Looking for Work Thread

[Baldrake]

The head of HR in my organization is pulling over $200k/annum.

[NiX]

The head of HR in my organization is pulling over $200k/annum.

Yeah, some pretty nice paying positions in HR. Here's a list of a whole bunch of positions and their respective salaries.

[Margalis]

Entering a profession filled almost exclusively with hot chicks - come on what are you thinking?

[Phildo]

Wait a second... HR consultant?  Isn't that the person that's brought in when a company wants to "streamline its performance?"

[schild]

Entering a profession filled almost exclusively with hot chicks - come on what are you thinking?

That there might be room for someone who is actually qualified?

HAH.

[Engels]

That's because most people think HR are fuzzy people who coddle employees when they're down.

Uhm, maybe in Canada, but my experience is that in the US, the HR person is the person who pretends to be there for the employees, but in large part is there to prevent lawsuits and in general provide CYA policy for the company. In some rare rare cases, HR works for the benefit of the employee, but for the most part, they are an in-house lawyer for the employer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you, but I have found few people more vilified in corporate america than the HR person in any given company.

[NiX]

Wait a second... HR consultant?  Isn't that the person that's brought in when a company wants to "streamline its performance?"

One of many things you could be brought in for

This thread makes generalizations FUN!

[Aez]

I'm in HR.  Recruitment.  I could advance to Head Hunting  

Also, we are 40 in my HR department: 37 womens - 3 guys  

The hardest part is getting blamed for way too much shit.  Most employees and managers expect us to simply "make it work" while disregarding our advises has too bothersome or costly.

You need a bachelor in HR for entry level position and a couple of my colleagues have a master.  My VP even have a PhD.

[schild]

A PhD in HR?

Seriously?

Is his name Dr. Asshole?

[NiX]

PhD is a bit much. I'm also assuming you mean you need a bachelor in your company, that's not the case for any entry level around here. Especially recruitment, which seems to be the position you're guaranteed to get into.

[schild]

Are you saying recruitment is entry level? That would explain why 99% of the people I've worked with in HR are stupid, stupid, stupid.

[NiX]

The very basic of recruitment, yes. If you look at Monster or Workopolis, you'll see tons of positions for recruitment and the requirements are bare minimum.

[Chenghiz]

For those of you in the game industry who know about such things: how important is a relevant bachelor's degree for a job as a game artist? Is portfolio work more important or are companies really looking for the degree?

[Margalis]

For those of you in the game industry who know about such things: how important is a relevant bachelor's degree for a job as a game artist? Is portfolio work more important or are companies really looking for the degree?

Until reading this the thought of looking at the degree never even occurred to me.

For us it's 80% portfolio and 20% work experience. Here are my tips:

1. Show off some basic 2d skills. If you can't draw a properly proportioned human being chances are you can't model one either. A lot of people really skimp on 2d, showing either none or some hasty line drawings.

2. The wider variety of stuff and styles you can show off the better. Environments, characters, technology, monsters, low polygon, etc. Most people specialize in certain things and that's fine but if your art is 90% robots it's pretty hard to hire you if we don't need a robot modeller. ( That doesn't mean you should show off weak things though)

3. Show stuff that began as a 2d concept, even if you aren't the person who did the original concept. Or if you can't do that show some models of known characters. (Darth Vader, Cloud, whatever) If you can show a 2d sketch and then show a finished model that captures the spirit of that sketch that's great.

[Quinton]

Want to help change the world (or at least the world mobile devices and
mobile device operating systems)?

I'm looking for one or two kernel engineers to join the Android Systems
Team at Google, writing Linux kernel drivers, porting Linux to new SoCs
(primarily ARM based at the moment), tuning ARM linux for efficient use
in mobile platforms (specifically Android), working closely with OEMs and
silicon vendors to improve the platform, help ship cool mobile devices,
and have all the code you write end up as GPL (kernel), Apache2 or BSD
(userspace) licensed software.

What we're looking for (some key points):
- solid software engineering background with a focus on kernel and
  systems work (BS degree or equivalent experience, yada yada)
- experience with Linux kernel development
- experience with ARM v5/v6/v7 architectures a plus
- experience shipping embedded/mobile systems a plus
- comfortable with some combination of: 
  - low level driver development
  - cpu / SoC / board bringup
  - debugging mobile/embedded systems
  - higher level kernel engineering (filesystems, scheduler, etc)
- strong communication skills (written and verbal)

Interested?  Qualified?  Know somebody interested or qualified?

Send questions and/or resumes to: swetland@google.com                 

[sigil]

What are these keywords and ratings scales that people are looking for in Canada?

I ask not for myself, but for a good friend of mine who's got a background in clinical research in Toronto who's trying to find a new position after the last trial they were working on finished up.  If I could help them out with some inside info to help them make a better presentation of their skills, maybe they could get a job a little easier.

Thanks for the info either way.

[Aez]

A PhD in HR?

Seriously?

Is his name Dr. Asshole?

Spot-on!

[NiX]

What are these keywords and ratings scales that people are looking for in Canada?

If it's a career based job they usually remove the rating scales. It's better used for retail or cases of mass hiring where you need to make interviews efficient and cost effective.

Keywords are heavily used in career based interviews. Best bet is to find new articles on the industry you're applying for and see what buzz words they're kicking around, but don't just use them, understand them. That's the best advice you'll get that's specific. For the most part a lot of peoples resumes are trashy, egotistical shit. Lying on a resume does not improve your chances of getting anything more than an interview, especially when you forget about something you padded your resume with.

The quick list:
- Bold headings to make each section stand out
- First 2-3 points of every bullet list are the points you absolutely want them to see, time is money and long lists don't help, so make sure they see the important stuff
- Streamline. Objective should always dictate the rest of your resume. If you're applying for clinical research, make sure each section (Objective, Skills/Qualifications, Experience) match that.

[bhodi]

Fuck objectives. My objective is clear - to get a job with your company and to advance my career. Cover letters, maybe, but objectives are pointless.

[KallDrexx]

cover letters are the biggest bullshit I have ever seen.  I've gotten more interviews without them then with them.

[Tale]

cover letters are the biggest bullshit I have ever seen.  I've gotten more interviews without them then with them.

I was drafting a cover letter for my last successful job application, but ran out of time to finish it. I apologised for this when I only sent them my resume, and they said a cover letter was unnecessary anyway. What they wanted was my resume, a chat with me, and a chat with people I'd worked with/for.

[schild]

Cover letters are completely archaic BS, agreed.

The requirement at some places probably continues to exist simply because it's an excellent way to weed out folks who have crappy writing skills (like so crappy they can't steal a cover let off the net and adjust as needed) and of course weeding out those that are just too lazy to do one.

[IainC]

I never have any idea what I'm supposed to put on the cover letter. I mean anything relevant should be in my CV right? Mostly I just state what I'm applying for, recap my most recent applicable experience and gush a little about how I'd really like to go and work for their company.


Also, in the spirit of giving advice. CVs. Two pages is the new cool. More than that and it probably won't be read. This probably doesn't apply for science jobs or very technical positions where having a long list of applicable publications and posts is required. But when you're applying to be a CSR? I don't need to know your life story, I need to know you've had some customer facing experience, aren't dyslexic and haven't been fired for doing stupid stuff. Anything else will come through in your interview.

[KallDrexx]

What happen to ze red? 

[Venkman]

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=2041.msg565727#msg565727

[KallDrexx]

ah cool, good luck Iain!