Career Corner - All Comments

re: How to find a job (now, and in this market)

AMADI SUNDAY — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:12:35 GMT

SEARCHING FOR JOB. AUDIO ENGINEER.

re: Working from home still a cultural issue

John Casey — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:14:16 GMT

From what I have seen, the problem is the old farts and their old punch in, punch out ways. If I can see you, you are working. Not so. If management is younger and they are adverse to work from home, it is often because someone screwed them and ruined it for everybody else, including the employer.

I am a contract programmer. It was a teen hobby turned career. I absolutely love what I do and take my work very seriously. I have had a few opportunities to work from home for several months at a time and it was marvelous. I would gladly drop a significant portion of my rate for this opportunity, but employers rarely go for it, even in such harsh economic times.

Programming is an art. As such there are times you are in the zone and other times you are not. If you are not in the zone, your productivity and quality of work often suffers. If you work from home, you can chose to work when you are at your best, which I do. Furthermore programming is a task requiring great focus. Interruptions from people, phones, meetings and lunch time break your concentration. Working at home, I can control the people and phone interruptions and I can choose a logical time to take a break (ie when a portion of code is complete, rather than mid stream breaking my focus on the current task).

Working 9-5, I get paid no matter what, available work or not. When I work from home I bill when I work and do not bill when there is a shortage. I balance it out with extra hours I have done to meet deadlines during a crunch time. I don't misrepresent my billings and often under bill. For example I usually do not bill for phone calls or phone in meetings. It just feels wrong to bill $50/hr while you are sitting in your backyard, just stepped out of the pool, you are in the sun, only on the phone with a coffee and a smoke in your hand. Ya know? If I am in a stuffy meeting room at work, damn right I am billing.

Waking up to an alarm clock is horrible and stressful, I swear it has to have caused people to have heart attacks. Like most programmers we are naturally night people. During my last work from home contract, my gears would start spinning around 10pm. I would work until the birds started chirping, go to bed, wake up whenever my eyes opened (Naturally), have a relaxed coffee or two, go for a swim then sit back and enjoy the summer. Take any required phone calls or phone meetings. I was around for my family. Perhaps have a mid afternoon nap and then do it all over again. Anyone who gives me this lifestyle has 100% of my loyalty.

I am now at a 9-5 job and I immediately noticed that working in optimal settings I was easily 2x, 5x or sometimes even 10x more productive per dollar vs. what it is now. Still love what I do, like the company, like the people, like the projects. It is just not working while in my zone, with interruptions, times when there is no work available, etc... In the long run they are hurting themselves. My boss was one of the ones who got burned in the past.

re: Video: Gen Y workers: We know all about this IT stuff

Bazza — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:40:14 GMT

People who believe they are highly proficient information technology users are not the people who actually create the programs and systems. Most of the Gen Y would be classified in my mind as super users, but users just the same. They can and will contribute enormously to what goes into systems and the features a program may have, but not so much to actually building, maintaining and having the infrastructure in place for then to use the system. The CIO and IT departments have the responsiblity of the building, maintaining and infrastructure for the systems which is a whole different toolset and mindset than superusers. The reason that Gen Y can use and manipulate the systems is that the previous generation has created and advanced the usability of the sytems so they are easy to use. Saying that they can navigate through complex applications means essentially nothing if they cannot apply what the systems do to the work that is needed to be done.

Coming from a business background but working in IT, I personally have not seen many Gen Y that are as proficient as the clips says they are.

re: Out of work? Try teleworking.

Jeremy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:25:58 GMT

Living in some parts of the world you can charge $2 an hour ...... for the rest of us it's not even an option.

Online work has all gone to India et al.

re: Would you apologize?

ChrisGreaves.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:01:56 GMT

Same event happened 500 years ago at the gates of Nottingham Castle when the 4:48 coach for Sherwood Forest left on time, for once, the only difference then was that the witness had a piece of bark and a stick of charcoal.

Today's technology is distinctly more realistic (I bet you have a camera in your cell phone but can't identify the artists supplies store nearest you), but the principle remains the same, does it not?

Eyewitness news.

re: IBM confirms layoffs, but won't say who or how many

Brent — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:19:15 GMT

SOB’s sending jobs to India for the monkeys to do. Nice. I was a victim of this but fortunately I had two other opportunities. It still makes me angry when I think about being outsourced. SOB’s.

re: Would you apologize?

guest321 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:03:26 GMT

I don't think the employee taped this woman with the intent to embarrass her. Perhaps he wanted a record of her outrageous behavior in case she tried to change her story at a later time. There are plenty of forums and boards on the internet dedicated to airline complaints. You hear this all the time. "I was calm, cool and collected and only wanted to make my complaint known but when I requested a supervisor the police were called and I was arrested!" Really? What's wrong with that story? I think if one were acting reasonably and professionally why would law enforcement be called to intervene?

My belief is that the Cathay Pacific employee was simply ensuring there was a record in case her story changed. The fact that the video was leaked doesn't change that she acted this way in a public place. I'll bet there were security cameras that caught her antics as well. There could have been another passenger in the gate area who could have shot a similar video. There is video and photographic records being made of our everyday activities in public. If one chooses to ignore that fact and act like a crazed idiot that's their problem. I don't think she's due anything at al from the airline.

This story is inaccurate as well. I saw on the BBC news that she was only given a one-way upgrade not upgrades for life! Would you want someone like that sitting in first class every time she flew? I certainly would not. God forbid if she gets a cold bowl of soup!

re: How to negotiate severance after being laid off

Brad Marks — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:02:53 GMT

As an Ontario based employee and after working in IT sales (senior management level)with a large global (US based) IT hardware manufacturer for almost 13 years, I was terminated due to a change in leadership and new direction. Many US companies do not know nor understand Canadian labour law and subsequently will provide a severance package commensurate with local US law. Canadian labour law is much less strict than the US and better for the employee. Subsequently, I hired a lawyer specializing in labour law to go after a better settlement. For senior management/executive level positons, 1 month per year of service is standard (by precedent). Many factors come into play that affect the amount of overall severance. Age, seniority, compensation and current economic conditions (ie. how quickly the individual will find work at a similar level and payscale) to name a few. Educating the US employer is very important and be best left to a professional (hence why I hired a lawyer). It is important that the severance package reflect your total compensation not just base salary. Compensation would include sales bonus, car allowance, office allowance, RRSP contributions, stock options, etc. Make sure this is all included in the settlement discussion. It is also important that you keep a detailed log of all your daily activities that help mitigate the damages (ie.settlement) to your employer. This means, your employer wants to see what you are doing to find another job (to help mitigate the amount they have to pay you as settlement). All discussions, meetings, interviews, resume creation, networking events, etc. should be documented. As well, the settlement offered by your employer may include a "claw back" clause whereby if you find a job within the period of settlement payout (say they gave you 10 months and you found a job within 5 months of your termination), you may have to pay back in full, or a portion of, the balance. Last, when looking for a lawyer, most charge an hourly rate. Depending upon law firm, this will range between $350 to $800 depending upon experience. Most will also charge a consulting fee to meet with you first. Try to get this waived or if you do hire them, they will credit you. For relatively straightforward cases, you can go with an associate for a lower hourly rate. Bay Street firms will charge more than midtown firms or firms north of the city. You get nothing more from a Bay Street firm so do your best to find a lawyer you're comfortable with and has expertise with labour law and with US firms if applicable. Personally, I would stay away from any law firm that wants to charge you a percentage of the settlement outcome. Some will do this and charge a lower hourly rate as well. Go straight hourly is my recommendation. Expect a 3-6 month period. Most cases settle without going to trial within this period.

re: How To Land A Better IT Job

Kyle Tischler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:02:45 GMT

Where is the plumbing union of canadas headquauters?

re: How to recession-proof your career

Becca — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:01:01 GMT

This article is great, thanks for the tips. I'd like to add that expanding your horizons in the area of outsourcing and <a href="www.odesk.com/.../outsourcing_canada" rel="nofollow">freelance work</a> can make a serious impact on your financial security, and aid in the event that you end up one of the unlucky folks that end up laid off. Just another avenue to consider.

Thanks for another great post!

re: Telework and the control syndrome

Telework — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:01:52 GMT

It's very interesting to know about Web-based software

re: Video: What IT job seekers said at CareerDoor's HiTech job fair

Subhas Ghai — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:11:05 GMT

Its a total waste of time.

re: IT pros love Obama more

Madisoon — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:10:01 GMT

Obama is going to be the best president EVER!!!!!! I love u as a president!!!!!!!

re: How To Land A Better IT Job

Joseph — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:11:15 GMT

I think that as IT professionals, we often overlook the personal side.. Personality can take you a long way or be seriously harmful to your career

"People don't care how much you know, unless they know how much you care!"

re: How To Land A Better IT Job

Arian — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:11:36 GMT

This is the best description ever.

Tips provided are more than welcomed for anybody how thinks to pursue a IT career or is already within a IT industry.

Can't wait for next blog: "Should I Get Certified?"