> Well, I emailed them and got back the same line; "other candidates have a 
> skillset that is a better match".
>
> At this point I can't decide whether they're just inundated with 
> high-grade candidates, they're scaling back their recruiting, or they 
> rejected me on some superficial criterion such as distance or 
> availability. (They claim it's not the latter.)
>
> I might try one last time, but I doubt my begging will get me far...

No harm I guess in asking which particular skills they thought you were 
lacking, say something about wanting to get into this line of work and their 
feedback would be useful for you to personally develop your skillset.

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> That's kind of odd.  Their answer was much more specific than most 
> companies give.  Mostly they're vague in their answers, such as, "You're 
> not right for the company," or, "We don't believe we can fully use your 
> talents," or some such rot.

Here (in the EU at least) I think there is some law that says you need to 
give an acceptable explanation upon request as to why you didn't employ a 
candidate.  It's so you can't get away with stuff like "becuase he's too 
old" and stuff.  Although I must admit it doesn't take a genius to make up 
an "acceptable" reply if that really is the reason.

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scott wrote:

> Here (in the EU at least) I think there is some law that says you need 
> to give an acceptable explanation upon request as to why you didn't 
> employ a candidate.  It's so you can't get away with stuff like "becuase 
> he's too old" and stuff.  Although I must admit it doesn't take a genius 
> to make up an "acceptable" reply if that really is the reason.

Presumably if they come up with another reason, it could be falsifiable? ;-)

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scott wrote:

> Our company website still say we have a load of graduate vacancies, but 
> I know that now we are on the trendy "hiring freeze" the same as many 
> companies and nobody has been arsed to update the website.
> 
> I suspect many companies are in the same situation.

Oh, that's... cute. o_O

Yeah, apparently now is not a good time for getting hired. Damn shame 
really; I think somebody should hire me!

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Invisible [mailto:voi### [at] devnull]
> I'm debating contacting some of the stars of the Haskell community and
> seeing if they can help me out in some way. But I think I know what the
> answer will be. (Surely I cannot possibly be the first person to have
> this idea!)

Maybe you are, maybe you aren't.

Even if you aren't, a professional recommendation can go a *long* way for 
you, so go for it!

Possible outcomes:
They say "no."
They give you a generic letter of recommendation (good).
They give you a personal letter of recommendation (great!).
They say, "Hey, we've got a job open here that you're PERFECT for!" 
(usually only happens in the movies, but worth a shot anyway).

The worst that could happen is that you're where you are now, so you 
literally have nothing to lose.
On the other hand, a letter of recommendation (even if it's generic) can 
go a long way towards getting a job, so go for it!

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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On 18-Jan-09 15:43, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> Yes. Because of course, I've *never* tried doing that, have I? :-P
>>
>>       But you don't do anything *consistantly*! You're flittering from 
>> here to there like a blue-assed fly and not giving anything a chance.
> 
> I spent 6 months doing drawing classes. Not that it helped any.

It seems that ceramics is a good way to meet women and talk to them. If 
you fancy ladies end forties up to 70. I am not into it for the ladies 
of course, I already have one in that age group.

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: St. [mailto:dot### [at] dotcom]
>  Wasn't it the other way around? "When Harry met Sally"?

Correct.  It's one of my favorites :)

(Although Kimberly doesn't like it very much for some reason...)

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Invisible [mailto:voi### [at] devnull]
> The company I just applied to designs things (so, they want people
with
> experience with VHDL or Verilog, people who know how to operate
> osciliscopes and test meters, people familiar with power optimisation
> techniques, etc.) They write device drivers for their stuff (so, they
> want C programmers familiar with kernel-level programming for Linux,
> Windows, and real-time OSes). They also do a lot of graphics work (so
> they want experienced graphics experts).
> 
> I am none of these things. I feel I could *learn* every one of them,
> given the opportunity. (Well, except kernel-level development. That's
> just crazy talk!) But I won't be getting that opportunity, because "we
> feel that other candidates have a skillset that better matches our
> requirements". (IOW, they found somebody who already knows this stuff,
> so why hire somebody who might be able to learn it?)

I hate to break it to you, but you might have to take an unpaid
internship to get the experience you need to be hired somewhere else.
Only problem is fitting it in your schedule when you already have a job.

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:28:46 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> There's a difference between "going out with someone who likes the same
>> things as me" and "going out with someone who never does anything other
>> than what I do".
> 
> Agreed. But having *something* in common would seem sensible. ;-)

Sure, and my wife and I do have many things in common.

But that doesn't mean, for example, if she wanted to go out to dinner 
with a friend, I have to control that.  There's no need.

Jim

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Invisible wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>> Invisible wrote:
>>> I have the lowest IQ on the whole of the POV-Ray server.
>> 
>> Yeah, right...
> 
> We did a test, remember? I was the only person to score less than 120.

I don't remember; I probably wasn't here.

You've probably heard "MENSA isn't for smart people, it's for people who are
good at IQ tests".

>>> I'm supposedly an ace programmer but I can't do either C or C++, the
>>> languages used for 98% of all computer programming. I've been coding for
>>> decades, but I have not one single finished program to show for all my
>>> efforts.
>> 
>> I have been coding since I'm 10 years old (ok that's actually less time
>> than you) and I've yet to finish anyth
> 
> LOL!
> 
> Well I've been coding since I was 9, so there. :-P

If you had been coding since 15, it would be still more time than me :)

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