but in Java its a snap.
Threads in Java:
public class TwoThreads{
public static class Thread1 extends Thread{
public void run(){
System.out.println("A");
try{
Thread.sleep(10);
}catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("Sleep failed");
System.exit(1);
}
System.out.println("B");
}
}
public static class Thread2 extends Thread{
public void run(){
System.out.println("1");
System.out.println("2");
}
}
public static void main(String args[]){
new Thread1().start();
new Thread2().start();
}
}
see, it doesn’t get much easier then that.
I digress.
Anywho, I’ll keep you posted on the new full-time gig here next week. I should have some news in that area to announce soon.
Ξ March 19th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I thought I was going to have a few weeks off between gigs. It’s shaping up not to look that way. The telecom I work with is rolling out a new software platform in a few weeks. I’m going to end up spending my downtime between gigs working full time for them. The University called too. They want me to work on a few projects that were on the back burner too. I suspect I may be working more now then I was when I was actually officially employeed.
Truthfullly, I was looking forward to having some time off, but it doesn’t appear like its going to happen now. I’m kind of bummed. I had it in my mind that I’d have a few weeks of sleeping in, watching a little TV, shooting off to the gym, doing a bit of work around the house, and some cooking, I’d really like to spend a little time getting creative in the kitchen.
With luck I’ll be able to knock out some of the telecom stuff quick and get at least a few days before the next gig.
Ξ March 18th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Hello all.
My contract at “The Bank” is ending. My last day will be on Thursday. I can’t say I’ll miss it though. I’ve been here for a number of months but I’ve never really made a connection with this place. It all looked great on paper, but I never loved it. I equate it to having bad sex with a good looking person. I enjoyed the actual work I did here, but not so much the environment. I’m also not really crazy about how the contract ended. My manager called me into his office on Friday afternoon at 4:30 and said that funding had been taken away from the project, and that my last day would be next Thursday. That’s like .. umm .. 4 (business) days notice. I let them know that I thought that was kind of crappy of them. In the consulting game, contracts come to an end. It happens and is expected. Most places let you know seven or eight weeks before hand, so that you can get your resume out there and start interviewing.
I’ve found that It typically takes between two and three months to find a gig. Here are the steps:
1) post an updated copy of your resume on Monster.com, Dice.com, Computerjobs.com, and careerbuilder.com
2) go through the current job listings using a search engine. I’ve found that http://www.indeed.com is the best job search ever. I generally apply to LOTS of jobs. Even if I’m only marginally interested. What that does is gets my resume in front of recruiters who specialize in the technologies that I am interested in working with and have experience in.
3) weed out the rectuiters. A lot of them don’t have a clue, and will try to submit you to jobs that you really shouldn’t be submitted for. Allow them to submit you for jobs that you approve however.
During this time you will have to read loads of job descriptions. Take your time and go over them carefully.
At this point you begin processing at several companies at once. They’re looking at multiple canidates and you’re looking at multiple companies .. all is fair in love and war.
4) The phone interviews. These days the telephone interview comes first. It gives you both a chance to see if this is a possible good fit for both the client and you. These are generally friendly conversations, and the hiring manager will ask you things about your background and tell you in detail about the position. The phone interview is a real time/money saver. A 15 - 30 minute phone conversation will save you from having to take an entire morning off. Sometimes they’ll ask you technical questions to weed out technically weaker canidates.
5) Once you’ve had the phone interview, and everyone thinks it may be a good fit for everyone, it generally takes about a week to schedule a personal interview. You’ll go in and meet with the hiring manager and a few members of his team. They’ll ask you technical questions and show you around if everything goes well. If it goes well, you will generally have to meet the hiring managers boss. For instance, if you interview with the CTO and the CTO will be your boss, you have to meet the CIO. If you interview for the CIO position, and the CEO will be your boss, you have to meet the board of directors. It’s always the manager +1.
Sometimes this will occure in the same day, other times (and most often) you will have to come back again
6) Congrats! They are interested in extending you an offer. Your recruiter will hammer out the details and get your approval. Recruiters get paid more if you get paid more, so they really go to bat for you. At this point, hopefully you’ve been going through the process at a few other places as well. Offers should start coming in from a number of places at the same time. You may need to stall for time, before commiting to an agreement. Only a dumbass doesn’t listen to all available options to him. Hear all the offers out, and make the best deal for yourself. Take into consideration where you would like to work the most.
7) Finally, you’ve agreed to an offer. Your start date will be two weeks from now. If you’re going to work in the investment banking industry, you now you need to take the drug test and submit to a background check.
so .. this is why the process takes two or three months to find something else.
So the question on everyone’s mind is .. Tom, what the heck are you going to do now? *grin* … I’ve been seriously looking for about two and a half months. I’m ok. News to follow up on this willl come soon.
<teaser>
I may also reveal the identity of “The Bank” here (after all, they gave me a crappy four day notice .. others should know who it is)
</teaser>
I’m actually hoping for a few weeks off so that I can catch up on GreenStar Systems work. I’m seriously swamped.
Ξ March 14th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I spoke to Bear Stearns yesterday about a job. They were totally thrilled, and I thought they would probably have a teriffic compensation package (pension, matching 401k, 4 weeks vacation, good salary, dental, medical, stock purchase plan, etc) ..
The conversation went VERY well. They wanted to have one more round of interviews before making me an offer.
Anyway, Bear Stearns crashed today. At one point it dropped nearly %47 of its market value and most people in the hedge fund business figure that Bear Stearns is done. It could possibly be purchased by JP Morgan Chase, but in any event, the outlook for Bear Stearns isn’t good.
*sigh* alas. a shame I tell you.
Ξ March 9th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
I’ll start this post by stating the fact that Java and Children probably don’t go well together. Rosie and I were at at my in-laws house where I got to see all my nieces and nephews. I got mugged by five children. I was lucky enough to marry into a family with lots of children. I really enjoy seeing them. It’s always a highlight for me. I also had the chance to see My sister and brother-in-law Larry this weekend. We feasted and watched movies (Simpsons and “Balls of Fury”). Simpsons was a bit over-rated, but Balls of Fury was good.
Java:
I’ve been playing a lot with the Apache POI Project, the Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files. I’m impressed. It’s a simple API to read and write Excel files with Java. What the heck would you use this for? Basically you’d want to do this for automating reports. Java apps can gather all kinds of information, that information can be dumped into an excel spread sheet and formulas can be dropped in to handle all the calculations. Automated calculations and reports. who doesn’t love that? I’m working on the graphing now.
Ξ March 3rd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
Jut a bit of an update.
<teaser>
Some big announcements will be made later this week
</teaser>
Ok, I got that out of the way. Last night, Rosie and I saw Eileen Ivers. The show was at the Staten Island College campus. We went with her Dad, sister Annie and brother-in-law, Charlie, The music wasn’t exactly my groove, but her dad loved it, and I was able to appreciate how talented the musicians were. It was a sort of Irish fusion/ world music. Rosie picked up the CD’s and tortured me with them all day today. Thankfully they’ll end up in her car where I won’t be exposed to them to much.
Before the show Charlie took us to dinner at Ruddy and Dean in Staten Island. (Charlie’s a good egg). It’s right off the Staten Island Ferry. It’s VERY good, and worth the ferry trip over from Manhattan. I’ve been there twice before for family gatherings and the food has always been great. I keep meaning to take the trip over after work for dinner, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Alas, I’m going to get back to watching Born Identity.
