Help! Unemployed

Jecel Assumpcao Jr jecel at merlintec.com
Thu Aug 9 16:08:54 UTC 2001


I'll side with those who think spelling Smalltalk right might help with 
the hiring process since I can't imagine getting too far without typing 
"Smalltalk" into a workspace and selecting "inspect" to see what 
globals are available to have nasty things done to them. If there is a 
better way in Squeak, please let me know so I can repent from my evil 
Smalltalk V ways :-)

As long as we are on this topic, anyone who talks about the "SELF" 
language also gives me a negative impression even though it is a 
reasonable mistake (the original "Self: The Power of Simplicity" paper 
used a small caps font for the "elf" part). On the other hand, I don't 
see the problem with PERL (since it is the Pattern Extraction and 
Report Language, or isn't it?).

But spelling it "SmallTalk" might actually be an advantage when dealing 
with clueless HR people, as has already been mentioned. One problem 
with these kind of people is that they want:

  1) someone who is currently working somewhere else doing exactly what 
they need done
  2) or else someone who recently left a job (wasn't fired!) doing 
exectly the same thing they need done
  3) or else someone who lost a job (not through their fault - 
downsizing or something similar) doing exactly what they need done

If you were doing something else previously, but brought along 
certificates saying to have been taking lots of courses that exactly 
match their needs then they won't throw you right out, but won't take 
you too seriously either.

If you show that you have been working on your own project on your own 
time (nobody paid you to do it), then you probably will get thrown out.

But Ned's advice is great if you get to talk to someone who actually 
understands what you have to say. The real trick is getting to this 
point. This isn't too hard in small companies. Or if you can get an 
insider to recommend you in a large company. Or if you knock on enough 
doors.

On Wednesday 08 August 2001 22:40, Daniel wrote:
> 	I'm very good at coming up with weird ideas, and finding them turned
> into actual products by other people 5 years later who had the same
> idea as me. This is one I have not seen ANYWHERE.

Well, "anywhere" is much better than a patent search you mentioned in 
your previous post. Most great software ideas have not been patented 
(it wasn't even allowed in the US before 1981, and most great ideas 
were in used long before then).

On the music front, I would guess you are already familiar with Siren 
(http://www.create.ucsb.edu/Siren/index.html) and the Squeak Audio 
mailing list (I don't know how active that is currently).

-- Jecel




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