Open Letter to All IT Recruiting Agencies
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
loosing ... most US kids nowadays cant speak the language either
Or write it.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
We got a job opening in Newstead, nice country town 250 south of Brisbane. Your resume looks great, please apply online if interested! Alternatively, you can get free McMeal ticket for every successful applicant you can recommend!
My programming get away... The Blog... DirectX for WinRT/C# since 2013! Taking over the world since 1371!
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It works both ways. They make quite a bit of money for everyone they place, and they really can't afford to piss too many people off. Besides, it's the principal of the thing. Why should I contribute to a company who off-shored their recruiting jobs?
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Why should I contribute to a company who off-shored their recruiting jobs?
Considering it is HR that goes around handing out pink slips, I would be happy to see a portion of HR activity outsourced and the HR critters themselves handed pink slips.:rose:
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
loosing ... most US kids nowadays cant speak the language either
Or write it.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
There are those who are almost human and are capable of contributing to society, through to those who are nothing but blood sucking leeches except for the fact that blood sucking leeches have a distinct medical purpose and the bottom end of 'Recruiters' don't. I have had recruiters try to stitch me and their client up at the same time. But I've also had one guy who discreetly explained to me why I didn't get the job (my surname didn't sound Indian enough - I kid you not) much to his professional embarrassment, and then when out of his way to find me something much better. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
30 years of Microsoft? Don't you feel like doing something else for a change? It wasn't until I got off my butt and started doing things with Linux and general software(as opposed to purely scientific) that I got interest. I had to take a 5 k paycut one year, but the job was the most fun I'd had in years; the following year I got a 10k rise. Now I do everything from automated Linux OS builds to ATL, and it is a lot of fun. Oh, and I travelled 100 miles to get the job. Venting may be fun, but realistic, even helpful, it isn't.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
"Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today)." The Circuit of the Americas is nearer, if I lived there I know where I would be this weekend. Are you a fan?
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30 years of Microsoft? Don't you feel like doing something else for a change? It wasn't until I got off my butt and started doing things with Linux and general software(as opposed to purely scientific) that I got interest. I had to take a 5 k paycut one year, but the job was the most fun I'd had in years; the following year I got a 10k rise. Now I do everything from automated Linux OS builds to ATL, and it is a lot of fun. Oh, and I travelled 100 miles to get the job. Venting may be fun, but realistic, even helpful, it isn't.
I, on the other hand, tried linux and can't stand that thing. I found it too raw, too much configuration and concepts that I just don't like (fork/exec for example)
I'm Brazilian; English and other human languages in general aren't my best skills so I apologise for my less than perfect English... "Given the chance I'd rather work smart than work hard." - PHS241 "'Sophisticated platform' typically means 'I have no idea how it works.'"
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I, on the other hand, tried linux and can't stand that thing. I found it too raw, too much configuration and concepts that I just don't like (fork/exec for example)
I'm Brazilian; English and other human languages in general aren't my best skills so I apologise for my less than perfect English... "Given the chance I'd rather work smart than work hard." - PHS241 "'Sophisticated platform' typically means 'I have no idea how it works.'"
It certainly does take time, it can be alien after windows. I don't really use windows at home anymore. Linux is faster, safer, cheaper and I like it. Trouble is it makes me very impatient and dissatisfied with windows at work. 15 minute boot time? And they charge money for that? Forget about it.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
John, you and me both. AFAIK all I want them to do is put me in contact with the jobs I want, not the other way around. Examples include an 'easy commute' to the other side of London, around 3 hours each way, or salaries equating to what I was earning 20 years ago.
speramus in juniperus
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It certainly does take time, it can be alien after windows. I don't really use windows at home anymore. Linux is faster, safer, cheaper and I like it. Trouble is it makes me very impatient and dissatisfied with windows at work. 15 minute boot time? And they charge money for that? Forget about it.
You must be using windows XP, my desktop here at work takes 5 seconds to boot, and my notebook at home takes 15 seconds. I did had a machine at work that took that long, but it was a 4gb ram, dual core WinXP (later Win7, but that only increased boot time). About being safer, the first thing that my OS professor thaught us was how to break unix passwords.
I'm Brazilian; English and other human languages in general aren't my best skills so I apologise for my less than perfect English... "Given the chance I'd rather work smart than work hard." - PHS241 "'Sophisticated platform' typically means 'I have no idea how it works.'"
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"Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today)." The Circuit of the Americas is nearer, if I lived there I know where I would be this weekend. Are you a fan?
I don't follow any professional racing series anymore, and generally, open-wheel stuff holds no interest for me.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
It certainly does take time, it can be alien after windows. I don't really use windows at home anymore. Linux is faster, safer, cheaper and I like it. Trouble is it makes me very impatient and dissatisfied with windows at work. 15 minute boot time? And they charge money for that? Forget about it.
That boot time is the result of 0) Whatever bloatware your company uses for A/V 1) Updating system policies 2) Updating your shares 3) Loading corporate spy-ware that keeps track of what you're doing on your machine 4) Unneeded drivers to configure parts of your system that you're not using (and never will use) 5) Whatever other startup stuff is configured on your system. When I reboot at work, it takes about four minutes to finish booting. At home, it's about 20 seconds.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
That boot time is the result of 0) Whatever bloatware your company uses for A/V 1) Updating system policies 2) Updating your shares 3) Loading corporate spy-ware that keeps track of what you're doing on your machine 4) Unneeded drivers to configure parts of your system that you're not using (and never will use) 5) Whatever other startup stuff is configured on your system. When I reboot at work, it takes about four minutes to finish booting. At home, it's about 20 seconds.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013Yes. This is all true. But it's still Windows. I just spent the whole morning re-installing VS2010 twice. It's possible to break Linux programmes too, but you don't have to pay for them, and you could rebuild the entire system from the ground up four or five times while waiting for windows to do it's thing. :zzz:
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You must be using windows XP, my desktop here at work takes 5 seconds to boot, and my notebook at home takes 15 seconds. I did had a machine at work that took that long, but it was a 4gb ram, dual core WinXP (later Win7, but that only increased boot time). About being safer, the first thing that my OS professor thaught us was how to break unix passwords.
I'm Brazilian; English and other human languages in general aren't my best skills so I apologise for my less than perfect English... "Given the chance I'd rather work smart than work hard." - PHS241 "'Sophisticated platform' typically means 'I have no idea how it works.'"
You mean running John The Ripper on conveniently 'obtained' files? With huge, custom wordlists, of course, as you're a professional. And this is after you've penetrated the root directory via the router, through both firewalls? I ran a simple English word through a cracker for two weeks and it wasn't cracked, even though I had access to the files. And while we're at it, how do you boot into a windows drive if the OS breaks? Answers on a 2GB stick please. :laugh:
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You mean running John The Ripper on conveniently 'obtained' files? With huge, custom wordlists, of course, as you're a professional. And this is after you've penetrated the root directory via the router, through both firewalls? I ran a simple English word through a cracker for two weeks and it wasn't cracked, even though I had access to the files. And while we're at it, how do you boot into a windows drive if the OS breaks? Answers on a 2GB stick please. :laugh:
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Yes. This is all true. But it's still Windows. I just spent the whole morning re-installing VS2010 twice. It's possible to break Linux programmes too, but you don't have to pay for them, and you could rebuild the entire system from the ground up four or five times while waiting for windows to do it's thing. :zzz:
I never had to reinstall VS. You may want to look at your extensions. Also, "you don't have to pay for them" is no argument. On todays world, there's Free/Open Source/Freemium software for all systems. Just to mention some for developers: Apache, Mono Develop, Sharp Develop, Code::Blocks, LinqPad, Fiddler, etc.
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I'm a programmer with over 30 years of experience in the industry, and have experience in most of the currently relevant Microsoft technologies. I've been the victim of right-sizing, cost-cutting, contractual obligations regarding returning veterans, and most recently, out-sourcing, so I'm looking for a new "opportunity". Before you get yourselves into a lather and unleash your legions of "senior recruiters" with their itchy send-email fingers in my direction, know this. I can understand that you probably use some sort fuzzy-logic word matching application to process the thousands upon thousands of IT-related resumes on the various job-search web sites. I get it - I really do. It's a brilliant method for weeding out the non-IT candidates from those lucky millions of others that you would like to represent. However, you STILL have a problem - several, in fact. First, your "senior recruiters are merely emailing (or even worse, cold-calling) EVERYONE that might be a match for a given job posting. Take me for instance. ALL of my online job site profiles have that little box checked that says "WILL NOT RELOCATE". It seems that your "senior recruiters" conveniently ignore that fact, and I get notices for jobs all over the world. Here's some info that may keep your people out of my inbox - I DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN BUM-F*CK EGYPT, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY STATE THAT STARTS WITH THE WORD "NEW". In point of fact, if it ain't within 50 miles of my zip code, I don't want to know about it. Make your "senior recruiters" eyeball EVERY resume and Monster profile before sending an email or making a phone call. Furthermore, even if I knew someone that might be interested in such a position, it's your job to find them - NOT my job to give you their name, so don't ask me to do it. If you're so lazy that you can't properly do a job that admittedly doesn't take a lot of cerebral fortitude, maybe you should find more meaningful work. I suggest looking into sweeping standing water off sidewalks, or maybe maintaining the machine that puts the little ridges on checkers. Next, teach your "senior recruiters" a little something about US geography. For the record, Houston and Dallas are NOWHERE NEAR San Antonio. Neither location qualifies as a "longish commute" (and yes, I had some idiot call it that today). Finally, given the fact that so many American programmers are loosing their jobs to off-shore "programmers", don't add insult to injury and have some third-world janitor call me on the phone in the middle of his lunch break a
I understand your pain. Like you I have been working in the field for an extended time, 20+ years. I have on my resume that I do not want to relocate, but constantly get recruiters contacting me about opportunities "up north." At the beginning of my career I lived in one of those northern states whose name begins with "New", and have since escaped to the mountains of eastern Tennessee via Atlanta. I guess that since I worked up north at one time, recruiters think I would be eager to return to snow-blower country, places like Boston, Philly, NJ, or NYC. I found that no matter how much I would indicate I was not interested nothing seemed to deter recruiters from repeatedly wasting my time and theirs. I finally got smart and started speaking their language, $$$$. Now when contacted by a recruiter about a position in an area I am not interested in I simply state "To get me even remotely interested in going to so-and-so the rate will have to be something God-aweful, like $100,000/hr. Now if you have something closer to my area I can come down significantly." I just love the shocked silence that ensues. I have yet to have a recruiter contact me a second time.
Cheers, Tim W.
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No, i mean loading the shell and editing passwords on hand. I was surprised that trick actually worked on the servers of my previous employee. And i boot on the windows drive using nothing more than the built in tools, that are alread on the drive.
Editing by hand? I'm assuming there was no encryption? I've never heard of this. As for windows tools, that's great as long as you don't mind losing 15-20G on restore partitions. I've used both. I prefer Linux.
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I never had to reinstall VS. You may want to look at your extensions. Also, "you don't have to pay for them" is no argument. On todays world, there's Free/Open Source/Freemium software for all systems. Just to mention some for developers: Apache, Mono Develop, Sharp Develop, Code::Blocks, LinqPad, Fiddler, etc.
Mono is deliberately targeted at Linux as an open source version of .NET. Probably doesn't have any NSA back doors in the encryption routines either, although I couldn't swear to that; Windows and Linux .net mesh very well, getting agreement with Java encryption is a trick. As for 'you don't have to pay for them', that's a great argument for open source Linux, which is where all those came from. Talk about dropping context.