Choosing or Deciding on a job
We are going through hard economic time, but sometime opportunities or will to change can bring a situation where you will have to evaluate your situation to find out which one is preferable.
I have tried to compile all the criteria that you would think about and evaluate in order to assess positions.
Pay/Salary
This is obviously the most common but I really think it should not be depending on your lifestyle and age - young people indeed more incomes than older one. You will find this criterion important if you have to pay your studies, debts or even if you are trying to buy a first home.
Over Time and Workload
Knowing the salary pay tag, one will want to understand how many hours of work are included. How many hours a week will you have to work in order to earn this amount? Also you want to know when O.T. kicks in, if you are entitled to any. The point here, no one should be a work slave. You may want to think of it as some sort of salary aka earning / sanity ratio. Earning a lot of money is yet important, but your sanity is even more.
Incentives
Along with the regular salary a company will pay you, one needs to look at all the other things that the company may (or may mot) pay for you. Those includes things such as: Cellphone, car, Internet, work from home
Bonus
Most of the private companies offer some kind of bonus. You want to know how it is calculated. Goal based? Fix?
Benefits
It is hard to find out during the hiring process but it is the source of a few legitimate questions to your future employer. As an employee you should already know what is covered. Here are some points one should inquire about:
- Regular coverage, you know the regular medical expenses as an individual
- Spouse/Family coverage, will they cover your family?
- Dental, those can be expensive
- Eyes
- Accidental Death and Dismemberment, a nice to have
Holidays
Everyone needs a break. Along with regular "paid" days off, you should find out how many floaters you will get - days you can use during the year anytime. Also you need to find out the sick day policy, while you are not planning to be sick for a long time, you will want to know how they can be used.
Pension
RSSP does not suffice if you are just a middle class worker. Check out what rate is your company contributing to your retirement. It is nice to have a company who matches your contribution. Of course, you want to find out the percentage of contribution as well.
Commuting Time
Commuting takes time and can be tiring. Depending on the length and comfort of your ride, commuting can be useful and pleasant. You could spend some time reading or playing mind games. Obviously it is not a good idea if you are driving. If possible chose a job to where commuting takes less than 1 hour and more than 20-30 minutes so it provides a break from work. This criterion should be included for your sanity ratio.
Workplace
While it is hard to find out at first. You may want to have a tour of the workplace. Check for social things like: kitchen, agora and even a gym. Also be sure to find out the amount of light present in the office...winter can be hard on you sometime. It is all about working a la google or cubicle rat. Reports publicly visible should give you an idea if your company is a probable great workplace.
Coworkers
Well you know what you lose but never what you will gain. This is the very same with your coworkers. It is hard to know with whom you will be stuck with. From the interview, maybe trying to talk to current employees, you will want to subtly find you about the ambiance and probably about your future boss!
Reasons for this job
Not the reason for you doing this job but the reason of existence of this very position. Is this a new position? Taking over someone else? you may want to find why the previous person left or why a new position is created.
Company's Health
This is the hardest thing to evaluate, unless you are a senior psychic analyst. It could be based on how the company's stock is doing. But yet in economicaly difficult period it is hard to understand. However the help of search engine and other social networking (facebook, linked...) you should find some articles and feedback about the company.
System Administrator Appreciation Day
Today I just found out about this. As you may not know or already all know is that part of my job is doing the system administrator for the little big company I work for.
And yes there is a so called "Sys Adm Appreciation Day" and yes I really think this is an appropriate day to instigate! And you know the best admins are lazy admin I am just going to copy there definition of this great site: www.sysadminday.com.
Of course I missed it as it was/is every last Friday of July. Next year I won't miss it.
What Does a System Administrator Do?
What is a system administrator? Well, look at the title. Administrator of systems. A system administrator takes care of systems.
Now, most people read "system" to mean an individual computer, and think that all a sysadmin does is clean viruses off your computer and replace your monitor. That's not wrong -- but it is only one page of the whole story.
A real computing system is larger. Very few computers work just on their own anymore; when you use the web, play a game online, share files with a friend, or send email, you're using a complex and intricate collection of computers, networks and software that come together to do the job you're asking.
A sysadmin manages these systems -- they figure out how to bring storage from one server, processing from another, backups from a third and networking from a fourth computer all together, working seamlessly. For you.
a good end to the sys admin
It's not an easy task. Your sysadmins need to understand in depth computing protocols. They often have to know something about programming, something about hardware, a lot about software -- and even more about the people using their system.
A sysadmin is a professional, with complex skills, ethical challenges, and a daunting job. Many, if not most, people find computers difficult to use, and sometimes they're unreliable. Being a sysadmin doesn't absolve someone of dealing with unreliable computers. Oh, one can dream of such a day, but the opposite is true; no one sees more dead computers in a day than a sysadmin. No one sees them doing truly baffling things, and no one has more stories of computers failing, acting possessed, or even catching on fire.
The challenge of a sysadmin is making a computing system -- a whole network of resources and servers and software -- work together, work right, work even when parts of it fail -- and work for you.
That's the most important job of the sysadmin: to work for you. To take the staggering array of technologies, acronyms, protocols, networks, vendors, budgets, limited time, competing products, and threats to the computing network, assemble them all together in a working system. Their job is not only to be the geek in the corner who types all day. What they're doing is bringing these diverse pieces of technology into order, and fitting them together to fill your needs at work and home; to translate the world of computing into human terms.
This is a daunting task and we're still at the cutting edge; we're not perfect, and the field is still figuring itself out. Being a sysadmin takes a certain boldness, to be one of the first people to take on the challenge of turning difficult computers into easy to use systems. But hundreds of thousands of people are working in that field now, from the entry level help desk tech to the corporate CIOs and everyone in between.
So when you think of a sysadmin, think of the people who run the servers that help you clean it off, the people who run your backups to make sure your data is safe, the people who bring you the network, the people who monitor it for security -- and yes, the person who cleans the virus off your computer and replaces your monitor.
Blogging from an email
Well it has been quite some time now that I have been photologging using
Flickr and their pretty handy picture sending feature. (check my flickr
at http://www.flickr.com/kitkatneko)
I have to say Flickr has done a pretty good job with my photos sent from
my mobile phone. Although Flickr allows me to sending pictures directly
to my blog as well I wanted to try the embedded feature of wordpress
So it took me a bit to figure out how to configure it so that I could
use a gmail account to do so. Look below for the fun information you'll
have to input if you ever wanted to do the same.
This said, a littre cron task on your server will become very handy as
of course WP needs a little push to trigger to email check for it to
post it on your blog!
Enough say, this is a try anyway.
Mail server: ssl://pop.gmail.com Port: 995
Login name: yoursecretlogin@gmail.com
Password: yourpass*word
Domokun USB Sticks
I think I found something I want (yet again). There are some USB clip drives in the shape of Domokun. Who is and used to be my idol - who is not?. Well I don't need one. Not at all. Even more of a problem is the price. For the 1 Gig model its $50. For the 2 Gig its $80. For the 4 Gig model, the one I probably could get some use, comes in at $110. Too pricey for me as you can easily find 4 Gig USB drives for under $20, well maybe more for a good quality one - just saw a nice OCZ 4Gb or $24.69 at CanadaComputer.
There is a big problem though, those aren't the shape of the dear Domokun, he doesn't have ears!
In case you're wondering they do have different designs. Star Wars, Happy Tree Friends, HALO, and Hello Kitty USB clips can also be found on their webpage. Also just as expensive. Anyways, check out Mimoco's webpage for product information and purchasing.
News shoes
Back in 2005 I had bought myself some tabi (足袋) - you know the Japanese "ninja" style shoes. They truly have nothing to do with ninja, in fact a nice jikka tabi (地下足袋) is more know for construction worker or farmers, sturdy and flexible enough to let your feet do what they/you want (depending on your dyslexia).
So yes, I ended with a some long garden tabi that I never really wear as to be honest even if it gives great walking sensation, it is quite time consuming to wear them on and off. Fastening the tabi takes me a bit. Maybe it is just because I did not (yet) understand how to use the patented Japanese style laces.
But the other day, when browsing for some Japanese books I found a brand that also work with Le Coq Sportif: Sou Sou. I was surprise to see tabi cooked with all different kind of sauce: slippers, socks, boots,snickers...
I guess I have found something I'd like to wear better than my long tabi. Just some tabi kutsu (tabi shoes - たびぐつ) would be fine and stylish...
Twits
- I think that my neighbor speaks super loud on the phone so she can get an office. can I get earplugs? 4 days ago
- Waiting... (@ Toronto East General Hospital) http://t.co/F6JUyNig 1 week ago
- Not sure I like the noisy and crowdy ambiance but the food and service is just awesome... I must go ahead but not o... http://t.co/4u31XOfT 1 week ago
- Not sure why it used to be much better...it was not what we order trying to make veal as beef?! Services was not ev... http://t.co/vQIijnPi 1 week ago
- I'm at Future Bakery & Café (483 Bloor St W, at Brunswick Ave., Toronto) http://t.co/0IwmUxyF 1 week ago
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