Sinking your interview before it starts
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During a series of interviews I discovered some things about reading CV’s that downright irritate me. I share them here with you just in case your interviewer is anything like me :).
- Keep it short and to the point. CV’s that span more than four pages is too long. I had the displeasure of reading a CV of seventeen pages. That makes me unhappy. Your interviewer simply does not have the time to read your entire life story.
- Observe the DRY (Don’t repeat yourself) principle in your CV. Do not repeat the fact that you have a degree three times.
- Keep the details relevant. I want a programmer. I’m not interested in the fact that you are a landlord or that you are the chairperson of your body corporate.
- If you have been between jobs frequently and they have been contract based, make sure you state it clearly.
- Check and check again for spelling mistakes. There is nothing more annoying than spelling mistakes in a CV.
If you are working through a recruitment agency, insist on reviewing your CV before they send it out. Often the candidate will send the recruitment agency a two page CV and then they will apply power word magic and out comes a CV of seventeen pages. Recruitment agents also tend to embellish CV’s. This is the worst mistake they can make as it will paint this picture-perfect image of you that might not match up to the reality when you are interviewed.
Skills matrices are my absolute favorite. Rating yourself an expert in C# will make me raise an eyebrow if your name is not Anders Hejlsberg or Eric Lippert. Call yourself an expert if you can almost recite the ECMA specifications off by heart.
How to sink yourself in the interview
Sinking your interview isn’t all that hard. When answering questions in an interview, remember that there is a time to shut up. Ten minutes to answer a question is too long. Lookout for the interviewers glazed stare. That is a sign that you have crossed the shut-up-already limit a couple of miles ago.
Remember that you don’t know the people that are interviewing you. They have their opinions and stances and you can offend them in no time. Always keep this in mind.
Personal Knowledge Management with a Wiki
In the excellent book Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware (Pragmatic Programmers)
Ever received one of those emails that you just have to keep somewhere? That snippet of source code that might come in handy? That chocolate muffin recipe? Why not put all of it into your wiki?
My personal choice of this kind of wiki is TiddlyWiki. Simply because all of the content is in a single HTML file. Fan of Getting Things Done? TiddlyWiki can easily be configured to support the Getting Things Done methodology. Have a look at d-cubed for example.
Bear in mind that it has a learning curve to it, but if you are willing to stick to it you will surely reap the benefits.
Some of the features include:
- Tagging
- Searching
- Text formatting, including support for monospace
- Highlighting
- Block quotes
- Tables
- Headers
- Save with backups
- RSS feeds
I would suggest the following plugins to really spice-up TiddlyWiki:
Check out TiddlyTools and TiddlyVault for other plugins. It supports themes, which can be downloaded from TiddlyThemes. There is also a great cheat sheat available.
Workplace Morale
Lately I’ve been thinking on morale in the workplace. What is morale? According to Alexander H. Leighton, “morale is the capacity of a group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose“.
From this quote, it is evident that if morale decreases, people will no longer pull together in pursuit of the common purpose. Following from that, we can then say that morale is the glue that keeps people united and focused on the given task.
Sustaining a healthy level of morale in the workplace should be one of the primary concerns of managers. I’d like to think that every workplace has a set of morale pumps that help to maintain a certain level of morale, whether it be great coffee, job security or an energizing work culture, which contribute to keeping employees focused and united.
In the current economic environment where most businesses have to consider cutting costs on most levels, be careful when cutting costs on the morale pumps. Consider the cost of reducing and taking away that which maintains this level of morale. I think investing into keeping morale high is probably more needed now than ever before.
Here are some factors that influence morale in the workplace, either positively or negatively :
- Job security;
- Management style;
- Staff feeling that their contribution is valued by their employer;
- Realistic opportunities for merit-based promotion;
- Team composition;
- The work culture;
- Compensation;
- Recognition and rewards;
- Work that isn’t challenging;
- Limited growth opportunities;
- Fun environment to work in
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