Job Hunt - am I supposed to just lie?

[IronWing]

Damn, I just submitted my resume for a political appointment position with my current agency, 20 years industry experience, and I was sweating whether to leave mine at 3 pages or cut it back to 2. I couldn't imagine a 10 pager.

Private sector = short as possible
Public sector = kitchen sink

 

[dank69]

Since spreadsheets came up... Are there any math libraries you can access through a spreadsheet? I started to try making a cogo program in a spreadsheet; mostly for the lulz, but I thought it would make common functions more accessible to the office people, but holy shit, doing anything is like pulling teeth. It doesn't know anything, so you have to math your way through every function. It was tedious as shit so I bailed on it, at least for now.

Not sure how complex you are trying to get but there are a bunch of built-in math functions in Excel. I would assume any decent spreadsheet software would have the same.

 

[K1052]

Then it occurred to me that every idiot who went through the networking tutorial on the “Azure For Dummies” book could argue that they’ve created an Azure environment.

Am I being cynical here or should I just be “faking it until I make it” more with this stuff?

Everything is a matter of perspective.

 

[IronWing]

Since spreadsheets came up... Are there any math libraries you can access through a spreadsheet? I started to try making a cogo program in a spreadsheet; mostly for the lulz, but I thought it would make common functions more accessible to the office people, but holy shit, doing anything is like pulling teeth. It doesn't know anything, so you have to math your way through every function. It was tedious as shit so I bailed on it, at least for now.

I had to look up cogo. Do you have the equations needed to input into a spreadsheet?

 

[lxskllr]

The problem is trivial stuff like converting back and forth from degrees-minutes-seconds and decimal degrees. This is what I came up with to convert...

=INT(B3)+INT(MID(B3,4,2))/60+INT(MID(B3,6,2))/3600

That's ridiculous for a common function. I guess I could turn it into a macro, but I seem to remember a couple other problems where something simple ended up being a minor ordeal. I haven't fooled with it in over a year though. One other reason I wanted it was to have something on my phone as an emergency backup, but I found an old program I wrote for the HP48, and I have that running in an emulator on my phone, so the basics are covered.

I used to work with a guy that was big into spreadsheets, and he tried to get me into it cause he knew I programmed calculators, but I'd look at it and think "I don't have time for this shit", and didn't pay it much mind. I wish I'd paid more attention. I don't work with spreadsheets much, but sometimes it would be really handy to manipulate numbers and fields.

 

[pete6032]

Because of him I actually had to make up a small computer test I did during interviews. I made an excel spreadsheet and asked them to type it in and then to have the computer add up the column of numbers. You would be surprised how many people could not do it.

I had to do this too, especially with students just leaving college. They may not have any Excel experience. I can't be fucking around teaching them to sort lists and add columns. I don't expect advanced skills, but I need to know if I send someone an excel file that they can understand what's going on in it.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I don't understand most of the words in this thread.

Can I be the Boss?

 

[lxskllr]

You can be president.

 

[Ken g6]

If I wanted to write something serious for math, what would be the best to focus on, python? My goal is a full scientific calculator without having to do all the intermediate steps for the trivial tasks a calculator does.

Those things already exist. Mathematica is probably the best if you can pay; GNU Octave or Scilab seem good if you can't.

If you want a slightly more general-purpose language, probably Python or R.

 

[lxskllr]

How challenging is it getting started with octave? I installed it in termux, and I've just started reading the docs. Looks like this could turn into a real project, but it's an interesting package. I had it in my head it should be a spreadsheet due to familiarity and compatibility, but octave looks cool, and if I can write a few routines, I may even be able to teach the boss how to use it.

edit:
page 51/1232 of the manual. Not the best reading material I've had lately :^D

 

[Muse]

I mean, 'computer skills' are not excel skills. I can put together an entire domain but I'd either have to guess, prod through the excel UI, or google how to add numbers in excel cuz I never have to do that particular task.

I took a course in Lotus 1-2-3, but it was 30+ years ago. Adding a column of numbers in Excel is a piece of cake but I'd have to look up how to do it. I never use spreadsheets. I use x-base database programming for data processing.

 

[Brainonska511]

Not so much as lie, just redirect and talk about how your strengths would let you directly conquer that challenge, or bring up the combination of your strengths plus your existing knowledge in that area.

 

[Muse]

Not so much as lie, just redirect and talk about how your strengths would let you directly conquer that challenge, or bring up the combination of your strengths plus your existing knowledge in that area.

And highlight your ability to adapt and learn in any situation.

If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. - Mark Twain

 

[darkswordsman17]

Say what?

It appears he hired the dude to post for him instead.

 

[Muse]

Back about 1978 I had a boss (pretty young man) who told me at one point that (in his opinion, although he didn't use the O word) it's necessary to lie to get by. TBH, this rubbed me the wrong way, I'm not like that, so I did not respond. He was my boss, after all, you don't just tell your boss he's full of shit or even wrong unless you are on firm ground, which I was not. I've never forgotten what he said and often wondered where it was coming from. Some people find themselves in the position where they figure they have to lie. To some people it comes very very easily, look at the president elect. He finds it very difficult not to lie.

 

[MrSquished]

The current climate for trying to get a job is super shitty. I like to look for fun to see what's available in my area sometimes and they ask for the moon, and then the salary starts at like $20/hour.

If you could run Twitter and Facebook very easily with a small print no larger than part of your backyard, as you have stated for both, then how come you aren't a super in demand tech guy? Why are you hiding your talents from the world? Just get some motivation!