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Nice long posting. :-D
Have you ever heard of the Hutter Prize? http://prize.hutter1.net/
The initiators of that prize also claim that good (lossless) compression
is strongly related to AI and learning neuronal networks. :-)
Perhaps you've got some ideas how to beat the current best record?
Lars R.
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>>> That makes me think that your company's pay scales are too low.
>>
>> I don't know about that. I don't think our adverts actually state what
>> we might be willing to pay. It's possible that we're not paying *the
>> recruiters* enough money, of course... They all seem pretty disappointed
>> that we will only pay them a 6% cut (they seem to be looking for nearer
>> 40%).
>
> I think it's a plus to put your pay range in the advert.
Only if it's good. If you actually do pay peanuts, it's probably best
not to advertise that fact.
> If I see an
> advert that doesn't mention salary or says something wooly like
> £excellent then I'll generally ignore it. If I saw something that looked
> interesting that I cold do and it said £<my_current_salary+X> then I
> might get in contact.
I agree.
IME, recruiters are scum. If I see £excellent, it just looks like BS to
me. It always astonishes me that employers expect your CV to be this
immaculate work of art or they won't hire you - and then they themselves
post job adverts that look like arse...
...and then I saw my boss write a job advert, and the job agent
completely changed it all *for absolutely no reason*. Broke all the
sentences, screwed up the grammar, rearranged everything so it had no
logical order, and inserted lots of BS sentences about "excellent
company culture" which mean precisely nothing and just make it look like
you have nothing real to say. They also *removed* several critical,
non-negotiable requirements from the advert. (I'm talking about *legal*
requirements - stuff we legally can't waive.)
Naturally, we called them to demand why they took our perfectly good
advert and messed it up. After several iterations, we gave up trying to
make the actual published advert not look like arse.
All these recruiters seem to do is run Google searches for CV documents
who's buzzword content vaguely matches the buzzword content of the job
spec. They all *claim* to be doing all this candidate vetting stuff for
you, and yet we still end up interviewing people who don't know what
"operating system" means. And yet, the recruiters think we're going to
pay them 40%? Er, NO!
> FWIW (if the pay scales here for software are the same as hardware) then
> graduates/no experience people would be earning £25-30k
Glad to know my salary isn't *completely* crazy...
A while back I did find a site with some statistics on this. (Damned if
I can remember where though...) Their data was based on *advertised*
salary for new hires. [Presumably nobody ever gets paid what it actually
says in the advert.] But the histograms seemed to suggest that for a C#
programmer in Milton Keynes, the minimum is around £25k, the lower
quartile is about £29k, the median is around £34k, and I forget the
upper quartile. It was a year or two ago now, so I may be remembering
this wrong [and market rates may of course have changed].
I do recall suggesting to our boss that I go show the graph to the head
of finance. Everybody agreed it would be utterly *hilarious* to see the
look on her face - you know, for the remaining 17 seconds of my
employment with the company...
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On 17/02/2015 11:08 PM, Lars R. wrote:
> Nice long posting. :-D
TY.
> The initiators of that prize also claim that good (lossless) compression
> is strongly related to AI and learning neuronal networks. :-)
Like I said, PAQ uses several statistical models together with an
*artificial neural network* to combine the estimates into a final total.
In other words, the ANN is there to "learn" which model(s) work best for
this specific file.
*sigh* Oh how I haven't missed our GAANN lectures... Mostly because of
the lecturer involved, not the content.
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> ...and then I saw my boss write a job advert, and the job agent
> completely changed it all *for absolutely no reason*. Broke all the
> sentences, screwed up the grammar, rearranged everything so it had no
> logical order, and inserted lots of BS sentences about "excellent
> company culture" which mean precisely nothing and just make it look like
> you have nothing real to say. They also *removed* several critical,
> non-negotiable requirements from the advert. (I'm talking about *legal*
> requirements - stuff we legally can't waive.)
Sounds to me the same as how scammers deliberately put bad grammar in to
improve their hit rate. If you're paying peanuts you don't want to waste
your time with people expecting double the salary :-)
> All these recruiters seem to do is run Google searches for CV documents
> who's buzzword content vaguely matches the buzzword content of the job
> spec. They all *claim* to be doing all this candidate vetting stuff for
> you, and yet we still end up interviewing people who don't know what
> "operating system" means. And yet, the recruiters think we're going to
> pay them 40%? Er, NO!
I get emails from recruiters offering me staff, sometimes I honestly
don't know if they are spam or real emails.
> I do recall suggesting to our boss that I go show the graph to the head
> of finance. Everybody agreed it would be utterly *hilarious* to see the
> look on her face - you know, for the remaining 17 seconds of my
> employment with the company...
If you don't ask... I only found out recently but our directors here get
about 40 requests (as in official written requests from managers) every
year for pay rises, separate from the annual pay rise system. Apparently
there's about a 50% success rate.
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> Have you ever heard of the Hutter Prize? http://prize.hutter1.net/
Interesting!
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On 18/02/2015 08:07 AM, scott wrote:
> Sounds to me the same as how scammers deliberately put bad grammar in to
> improve their hit rate. If you're paying peanuts you don't want to waste
> your time with people expecting double the salary :-)
Well, it would explain why we never interview anybody actually worth
speaking to. :-P
> I get emails from recruiters offering me staff, sometimes I honestly
> don't know if they are spam or real emails.
Same here.
Mind you, when I was looking for a house, I emailled an estate agent
about viewing a particular property. They never bothered to arrange that
viewing - but they've been spamming me on an almost daily bases ever
since. (I moved house well over a year ago now.)
>> I do recall suggesting to our boss that I go show the graph to the head
>> of finance. Everybody agreed it would be utterly *hilarious* to see the
>> look on her face - you know, for the remaining 17 seconds of my
>> employment with the company...
>
> If you don't ask... I only found out recently but our directors here get
> about 40 requests (as in official written requests from managers) every
> year for pay rises, separate from the annual pay rise system. Apparently
> there's about a 50% success rate.
I'm guessing your employer *isn't* teetering on the edge of financial
ruin though?
If the company has no money, they ain't gonna give you a raise.
(Having just said that, a few days ago I had my annual review, and I did
in fact get a small increase. So it would be particularly pointless to
ask for me right now...)
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On 18/02/15 18:40, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
<snip>
> (Having just said that, a few days ago I had my annual review, and I did
> in fact get a small increase. So it would be particularly pointless to
> ask for me right now...)
I don't know how your employers conduct their annual reviews but IMHO
they should be a two-way process. You have a right to respond their
criticisms and offers.
Assuming that you have hit or exceeded your targets (set in last year's
annual review), they offer a 5% pay rise; don't accept it. Instead
counter-offer with a request for 15%. This, of course, will be rejected
- but now you have started a bargaining process. Your target is 10% or
7.5% with additional perks. BTW don't forget to get the agreement in
writing before you leave the room ;-)
John
--
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children
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> I don't know how your employers conduct their annual reviews but IMHO
> they should be a two-way process. You have a right to respond their
> criticisms and offers.
> Assuming that you have hit or exceeded your targets (set in last year's
> annual review), they offer a 5% pay rise; don't accept it. Instead
> counter-offer with a request for 15%. This, of course, will be rejected
> - but now you have started a bargaining process. Your target is 10% or
> 7.5% with additional perks. BTW don't forget to get the agreement in
> writing before you leave the room ;-)
Our annual rises are non-negotiable and totally separate from any other
request for a rise. For the annual rise you are put into a category
(1-5, most people are 3) as previously agreed with (or told by!) your
manager based on your performance against targets etc. The rise % is
determined for each category based on the company performance.
But there is no problem at all with asking and starting the process for
a rise the day after you get an annual pay rise. If you have a valid
reason in the eyes of your manager then they will help you write the
request, or write it for you if you're lucky. After that it's up to
various directors to consider which applications to accept.
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On 19/02/2015 07:52 AM, scott wrote:
> Our annual rises are non-negotiable and totally separate from any other
> request for a rise.
Likewise.
> But there is no problem at all with asking and starting the process for
> a rise the day after you get an annual pay rise. If you have a valid
> reason in the eyes of your manager then they will help you write the
> request, or write it for you if you're lucky. After that it's up to
> various directors to consider which applications to accept.
On the one hand, in the last few days I implemented a fairly major
feature. Our Director specifically mentioned that several customers
desperately want this feature, and so I went and implemented it. [It
turned out to be unexpectedly easy.]
On the other hand, the company seems to be severely struggling for cash
right now. (To the point that I've just been updating my CV. I think it
may be curtains time soonish.) Asking for more money seems futile.
Remember, I don't work for some huge multi-national conglomerate. We
employ less than ten people! If a few customers are a bit slow to pay,
that severely upsets our cashflow.
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> On the other hand, the company seems to be severely struggling for cash
> right now. (To the point that I've just been updating my CV. I think it
> may be curtains time soonish.) Asking for more money seems futile.
Yes that seems a bad idea under those circumstances - updating your CV
seems the right thing. If you're interested in moving to Cambridge:
"Develop cost-effective and innovative embedded software solutions,
meeting technical, business and quality requirements. Ideally degree
qualified, you must have excellent C++ programming skills, working
knowledge of STL plus proactive approach to work and ability to work as
part of a team."
> Remember, I don't work for some huge multi-national conglomerate. We
> employ less than ten people! If a few customers are a bit slow to pay,
> that severely upsets our cashflow.
Indeed, and without cashflow you're in trouble.
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