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Career Switches
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 If you are contemplating making a career switch to computer science, you may want to read a related discussion on Slashdot.
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Personality Types, Career Prospects, Guidance
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 Earlier this year, Slashdot had a very interesting discussion about what a young, bright engineer can expect from a career, and from life in general.
Unfortunately, true to the Slashdot spirit, the anonymous poster was largely attacked rather than answered or helped, but it's still a worthwhile thread to read.
The guide to life is intended to be an antipode of that sort of bull session, but for an adult reader with an eye toward extracting information that can be helpful in his or her life, the discussion on Slashdot provides a wide range and depth of data.
It is also a highly relevant discussion for those taking a step back a looking at the span of their lives while looking for their next job.
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Hiring Strategies
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 A friend of mine recommended How Would You Move Mt. Fuji? as a great book to understand some current interviewing and hiring methods (and as a great read if you love puzzles). Major software companies, such as Microsoft, have since modified their approach somewhat, and now favor more realistic software puzzles over the tradional "Mt. Fuji"-like puzzles, but the book provides interesting insight into interviewing strategies.
One of the tenets explained in this book is the notion that hiring bad people quickly corrupts an organization, and that it's better to miss good candidates than to risk getting bad ones. I've certainly seen this happen, but I think it's due to more fundamental causes rather than simply hiring a bad candidate. There's an interesting discussion on this topic at the Bnoopy Blog, maintained by a founder of Excite and JotSpot. I like the comment there by Doc McClenny. He makes several good observations.
For example, I have seen team after team of new hires reflect seemingly irrelevant attributes of the hiring manager(s), such as height, weight, extracurricular interests, etc. This is a topic I hope to analyze in the Guide to Life project. I believe it is in the "Mt. Fuji" book that scientific studies were discussed that seem to show that there is no statistically significant difference in judgement of a candidate whether one gets to observe him or her for 10 seconds or gets to observe him or her for 6 months. Finding a suitable job involves finding a suitable team as much as being technically competent.
As a crude example, if you are an generalist, you will probably be most faulted in an interview by a specialist, and if you are a specialist, you are likely to be faulted by a generalist, although the generalist will tend to be more understanding of specialists, and the more experienced the specialist, the more understanding he or she is likely to be of the value of other skills.
I have personally seen great candidates do very poorly in interviews, and vice versa, and I think there's a huge business potential in providing better employee-employer matching services. Good possibilities that I've heard of are, for example: personality testing, having candidates go through a sample day's or week's work, making use of career-long employee "managers," much like those used by actors.
Meanwhile, leveraging existing networks and networking services, such as LinkedIn or Ryze can provide incremental improvements over more traditional networking, head hunters and recruiting professionals.
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Rotate an Array
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 Rotate an array of integers. Describe the order performance of each proposed solution.
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Parfitt on Interview Preparation
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Seven Keys to Interview Preparation
Excerpts:
"Of course, bring a couple of copies, and be sure to read your resume before the interview, so you're completely familiar with everything you've written."
"You might also bring materials which would be particularly good at illustrating an important aspect of your work, such as creative designs, writing samples, and so forth. Just remember to use your better judgment."
"You should also be aware that there's one specific taboo to first-level interviewing, in terms of the questions you should ask. Never, ever bring up the issue of salary or benefits."
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Parfitt on Interviewing
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How to Master the Art of Interviewing
Excerpts:
"To a large degree, the success of your interview will depend on your ability to discover needs and empathize with the interviewer. You can do this by asking questions that verify your understanding of what the interviewer has just said, without editorializing or expressing an opinion."
"There are two ways to answer interview questions: the short version and the long version. When a question is open-ended, I always suggest to candidates that they say, "Let me give you the short version. If we need to explore some aspect of the answer more fully, I'd be happy to go into greater depth, and give you the long version.""
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Parfitt on Recruiters
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Executive Recruiters: Your Job-Search Commandos
"No one knows exactly what the business world would be like without the influence of headhunters, but one thing's for sure: sometime in your career, you'll either receive a call from a headhunter, or initiate contact yourself. In either case, you should learn how to work with them effectively, and take full advantage of the many benefits their service provides."
"In addition, working through a headhunter can actually improve your chances for success once you've been placed. That's because the search fee the hiring company paid the recruiter represents a sizable financial investment in your future success - an investment worth protecting."
"Headhunting is a multi-billion dollar international industry that acts as the missing link between a half million job seekers and employers each year. At last count, there were over 125,000 executive search practitioners in the United States, according to The Fordyce Letter, the industry's leading trade journal."
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Parfitt on Evaluating a Job Offer
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Position Comparison: How to Evaluate a Job Offer
Excerpts:
"To evaluate the pros and cons, ask yourself the following: Does the new job meet the criteria you spelled out when you first began your search? Will the new job improve your level of personal and professional satisfaction? Or will it simply offer you a rehash of what you already have?"
"The craziest deal I ever put together involved a candidate who'd just purchased a home and was beyond commuting distance to the interested company. Since the candidate wouldn't sell his home and relocate, the company president agreed to buy the candidate (who had a pilot's license) a single engine airplane so he could fly to work each day. It just goes to show, where there's a will, there's a way."
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Parfitt on Resigning
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The Proper Way to Resign
Excerpts:
"Now take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the challenge ahead. Even though you may be floating on cloud nine now, there are a lot of emotional and logistical hurdles yet to clear."
"Of course, if your motivation for getting a job offer was to position yourself for a counteroffer, then you're in the catbird's seat - you can't lose either way. Or can you? Some employment experts point out that accepting a counteroffer is the equivalent of career suicide."
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