randomwisdom.com

Job hunting is a pain in the butt. Most companies have their own application areas that require you to manually copy your resume information into their web forms, and most job descriptions aren't descriptive at all. Supposedly professional job-hunting websites don't really make things any easier-- for some reason, a simple search for "computer engineer" turns up jobs in sales, tech support, and mechanical engineering. And heaven help you if you want to sort by something useful such as required experience or salary.

Job applicants are expected to follow certain conventions when writing a resume or cover letter. I think expecting HR and management to follow similar rules isn't out of the question. If you want to be taken seriously, be professional and follow these simple rules:

-Don't waste applicants' time. This is the cardinal rule. Filling out a job application takes a lot more time than it should, and yours isn't the only company I'm applying for. I know you want to sort by experience and have things in a neat nice database, and I know you've got a computer to sort through the garbage, but I've already written a resume with the information on it. Respect my time by requesting a resume file first and then using it to pre-fill those forms as much as possible. (I've seen exactly one application site that did this, and it shows the company pays attention to its hiring process.) Don't ask for information that isn't computer sortable, because it's all in the resume already. If your application process respects my time, I'll take your job offer much more seriously.

-Write a descriptive job description. I've slogged through job descriptions that left me scratching my head afterward. "Assists senior project leads in achieving project goals." Yes, but what is it that you actually DO? Most managers are good at mentioning the skills they want their applicants to have, and I may have a clear idea of the type of things your company does, but if you don't describe specific duties and projects it's hard to get excited about the position. Give specific examples if you can. Linking to the project page or Wikipedia is even better. Finally, don't use terms that don't apply. For example, using the title "Sales Engineer" to refer to a sales position is despicable. It clutters up every engineering listing, and just pisses off all of us who have real engineering degrees. You wouldn't stick the word "Marketing" in an engineering position.

-Money talks. If you think your offer is truly reasonable, provide a salary range. Give me numbers, not the words "competitive salary". Feel free to mention your fantastic benefits package somewhere, but if I'm going to spend time filling out your web form and flying out to your interview I need to know about how much you're going to pay. Not disclosing this information implies that you know your competitors will pay more and your company is trying to rip me off.

-Sort your positions by experience. It's extremely tough to find job offers for engineers with less than a year of experience, and senior staff don't want to waste their time looking at junior positions. Why is it that I haven't found a single site that lets me enter "Computer engineer" and sort by expected years of experience? I'd even settle for one that lets me post a resume, enter in the years of experience I have, and actually provides me with jobs that I'm qualified for, automatically excluding the ones I can't take (no Master's or PhD, for example). "We have job openings in every state" sounds great until you realize that the openings in your state are all for Senior Aviation Defrosting Technicians. "There are entry-level marketing positions available in California, New Mexico, Ohio, and Florida" is useful information. Your potential applicant might say, Hey, I never thought about it but Albuquerque sounds nice. I'll apply for that job.

-Make sure your site works. General Dynamics has a professional-looking website, but clicking a referral link to a specific job doesn't work. Searching by the reference number kicks back an error page saying I don't have cookies enabled (I do). I had to open it up in Internet Explorer for the search to work properly, and then it required me to log in before even seeing the job description. Intel's site won't let you open up and compare several job offers in tabs, complaining that you need to close other windows from their site first. An unprofessional job site design reflects poorly on your company. Qualified job hunters will go elsewhere.

-Don't list entry-level positions under "recent college grads". Some people switch careers, some shift from one sub-specialty to another, and some have taken a break for one reason or another. Quite a few of these people are still highly qualified. Some might even be better at broad-discipline skills such as teamwork and presentations than those right out of university. These people aren't college grads, nor are they "experienced professionals". Rename your "college grads" link to "entry level positions", and watch the unique resumes roll in.

Just a quick note to let everyone know I got back OK.

A few memorable notes from my trip back from Seoul through Japan and Los Angeles and finally back home...

A situation of much gravity
After parting with my Seoul traveling companion, I went around to collect the luggage I'd stored and the one piece I'd shipped, and went to check in. Since the layover was so long, I had an hour and a half before check-in was even supposed to start, so I found a seat next to one of the entrances and pulled out my DS. Soon, a crowd of people with press badges and cameras started crowding around the doors. Soon a minivan pulled up and a big guy in traditional Japanese wear got out. After much shuffling and popping of flashbulbs, four sumo wrestlers walked into Narita Airport. I didn't find out who it was until I was standing directly behind him in the customs line. In an amusing twist, one of the workers there, a petite young woman, tried to get his attention to ask if he wanted to bypass the lines. But another line immediately opened up, and he went to the front. Hey, I wasn't gonna argue with the guy.

The next person who brings a baby on a trans-Pacific flight gets keelhauled
The flight back on Singapore Airlines was fantastic, even better than the Japanese airlines if possible. My scale goes something like this:

American carriers : meat cargo :: Japanese carriers : human beings :: Singapore Airlines : royal family

Of course you get alcoholic beverages without being nickle-and-dimed to death (oh I do hope you have exact change on United) but the staff was also dressed to the nines in suits and dresses. Movies included the standard almost-new fare with shitty headphones, but they also had quite a few older but good movies, and more quantity than most airlines-- I stopped counting at 25 and there were still some left. A few things are unavoidable on a Boeing aircraft, such as the movie controls being easily bumped (hope you like fast-forwarding) and screaming-baby syndrome, but for the most part the flight was more pleasant than I remember.

Under renovation my ass
Los Angeles was another story. Despite being "under renovation" for the past 5 years, the whole place still looks and smells like an industrial art fair reject. Picking up a customs form required marching to a single table tucked away into the far end of the immigrations area. Half the area around the luggage carousel was blocked off and used for the customs lines, and the three or four flights of people that arrived with us had to filter through a grand total of two customs agents. LAX still has no signs or maps to tell you where the terminals are-- their idea of a substitute is allowing people to basically panhandle outside the arrival gates in exchange for information. If there was a free shuttle I didn't see it. The oft-used international terminal is still about a mile walk from the most popular local terminal, Southwest. (I remember passing Lufthansa and Air Cathay and quite a few airlines I'd never heard of.) And of course there are still the ridiculous hoops of dragging your luggage to the Southwest check-in counter, weighing it, and hauling it back to a separate security point. Apparently LAX staff haven't discovered the technological marvel of "conveyor belts". Insufficient seating in the gate area and a lack of power outlets made a long wait even worse, and as hot as it was I'm certain the A/C wasn't functioning. These posters were plastered around the area. Lax expectations, indeed. They'd do the city a service to demolish the whole place and start over.

Things learned:

• A Honda minivan can comfortably seat four sumo, and can even move while doing so.
• The reputation of Singapore Airlines is rightly earned.
• Avoid LAX like the plague.

Went back to the electronics market in Yongsan to buy a lens for my camera: an 85mm f/1.8 lens. It's my first "prime" lens, and it's a bit tough to shoot with it when I'm so used to being able to zoom in and out. But the sheer amount of light I can get in made it possible to take photos in half to a quarter of the light I'd normally need. And I got a pretty good deal on it too. I was going to buy the 50mm f/1.4 prime as well, but as I already have a kit zoom in that range and not much room left in my suitcase (and had insufficient cash for the purchase) I figured I can always get one after I get back.

We went next to Changdeokgung, a World Heritage site that used to be the king's personal retreat. The site is only accessible on official tours led three times a day, and the tour guide was impossible to hear or understand. On top of that, it's impossible to take decent pictures with fifty other idiots wandering into your shot with bright umbrellas. So Ashley and I lagged behind, and then got conveniently "lost" before wandering around and eventually stumbling into a Korean language tour. It was quite fortunate that we got left behind, because otherwise we would never have seen the hidden garden. Yes, the tour guide had skipped the best part of the whole place entirely.

I started with the stock 18-55mm zoom, and swapped out to the 85mm lens about halfway through. Wow. It was simply astounding how much light I was able to get into the camera. Even in cloudy weather, I was able to shoot at lower ISO modes. I took some portraits of my traveling companion before swapping back to the zoom for the landscapes.

I'll post some photos when I get back.

P.S. Ashley and I, after finishing our palace tour, crossed the street toward a convenience store. A little girl walking with her mother, maybe 5 years old, looked right at me with a huge smile and said, "Hello! Welcome to Korea!" I was so stunned by this spontaneous use of English that I could only gasp out a "hello" in return.

Met up with Ashley no problem and arrived in Seoul last night.

There was apparently a big earthquake in northern Iwate prefecture that closed the Tohoku Shinkansen (bullet train) on the morning I would have flown out. This happened to be the same day my visa expired. I wouldn't have made it to the airport on time if I hadn't had the amazing psychic foresight to spend the night before in Tokyo.

So I'm here. Had a little trouble finding the youth hostel (the same one I'd stayed at 3 years ago) but an elderly gentleman helped us out.

Today I have no idea what we're gonna do. Maybe just bum around, eat, and drink. We shall see.

I'm running in circles. Four days left until I have to move out of my apartment, four days until I leave the country, and eight days until I arrive back home. Cleaning, packing, making arrangements to say my goodbyes to everyone. That last one has become more and more difficult, to the point where I have scheduled each one of my lunches and dinners for the past few days.

On top of that, I'm trying to do the following, all at once:

• Buy parts for a new computer, through a credit card company and retailer in another country
• Cancel my phone, internet (both ISP and physical line), gas, electricity, water, and bank account
• Send all that money home
• Pack 2 boxes for sending clothes and stuff home
• Send said boxes
• Figure out how to stuff everything else into my 2 suitcases
• Clean the entire apartment tip to tail
• Sneeze madly while doing the above, from the toxic amounts of dislodged dust
• Get rid of all the excess junk I've accumulated over the years, along with several pieces of junk which were here when I arrived
• Make arrangements to ship one of the boxes to be picked up after I come back from Korea, but before I have to board my flight home
• Sell my car
• Not forget important things like my camera, laptop, passport, or towel

Holy shit. I was gonna sleep in this morning but Planet Earth had other ideas. A magnitude 7.0 quake centered pretty much on my goddamn apartment woke me up some minutes before 9am. The room started shaking violently, to the point where I leapt from my bedding and dove for the doorframe. The shaking continued for about 30 seconds.

During the quake, several pieces of furniture pretty much moved away from the wall on their own. Two mugs fell from the shelves and shattered on the floor, my 50 pound CRT walked itself about a foot across my desk, the microwave nearly fell from the top of the refrigerator, and my motorcycle, which was on its stand, completely fell over.

The plural form in English is very difficult for many language students to master, especially if their native language has no plural form. Most of the time it just sounds wrong, but plurals have some very subtle connotations that can change the meaning of a sentence substantially. Read the following sample sentences:

I like dogs.
I like dog.

The first is a statement about pet preference, and the second about your choice of cuisine. Sometimes the difference is more subtle:

Hamburger is enjoyed by many people.
Hamburgers are enjoyed by many people.

In this case it works, because "hamburger" is both a type of meat and a discrete countable food item. But usually it doesn't work:

Is pen used in outer space?
Are pens used in outer space?

The second sentence uses the plural form to express generality; a "pen" is a generic type of object which may or may not be used in space. But the first sentence doesn't use a plural, so when a native speaker reads the first sentence a specifier is required. Which pen? This pen? Your pen? The sentence as written is incorrect because that information is missing.

The complicated part is that some objects are discrete and countable, while others are not. This leads to much confusion. "Sushi" for some reason is not countable. Neither is "money"-- but you can count "dollars". "Rice" isn't discrete, but we can count "grains of rice". Animals are countable, but the meat product derived from them is not. Liquids are not countable, but containers and measurements of them are (and we go to great lengths to make plurals like "bottles of soda" or "gallons of gasoline"). Water of course isn't countable, but the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers combine to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Quite confusing, isn't it?