Quesra Latest Questions

Quesra
Newbie
  1. Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that. I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly differentRead more

    Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that.

    I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly different phrasing. Use of idioms is also a dead giveaway.

    I dunno. It’s usually patently obvious. This doesn’t make a non-native English speaker’s English bad by any stretch; just different.

    I can also generally tell where native English speakers are from as well, at least in a general sense. Canadians tend to sound like Americans (even in writing) but spell more like the Brits. British persons obviously use British English and will use British colloquiums and the word ‘whilst’ often will pop up. Australians lean heavy on the word ‘mate’ a lot of the time. Americans use American spellings and sound like Americans.

    And so on.

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Quesra
Newbie

Estimated reading time: 1 minute Table of contentsThis is my heading H1 This is my heading H1 This is content of heading H1.This is content of heading H1.This is content of ...Read more

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Table of contents

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  1. They might be as confused as to why you keep calling pudding “biscuits”. Step out of your own cultural context for a minute. You do not own English, and there is no reason that the way it is used elsewhere should be understandable to you, or vice versa. If anyone had rights to the language, for thatRead more

    They might be as confused as to why you keep calling pudding “biscuits”.

    Step out of your own cultural context for a minute. You do not own English, and there is no reason that the way it is used elsewhere should be understandable to you, or vice versa. If anyone had rights to the language, for that matter, it sort of makes sense that it would be English people, right?

    But that doesn’t really matter. English is the first language of millions of people around the globe, and the second language of maybe billions. Not only each disparate group out there using it, but actually each person within each group uses it differently. This is the nature of language–it is dynamic. It grows, evolves, regionalizes, incorporates words from other languages, and changes to meet unique cultural context.

    It is not the role of English people to account to you for their use and understanding of their own language.

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Quesra
Newbie
  1. You are correct that both are understandable. The only other possible everyday meaning I could think of would be ‘I see him [in my mind’s eye] last night’; that is, I am, at this very moment, imagining him last night. But it should almost always be clear from context which one is intended. ‘Correct’Read more

    You are correct that both are understandable.

    The only other possible everyday meaning I could think of would be ‘I see him [in my mind’s eye] last night’; that is, I am, at this very moment, imagining him last night. But it should almost always be clear from context which one is intended.

    ‘Correct’ doesn’t mean ‘understandable’, though. If I say ‘Me want have fooding’ it’s pretty clear what to understand from that, but it’s not anywhere near correct Standard English grammar. If you lived somewhere where you spoke a dialect of English in which this was acceptable grammar, however, then it would be correct for that dialect.

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Quesra
Newbie

Anyone else seeing dramatic ranking shakeups lately? Thankfully, this client is the blue line, but that’s a serious drop and recovery. We don’t operate at all in the black hat world, so our links and content should be in good shape. ...Read more

Anyone else seeing dramatic ranking shakeups lately? Thankfully, this client is the blue line, but that’s a serious drop and recovery.

We don’t operate at all in the black hat world, so our links and content should be in good shape. Anyone else seeing this kind of traffic dance lately?

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  1. Yet another update?? Could be a refined version of the Feb 7 update that shook us up. Traffic went up and down and settled to near normal after about 10 days. But last seven days have not shown any change – if anything, traffic and page views have increased a little!

    Yet another update?? Could be a refined version of the Feb 7 update that shook us up. Traffic went up and down and settled to near normal after about 10 days. But last seven days have not shown any change – if anything, traffic and page views have increased a little!

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Quesra
Newbie

As an interviewer, I occasionally conduct interviews that become painful as time goes on because the candidate is doing so poorly. I have the impression that, in these cases, the candidate internally knows they are not getting the job, and ...Read more

As an interviewer, I occasionally conduct interviews that become painful as time goes on because the candidate is doing so poorly. I have the impression that, in these cases, the candidate internally knows they are not getting the job, and would just like to end things as soon as possible (as would I).

In the past, I have handled phone interviews of this type by ending a little early and giving a standard closing. However, I have empathy for the candidates and would feel better if I could say something nice without being dishonest. They’re not getting the job, but I may still respect them and honestly wish them well. I’m not really sure how I could tactfully express thoughts like this, though.

My question is mainly about phone-based interviews, but I’m interested in answers that also apply to in-person interviews. To be clear, this question is how, specifically, to be nice at the end of a bad interview, so I’m looking for something more specific than simply ask how to end a bad interview. (Hence I don’t consider this a duplicate of questions asking how to end a bad interview.)

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  1. You then have the option to elaborate if you feel so inclined and/or if the now-former candidate asks either with the literal truth or something generic like “I just don’t think it’s a good fit.” I actually had someone do that to me in a face-to-face and that’s how they worded it. It was supposed toRead more

    You then have the option to elaborate if you feel so inclined and/or if the now-former candidate asks either with the literal truth or something generic like “I just don’t think it’s a good fit.”

    I actually had someone do that to me in a face-to-face and that’s how they worded it. It was supposed to be 3 steps in the interview and after 20 minutes they decided I wasn’t suited for them*. I was actually grateful that they chose not to waste my time going through the motions.

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Quesra
Newbie

If a Google employee reveals that he or she intends to leave because they have *accepted*–not received–an offer from a talent competitor like Facebook, in some cases they will be “walked off” so that they will no longer have access ...Read more

If a Google employee reveals that he or she intends to leave because they have *accepted*–not received–an offer from a talent competitor like Facebook, in some cases they will be “walked off” so that they will no longer have access to Google’s proprietary information. More important than having that employee leave the physical building is shutting off their employee account; and most tech knowledge workers can’t perform their jobs without access to the company’s Intranet, VPN, or email.

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  1. I know people who left Google for Facebook, they were not walked out. Why would they be walked out of Google? Because facebook competing with Google? I have left Google twice, both times for Apple, in both cases Apple was a competing organization, in all cases I had a good talk with my managers up aRead more

    I know people who left Google for Facebook, they were not walked out. Why would they be walked out of Google? Because facebook competing with Google?

    I have left Google twice, both times for Apple, in both cases Apple was a competing organization, in all cases I had a good talk with my managers up and HR discying opportunities in Google, in both cases I was not escorted, I was given two weeks to talk more and to complete my project. I left in good terms with all my friends, managers and Google. Google is very fair organization, it treats people extremely well . I can imagine that some department might be supersecret and they will do it, but I was working for core search quality which is secretive too and I was asked to leave.

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Quesra
Newbie

I know this means “one must learn to walk before running”, but is there a less literal translation that is perhaps more appealing to an English-speaking audience?

I know this means “one must learn to walk before running”, but is there a less literal translation that is perhaps more appealing to an English-speaking audience?

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  1. We use the same! “Learn to walk before you run” / “you can’t run before you can walk” / “you can’t learn to run before you learn to walk” or even “don’t try to run before you can walk” – all of these and many other close variations are in widespread use amongst English speakers, will be understood aRead more

    We use the same!

    “Learn to walk before you run” / “you can’t run before you can walk” / “you can’t learn to run before you learn to walk” or even “don’t try to run before you can walk” – all of these and many other close variations are in widespread use amongst English speakers, will be understood and are all considered idiomatic. We don’t have a single set phrase, as long as you get across the same idea 🙂

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Quesra
Newbie

I’m 6 months into a new job that uses a technology I’ve had no experience in (but am trying really hard to learn). Often I get tasks that I have real difficulty with. I flag this: I say that I’ve ...Read more

I’m 6 months into a new job that uses a technology I’ve had no experience in (but am trying really hard to learn). Often I get tasks that I have real difficulty with. I flag this: I say that I’ve never done that before and I’ll have difficulty. I get some help, but the task always takes way longer than estimated and is done pretty badly. This puts me under a huge amount of stress and is embarrassing as my tasks often get rejected at QA.

I’m all for learning but its just too much. I need to master things incrementally, not all at once. Or else do a proper course on the subject.

How can I talk to my boss about this without looking like I’m useless or backing away from challenges?

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  1. Your boss probably knows that this is new tech for you, and that your results take longer and are less robust. As you say in your comment, the real experts are just too busy – you’re all he’s got. Thus, don’t assume that you are performing below expectations, because you’re not expected to have mastRead more

    Your boss probably knows that this is new tech for you, and that your results take longer and are less robust. As you say in your comment, the real experts are just too busy – you’re all he’s got. Thus, don’t assume that you are performing below expectations, because you’re not expected to have mastered the technology.

    Your boss might also think that the best way for you to master the technology is to dive head-first into it. A lot of people don’t realize that other people think differently, and learn differently! It’s up to you to let your boss know that you think a different way would be more effective.

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Quesra
Newbie

I manage a small team and recently hired for a new position. In the job posting it clearly stated that the work hours are from 8:00-4:30. No concerns about these hours were mentioned during the interview process at all. Recently after ...Read more

I manage a small team and recently hired for a new position. In the job posting it clearly stated that the work hours are from 8:00-4:30. No concerns about these hours were mentioned during the interview process at all.

Recently after accepting the job offer, the new hire expressed an issue with the hours of work, and proposed their own hours. The hours were not even consistent every day, they requested different work hours for each day of the week (they did all add up to the same total number of hours). I rejected this request.

The employee(before the first day of work), then emailed my superior with the same request and was approved.

How do I carry on managing an employee that is willing to go right over my head on an issue like this? How do I address this with my manager so that it doesn’t happen again. ( the first words out of my managers mouth should have been “Have you discyed this with your direct manager first?” )

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  1. This is not a problem with the employee. This is a problem between you and your superior. As a middle-level manager, I would be aghast if my boss allowed someone to go around me and get their acceptance on such a request without even first letting me know about it. I’d immediately request a one-on-oRead more

    This is not a problem with the employee. This is a problem between you and your superior.

    As a middle-level manager, I would be aghast if my boss allowed someone to go around me and get their acceptance on such a request without even first letting me know about it.

    I’d immediately request a one-on-one meeting with my boss and discy what my role was, what my authority was, and why this end-around happened.

    Hopefully I would hear that this was all a mistake or misunderstanding. But if I found that I actually had no real authority and that this sort of thing would continue to happen, I’d re-evaluate my role and decide if it was still a role that I wanted to fill or not.

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