Useless Conversation

[Nebu]

Took awhile, but I'm so looking forward to driving this car I'm having trouble concentrating at work.

I'm jealous!!!  I have a 2004 GTI and can't wait to upgrade to the new model with the beefier engine.  I'm still torn between the new GTI or the Audi TT coupe.  For the money, I think the GTI is a better value. 

[Murgos]

I'm still torn between the new GTI or the Audi TT coupe.  For the money, I think the GTI is a better value. 

"It's time to make a suggestion. More than that, a bold assertion, that the Mark VI Golf GTI is the best car in the world you can possibly buy right now."

http://www.topgear.com/uk/volkswagen...road-test/mk-6   

Seriously though, the MKVI GTI has gotten so many awards and accolades that I personally couldn't see spending the extra 10 grand on an Audi with the same engine (though AWD is nice).  Now, if you're talking about the TT RS, well, yeah but that's still at least a year out.

[rattran]

My new 2011 GTI (Carbon Steel Gray, 4Dr, AM)

Should have got AM/FM, or splurged, and gone for one with a cd player! Seriously though, what the hell is AM?

[Murgos]

AM is "Automatic Manual", which is a Direct Shift Gearbox.  Basically, a fancy quick shifting automatic that can be used as a manual if/when you feel like it.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Good luck, Ironwood!  Try not to worry to much.  As long as you did your best, that should be enough.

Congrats on the new car, Murgos!

I think it was a late b-day present, but the tree cutters were done by the time my phone interview started and I think it went really well.  Bonus points for finding out that it's not a 1-2 month contract, but more like a 12 month one that will probably go on for a long, long time!  Yay!  And it's in healthcare/pharmaceuticals which I badly need experience in.  PLUS I have an interview for another position tomorrow morning along with a phone call in about the status of a third position I interviewed for last Thursday.

The worst part of all this - so many opportunities atm, but no guarantee any of them will pan out.

[Ironwood]

Chin up, you'll be right.

[Samwise]

My company is looking for a "Cloud Strategist," IW... sure you don't want to relocate?   

[Chimpy]

Every time I come out of an interview thinking it went well, after a few hours I remember that I have NEVER gotten a job based on a face to face interview. They have either been through a resume/phone interview or through a connection or a temp agency assignment that turned into long term employment.

[Paelos]

I've gotten all my jobs through connections or face-to-face. My resume sucked after being in a different field for 3 years.

[Ironwood]

You're a fucking bastard, Sam.  You KNOW I wanna.

[Chimpy]

Why would he need to relocate? It sounds like the kind of job that is tailor made to be a telecommute 

[Nebu]

I have no idea how people can work from home.  If I had a job that allowed me to work from home, I'd get absolutely nothing done and ultimately get fired for it.  There's something to be said, motivation wise, for going into an office daily.

[Ingmar]

I have no idea how people can work from home.  If I had a job that allowed me to work from home, I'd get absolutely nothing done and ultimately get fired for it.  There's something to be said, motivation wise, for going into an office daily.

I'd have the same problem, but I know people who work better from home than in the office. It all depends on your own ability to manage your time and what you find distracting. I've never been what I would describe as a highly motivated person, so I need the trappings of the office, workday, etc., to keep me focused at all on working.

[Ironwood]

In seriousness, with a 4 year old running around who worships me, working from home's not an option for me.  She's been freaky clingy this week because I've been TALKING about going back to work.

It's nice, of course, but working from home ?  No.

[Rasix]

I have no idea how people can work from home.  If I had a job that allowed me to work from home, I'd get absolutely nothing done and ultimately get fired for it.  There's something to be said, motivation wise, for going into an office daily.

You can make a career out of getting absolutely nothing done if you try hard enough.   

Working at home is a mixed bag.  Pros: 1.5 hours saved daily commuting, saved money on gas, saved money on food, no one can pop in your door and ask you something, you can play games during boring/compulsory tele-conferences, and you can work in what you woke up in.  Cons: lack of motivation/potential for distraction (big one for me), lack of face time with colleagues, working through VPN is a lot slower, tendency of loved ones to think you have all of the time in the world to run errands, and there's now the fact that I work with hardware, which makes working from home pretty difficult unless there are people around willing to work on the machines for me.

Personally, I miss it mostly for the commuting factor.  I hate driving to work and losing 90 minutes of my day, every day.  It just feels like wasted time in a life that doesn't have a lot of free time.

As for the other topic, every job I've gotten has been after a direct interview except for the most recent change.  There wasn't really even an interview, I had the job if I wanted it.

[bhodi]

I think WFH is fucking awesome, but it's not for everyone. I've turned down jobs that pay much more, simply because I enjoy the freedom.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I have no idea how people can work from home.  If I had a job that allowed me to work from home, I'd get absolutely nothing done and ultimately get fired for it.  There's something to be said, motivation wise, for going into an office daily.

Working at home is a mixed bag.  Pros: 1.5 hours saved daily commuting, saved money on gas, saved money on food, no one can pop in your door and ask you something, you can play games during boring/compulsory tele-conferences, and you can work in what you woke up in.  Cons: lack of motivation/potential for distraction (big one for me), lack of face time with colleagues, working through VPN is a lot slower, tendency of loved ones to think you have all of the time in the world to run errands, and there's now the fact that I work with hardware, which makes working from home pretty difficult unless there are people around willing to work on the machines for me.

Those were the biggest issues I had when I worked from home as well.  Especially the lack of interaction with co-workers.

[Trippy]

I have no idea how people can work from home.  If I had a job that allowed me to work from home, I'd get absolutely nothing done and ultimately get fired for it.  There's something to be said, motivation wise, for going into an office daily.

Working at home is a mixed bag.  Pros: 1.5 hours saved daily commuting, saved money on gas, saved money on food, no one can pop in your door and ask you something, you can play games during boring/compulsory tele-conferences, and you can work in what you woke up in.  Cons: lack of motivation/potential for distraction (big one for me), lack of face time with colleagues, working through VPN is a lot slower, tendency of loved ones to think you have all of the time in the world to run errands, and there's now the fact that I work with hardware, which makes working from home pretty difficult unless there are people around willing to work on the machines for me.

Those were the biggest issues I had when I worked from home as well.  Especially the lack of interaction with co-workers.

That's a huge bonus in my book

But seriously working in a busy and noisy office as a programmer is incredibly unproductive unless you have some way of keeping people from constantly interrupting you. That's one of the reasons why so many programmers work "shifted" schedules -- fewer people around to break your flow.

[Ingmar]

Personally, I miss it mostly for the commuting factor.  I hate driving to work and losing 90 minutes of my day, every day.  It just feels like wasted time in a life that doesn't have a lot of free time.

Books on tape (and/or NPR depending on whether you are a person who finds it interesting or a person who finds it sleep-inducing) can turn that into a net positive, especially if you find yourself not otherwise having a lot of time to read.

[Abagadro]

Legal action seems to be a luxury of the wealthy.  Each and every time I've come close to legal action against another party, the situation devolved into a war of financial attrition rather than one of right and wrong according to the law. 

Am I jaded or is this really the way our system works? 

Pretty much. One of the reasons I left litigation.

[Gwion]

Hi. I'm Engels's girlfriend (yes, that is actually true). Usually I read F13 over his shoulder (also actually true) so I asked him to ask you all this question, but he said "Make an account and ask it yourself."

So here's my question. I'm a database analyst. Earlier this year I was looking for a better job, or actually a better boss. Several places weren't interested in me because my ticket isn't stamped--I'm "just an analyst." Then we had a reorg so I got away from that boss, but I'm nervous now because I might not like this one any better.

I know the market's crappy, so which one-year course would you take if you'd like it to be useful: Oracle database management (my current job is an Oracle shop), or should I go instead to a "SQL Server Specialist" program? I have 5 years of experience with this particular db, although not as a programmer (I'm not a programmer), and before that I did helpdesk and technical documentation/user help. The programs cost the same and the time investment's the same.

[bhodi]

Could you be a bit more specific as to your knowledge? What is an 'analyst', exactly? You've said you've done 5 years, but what were (in general) your job responsibilities?

Oracle is, of course, big money right at this moment, but I would be hesitant to take either year long course. Then again, I'm the type of guy who'd just pick up a book and start poking around. Is this something your company is paying for, or is this something you are looking at doing out of pocket?

SQL is always useful but oracle has oracle-specific funky way of doing things - views, different query types, ways of lockingg during queries, specific ways of doing things that are more overarching than just constructing queries. I don't know what specifically is detailed in Oracle database management, whether it goes through basic sysadmin stuff like RMON and more OS-level bits, or whether it deals with database health, indexing, table design, that sort of thing, so I can't really say without more info.

I'm not strictly a database guy so there might be another here that's better able to answer, but I think more details would be helpful.

[Gwion]

I do storage analysis, mostly: figure out how to store stuff, like addresses, so it can be retrieved from a fairly ponderous (millions of records) fundraising database. I also upload records; we get large data sets from various inside and outside sources so I analyze them for consistency, check to see if uploading the records will break anything, make sure they're not already in there, etc. The server's Oracle but I use SQL2008 to query/update it.

I'm almost entirely self-taught. I bought the Quickstart SQL book when I was still planning fundraising events (yecch) and went from there. I'd rather learn on my own too, but with my level of experience and no real programming skills I feel like I'll need the resume bullet. Also, I didn't mention this, my degree's in English, so there's another thing that sinks me to the bottom of the pile. (Add to that, I don't know WTF a "database analyst" is either--several other "database analysts" where I work have totally different responsibilities.)

I'd be paying for this, but it's not too expensive. The Oracle program is mostly in the database-health category (an entire quarter on performance and tuning) but there's also PL/SQL. The SQL Specialist one looks more like basic RDBM.

[bhodi]

I will say that there is big, BIG money to be made in performance tuning. If you can understand how the database is put together, know why you'd use one construct rather than another, figure out what's slowing down your database and how to fix it, you can do very well.

Understanding SQL queries is a lot of that, unfortunately - when someone runs some terrible outer join because they copy-pasted some other developer's code and didn't understand the performance impact, being able to re-write or suggest and alternative is very helpful and can win you huge points.

In general, those skills are something normal 'DBA administrators' don't posses, even though they are supposed to, and if you want to move that direction you can make some serious cash. I don't know what you make now, but it sounds like you've got more skills than your title suggests, and you are self taught which is a huge plus in my book. I think you're selling yourself short by referring to yourself as an 'analyst'. You might want to consider moving in this direction, changing out your job title (at least on the resume') for something more matching your skillset. Unfortunately, for top dollar, the certifications are fairly necessary - if you can get them, however, they are worth way, way more than a year long course in terms of financial payout.

I think the one who should really chime in is Morat20, he's got more database experience than I think anyone else here. I'm more of a systems guy, though I have participated in interviewing & hiring DBAs.

[Paelos]

Is that some kind of crazy monkey in your avatar?

I like monkey avatars. 

[Lantyssa]

She's got her Aye-Aye on you...

[Salamok]

You probably aren't giving your degree the weight it deserves.  For awhile UT had a program that fast tracked english majors into Natural programmers and placed them in 100k+ state contract jobs.  I realize it isn't a CS degree but it isn't all bad. 

If it were me I would do the oracle course.  It seems to gel better with your current position.

[Ironwood]

An English degree is no handicap and you shouldn't be thinking it is.  Most in IT can't communicate to save their fucking lives; I've found that my degree has given me an edge from day one.

[Ingmar]

An English degree is no handicap and you shouldn't be thinking it is.  Most in IT can't communicate to save their fucking lives; I've found that my degree has given me an edge from day one.

Yes, ability to actually form coherent thoughts is a major plus because it is a fairly rare thing in IT. I've had the same experience, more or less, albeit with a degree in music rather than English.

[Sky]

I never got a degree, but I spent a couple years in college for biochem. Amazing how much scientific method is at the core of troubleshooting, yet 'professionals' have no concept of it.

[Ingmar]

I never got a degree, but I spent a couple years in college for biochem. Amazing how much scientific method is at the core of troubleshooting, yet 'professionals' have no concept of it.

This is *endlessly* frustrating to me. I have to fight with people every single time to keep them from changing multiple variables on each test when trying to figure out why something is broken.

[Chimpy]

An English degree is no handicap and you shouldn't be thinking it is.  Most in IT can't communicate to save their fucking lives; I've found that my degree has given me an edge from day one.

Most people I have worked with in IT can't even use the proper version of "There/Their/They're" or "Too/Two/To", much less communicate in complete sentences.

[Paelos]

Accountants also suffer from delusions that they can communicate effectively.

[Lantyssa]

I never got a degree, but I spent a couple years in college for biochem. Amazing how much scientific method is at the core of troubleshooting, yet 'professionals' have no concept of it.

Getting my chem degree first has been absolutely invaluable to my troubleshooting processes.  And as much as I hated my English courses, I'm glad I was able to do well in them.  When I have to talk with the central IT help desk they make me want to cry because they are completely unable to communicate any relevant information.

[Selby]

Most people I have worked with in IT can't even use the proper version of "There/Their/They're" or "Too/Two/To", much less communicate in complete sentences.

You would be surprised how many people in general can't do that.  I've got PhDs here doing cutting edge research who can't communicate effectively or do things like punctuate a sentence properly or spell correctly.