Quesra Latest Questions

Quesra
Newbie

A friend of mine is the CEO of his own small business. We’re not very close friends, but we know each other well enough to have visited each other’s houses for dinner and drinks a few times. His business is advertising ...Read more

A friend of mine is the CEO of his own small business. We’re not very close friends, but we know each other well enough to have visited each other’s houses for dinner and drinks a few times.

His business is advertising a role which interests me. I have suitable skills for this role but limited experience, so it’s likely to get better candidates than I – at least on paper. It is reporting to one of his subordinates, and I have no idea how much (if any) input my friend might have into the recruiting process.

I would like to apply for this job but I don’t want to cause problems for my friend, nor to have our friendship unduly influence the recruiting process. I have not yet spoken to my friend about it because doing so would certainly result in the latter outcome.

They work in quite a small office. There is a strong chance that, were I to manage to get to the interview stage anonymously, my friend would see me when I arrived. But I also know he’s out of the office a lot.

How should I proceed? I am happy to consider that “not proceeding” may be the best course of action here, especially given that I may well not get the job.

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  1. Some good answers here, let me add: I would definitely NOT apply and then try to avoid having your friend see you when you show up for the interview, like trying to schedule an interview when he’s out of town. Surely if you get the job, he’s going to find out sooner or later, and at that point it wiRead more

    Some good answers here, let me add:

    I would definitely NOT apply and then try to avoid having your friend see you when you show up for the interview, like trying to schedule an interview when he’s out of town. Surely if you get the job, he’s going to find out sooner or later, and at that point it will be far more awkward than it would be if you told him up front.

    I’ve had two times I’ve gotten involved in new business start-ups by friends, and both times it ended badly. Not horrible, we were screaming at each other, friendship ruined forever badly, but things didn’t work out, I wanted out of this deal but now it’s awkward badly. Any time something like this comes up, I find myself thinking, If this doesn’t work out for whatever reason, is it going to ruin our friendship? And do I value the job or whatever the deal is more than I value the friendship?

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Quesra
Newbie

I’ve worked in Software Development teams my entire career and I’ve come to realize the spectrum of skill-sets is utterly staggering. Over the years I’ve managed to adapt my in-office behavior to handle utterly incompetent and lazy people. The way I ...Read more

I’ve worked in Software Development teams my entire career and I’ve come to realize the spectrum of skill-sets is utterly staggering. Over the years I’ve managed to adapt my in-office behavior to handle utterly incompetent and lazy people.

The way I handle it is to simply cap my anger and frustration, but I find myself going home and venting my anger in the form of complaining to my family and friends, but this is not healthy to me nor my family/friends.

How do I handle personal stress caused by utterly incompetent and lazy co-workers?

Optional info below:

In my younger years, I naively believed incompetent/lazy people didn’t cut it in the software industry for long. I disappointingly found that preferential treatment, nepotism, and just plain self-interest on the part of managers seem to undermine this natural filtering of idiots from the software engineering industry. Thus, it seems I must learn to deal with them.

I have endless patience for people who are junior and ask numerous questions, but I don’t seem to know how to handle stress caused by the utterly incompetent and lazy people that don’t apply themselves.

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  1. The way I’m managing this at my current job is by turning my anger into satisfaction. Every time I place my hands on bad code, I try to leave it into a better shape, or at least leave a few TODOs and comments with tips and tricks for those that will come after me. Will they keep writing bad code andRead more

    The way I’m managing this at my current job is by turning my anger into satisfaction.

    Every time I place my hands on bad code, I try to leave it into a better shape, or at least leave a few TODOs and comments with tips and tricks for those that will come after me.

    Will they keep writing bad code and ask dumb things? Probably.
    Will I keep fixing things as much as I can? Sure.

    After a couple of years you will look at your codebase and feel great at how much it improved with your efforts.

    Don’t wait for change, be the change.

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Quesra
Newbie

I am trying to find/change my career trajectory. Its a good cozy job, but I want something that I get excited to work on in the morning. Career change is hard, for a lot of reasons. So I cant just ...Read more

I am trying to find/change my career trajectory. Its a good cozy job, but I want something that I get excited to work on in the morning. Career change is hard, for a lot of reasons. So I cant just try out a lot of different careers, and need to be more methodical in finding out the ideal fit.

have a general idea of the direction I want to go in. However, I think a lot of my decisions have been made under peer pressure or expectations of other people. I am looking for somebody who can provide me an objective assessment of my strengths and weaknesses, and to move towards a career which relies more on my strengths and innate (unconscious) drivers. There are millions of coaches online.. and it seems everybody these days wants to become a coach. So I am wondering how to find a reliable coach who will get you to where you want to get to?

What do you look for when searching for a career coach and how do you determine whether it’s beneficial?

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  1. First of all, build a list of career coaches available in your area. Try to rank them according to critics, comments, availability … Then, meet some of them, for a first interview, to discy what you are looking for and how you can be helped. You should look for people who have a high availability, aRead more

    First of all, build a list of career coaches available in your area. Try to rank them according to critics, comments, availability … Then, meet some of them, for a first interview, to discy what you are looking for and how you can be helped.

    You should look for people who have a high availability, and for experimented professionals. Ask them for references on similar coaching missions. Take the time to meet several of them – as you would do for any job interview.

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Quesra
Newbie

Just this week I started working for a new company. I’ve been developing code and going through the database the past couple of days on my machine. Everything is working fine, I set up a new account and it’s hooked ...Read more

Just this week I started working for a new company. I’ve been developing code and going through the database the past couple of days on my machine. Everything is working fine, I set up a new account and it’s hooked into the domain and everything.

Today, the Director IT gave me a “work” computer. It’s running Windows XP with 3 GB of ram, and has a 11 inch screen. He also mentioned I could possibly use a remote desktop for development.

This would make it incredibly difficult for me.

I have a 2012 Retina Display Macbook Pro, running Windows 7, with 8GB RAM, Core i7, etc. I am much more comfortable with it, and it has the power I need to get the job done and run the multiple programs with no lag.

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  1. Unless your company explicitly has a BYOD policy (Bring Your Own Device), do not in any circumstances use your own machine for company usage. I’m in a similar situation as yours, except I’ve a display larger than 11″. The Visual Studio 2010 (with some extensions) took around 10 minutes to be usable,Read more

    Unless your company explicitly has a BYOD policy (Bring Your Own Device), do not in any circumstances use your own machine for company usage.

    I’m in a similar situation as yours, except I’ve a display larger than 11″. The Visual Studio 2010 (with some extensions) took around 10 minutes to be usable, and some time I can sit back and watch my codes appear letter by letter.

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Quesra
Newbie

I am thinking of pursuing web developing as a career & was just wondering. I’ve heard that that location is a big factor when it comes to salary of web developers. Kindly state: 1) Country 2) Salary Monthly/Yearly 3) Years ...Read more

I am thinking of pursuing web developing as a career & was just wondering. I’ve heard that that location is a big factor when it comes to salary of web developers.
Kindly state:
1) Country
2) Salary Monthly/Yearly
3) Years of experience.
P.s) You can choose to remain anonymous if you want to.

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  1. Front-End Developers focus their efforts on the website’s interface and user interaction. The core of their work is done with JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, associated frameworks like Angular and Backbone, and libraries like jQuery. Salaries range from about $43,000 to $102,000, according to PayScale, witRead more

    Front-End Developers focus their efforts on the website’s interface and user interaction. The core of their work is done with JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, associated frameworks like Angular and Backbone, and libraries like jQuery. Salaries range from about $43,000 to $102,000, according to PayScale, with a median of $66,000. A front-end developer with strong skills in Angular can earn more — an average of $78,000.

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