Polish lager, 5.6% I think. Apparently it's "better than stella" which I personally hate. Other reviews include "2 bottles makes you a lover, 4 a dancer and 6 a fighter, a great saturday night beer"
Kind of explains the emotional journey of some of the podcasts.
Posts: 1641
| IP: Logged
posted
I'm looking forwards to the next podcast when Benway has to cry about how wrong he was about Linux users and thier willingness to pay for software. I suspect half of the show to be filled with his sobbing apology.
Posts: 4934
| IP: Logged
posted
I'm not sure he'll be able to process this fact which appears to be at odds with his usual corporate mindset which instantly labels anyone who wants to get anything for free/cheaply as a scrounging scumbag who shouldn't be catered for in any way shape or form.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: concatenate
What in the hell is this word, anyway? I've never seen it before. What's it for? What does it do? Is this one of those iPad things I keep hearing about?
I suspect that there's a correlation between being a joyless slave to Microsoft Excel and knowledge of the word. Or at least, that's how I came to be familiar with it.
-------------------- Give 'em .0139 fathoms and they'll take 80 chains. Posts: 3201
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by froopyscot: I suspect that there's a correlation between being a joyless slave to Microsoft Excel and knowledge of the word. Or at least, that's how I came to be familiar with it.
posted
Good Luck Ringo! Is this the same company or an entirely new endeavour?
I thought that I'd be mostly behind Excel when moving to this new job but I seem to have spent quite a bit of time working on macros since starting.
Posts: 4934
| IP: Logged
posted
They haven't been around for 30 years, Cherry, and one of them's dead, so of course Ringo isn't going to be joining The Carpenters. That's just silly.
posted
It's a purely technical role here in the same company, but in a department which is focused on new and emerging technologies, so I'd get to play around with some really snazzy bits of kit. Assessing new technologies, giving training and support, that kind of thing.
Anyway I had the interview and totally fucking aced it.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
posted
Good work Ringo, hope you get it. I would have replied earlier but was in a meeting and then out to lunch at Waggamammas. I had dumplings followed by noodles and a carrot juice.
Posts: 4934
| IP: Logged
posted
Talking of careers, is it normal to be offered a bonus and then constantly distracted from the task in hand by your 'superiors' as if they're trying everything they can to ensure you fail?
Posts: 14015
| IP: Logged
posted
I'd say so, yes. Or at least I would do if I had ever really been offered a concrete bonus, rather than having a very vague carrot of future promotion dangled and then yanked away at the last minute.
It's a shame because in principle I like working where I am now. It's a team of people I get along with, and the work isn't bad. But there seems to be little or no interest in personal development, and I've hit a bit of a ceiling in terms of how far I could go in my current role. In fact I hit that ceiling a long time ago but haven't really had much inclination to do much about it.
This is only a year's contract, and there's not really much scope for it to be extended so if I'm offered the position and accept then I'll be leaving a secure position to face an uncertain future. But it's a decent rise in pay and the work is much more varied and exciting, and it's in a department I can get really enthusiastic about.
It's funny how interviews seem to get easier as you get older. Maybe it's not so much the case out of the IT industry where things are a bit more fuzzy, but when I was having this interview it just felt like I was being asked a load of questions on subjects I can consider myself something on an authority on. I've got the better part of a decade of experience in the industry now so there's not really a lot that's likely to phase me now.
But I'm not counting my chickens. It's still possible that someone better applies. But in terms of my own interview performance I can feel satisfied that I gave as good an account of myself as I possibly could. I certainly didn't let myself down.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
posted
I've had that before, in a previous position. It ended with a brief meeting that went like this:
"Ian, about the bonus." "Yes." "We can't pay it." "Right. Er... I thought... you know. I'd done the... you know." "Right, but we can't pay it." "Oh. Er, OK." "Ok, then."
and that was it really. So my advice is that if they screw you on this just accept it, along with every other kick in the teeth.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
posted
Also, it's important in the above situation to leave the meeting feeling as though you've done something wrong in presuming that you were going to receive the bonus that was promised to you.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
posted
You also had that excellent situation where someone resigned and rather than getting someone else in, they just made you do his work as well and as a bonus for doing the job of 2 people and saving them a full salary they gave you a pay rise of £250 or something.
Posts: 4934
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Also, it's important in the above situation to leave the meeting feeling as though you've done something wrong in presuming that you were going to receive the bonus that was promised to you.
posted
£850, yes. I actually stood up for myself on that occasion, although it didn't make any difference. That was the closest I ever got to just saying "fuck it" and handing in my notice.
posted
I don't get bonuses so I can't really help. I occasionally get pitiful payrises but then occasionally I get very good payrises so it works out alright.
Posts: 4934
| IP: Logged
posted
I can beat that: I haven't had a payrise or a bonus for the two years I've been in this job. In fact, as I took two weeks unpaid paternity leave last year, my earnings actually went down. I think it's fair to say I'm failing at 'careers'.
posted
I got a basic cost of living increase over the past two years. In fact the COL allowance last year was equal to the RPI which at the time was over 5% so I was quids in. Though I'm still chronically underpaid as IT support roles here are lumped in with basic secretarial and clerical roles. Meaning I get paid no more than someone who answers the phones to take payments for courses, aside from a series of yearly incremental payrises.
At the end of the interview I actually negotiated for a higher starting salary than they were initially offering which is the first time I've ever actually done that, and it was oddly empowering. I literally said that the lower brackets of what they were offering weren't worth me leaving a secure position for and I'd need to start at a higher point. Considering how well the interview went, I think I'm entitled to that.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
posted
I've worked for the same company in that time, but for lots of different departments. I think my starting salary was something like 12k and suffice to say it's considerably more than that now.
I have a friend who has been working in the car insurance industry for nearly as long as I've worked in IT, and she's still earning considerably less than 20k which I find difficult to fathom.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
posted
Yeah, I've stayed in the same department but my job has changed dramatically over the years. I started out as a plain old web designer, then picked up graphic design and 3D design, and now write and edit news articles because apparently I'm the only person in the whole company who knows the difference between their, there and they're.
posted
Didn't get the job. They said my interview was really good and I met the requirements that they could have offered me the position, but someone else that applied had a bit more applicable experience. So there's not much you can do to account for that can you. I did my best, that's all I can say, and I have to feel reasonably satisfied with that.
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged