Job Thread

[lane]

1 hour ago, Jack Parkman said:

It's either their responsibility, or don't complain about your tax bill. 

LOL. Sure thing, buddy.

[he gone.]

14 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

Serious question: 

Why do we only find a person for the job? 

When that route fails, why can't we have a system in place where we find a job for the person? That way there are fewer people that are left behind. 

Everyone is good at something, even some ID people can contribute if we decided it was important. 

Some people just need to be told what to do, because choices lead to inaction. 

so ... a recruiter? 

also, this is my opinion, it's up to the human to show self growth. Take a personality test, get a life coach, find what makes you happy, understand what makes yourself tick. Cant rely on others to do things for you & if so, you'll never be truly satisfied. 

 

[Iwritecode]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:40 PM, Jack Parkman said:

Serious question: 

Why do we only find a person for the job? 

When that route fails, why can't we have a system in place where we find a job for the person? That way there are fewer people that are left behind. 

Everyone is good at something, even some ID people can contribute if we decided it was important. 

Some people just need to be told what to do, because choices lead to inaction. 

Not quite sure what you are asking for here. As mentioned in the post above, there are recruitment places that will do pretty much what you are saying. They take people and find a job for them to do. The thing is, there has to be an open job for them to do in the first place.

I'm not sure if you are saying that companies should make jobs specifically for certain people. That's not going to work unless the job the person does is somehow making the company more money than it costs them to pay the person to do the job.

About 10 years ago I was unemployed for a few months. While I was out job searching I had a friend of mine that gave me a "job" of handing out his business cards and telling people about what he does and how he could help them. I think it was more of a fact that he wanted to help me out and didn't want to seem like he was just giving me money for no reason. It wasn't a lot of money and he only did it one time but it did help out. But it just wasn't feasible for him to keep it up unless I was steering more paying clients his way so that he could make more money.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Iwritecode

[bigruss]

On 2/3/2020 at 9:18 PM, pettie4sox said:

Has anyone ever backed out of a job offer a few days after accepting it?

No, but I've seen it.  Just know that you'll most likely burning at least one bridge by doing that.  You've got to look out for yourself, so if you truly have a better opportunity then evaluate it against hurting your reputation with the original firm.

Most likely, you'll be ok.  But it depends on the industry, network, etc.  For example, if you're in a niche consulting job, word probably spreads way too far to take that risk.  

[Moan4Yoan]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:40 PM, Jack Parkman said:

Serious question: 

Why do we only find a person for the job? 

When that route fails, why can't we have a system in place where we find a job for the person? That way there are fewer people that are left behind. 

Everyone is good at something, even some ID people can contribute if we decided it was important. 

Some people just need to be told what to do, because choices lead to inaction. 

Companies usually know about the role that they are looking to fill and the skills required.  People who are more skilled than others at certain jobs will typically be more likely to get hired to these positions, with the exception of the few that are great at bullshitting their way through interviews.

But this isn’t the Soviet Union and we don’t live in a communist society.  No one should have to find a job for you.  People are in charge of their own decisions and careers and the effort they are willing to put forth usually dictates the outcome.  No one is going to do the work for you, except for a recruiter, but they get compensated for their effort.  There ARE in fact jobs available for lesser skilled people but they also typically come with less pay and benefits.

[Jack Parkman]

42 minutes ago, Moan4Yoan said:

Companies usually know about the role that they are looking to fill and the skills required.  People who are more skilled than others at certain jobs will typically be more likely to get hired to these positions, with the exception of the few that are great at bullshitting their way through interviews.

But this isn’t the Soviet Union and we don’t live in a communist society.  No one should have to find a job for you.  People are in charge of their own decisions and careers and the effort they are willing to put forth usually dictates the outcome.  No one is going to do the work for you, except for a recruiter, but they get compensated for their effort.  There ARE in fact jobs available for lesser skilled people but they also typically come with less pay and benefits.

I'm actually making progress on my job search lately, using a recruiter+my own searching. 

Companies are getting better at AAW programs. 

I just think we don't do enough as a society for people that can contribute but are shitty at interviewing and/or have other issues. I don't think we do enough for people who want to contribute but struggle in certain areas. I'm horrible at processing verbal instructions. My brain doesn't process them as fast as they're coming in. I struggle to take notes fast enough as well for the same reason. I'm a smart guy, I got my Chem E degree but it would have been impossible for me to do it if I wasn't given the accommodation of a note taker in class. It shouldn't be the responsibility of those families that are affected by autistic spectrum issues(or other disabilities that don't affect one's ability to learn overall) to create companies that employ these people. It's the responsibility of society to cover them.

Just my opinion, but society isn't allowed to give disabled people the proverbial middle finger by saying "No, you can't work, and No, we won't subsidize you" It's either one or the other. Pick one. People don't get to throw a temper tantrum and tell people to starve, die, or make it the responsibility of the family that has a disabled kid. That's inhumane. At that point, where do you draw the line? Who gets to decide who lives and dies? 

For someone who doesn't have anything else, and has been shut out of the workforce, you aren't subsidized enough to even afford rent. 

There are enough "high functioning" autistic people that if society doesn't do something to be inclusive, then it's going to be a huge public health crisis when parents can no longer take care of their kids. 

2% of the population is on the spectrum, and probably somewhere between 50-70% of them are people that can contribute, but people don't want to put up with them. 

In a country of 340 million people, you're talking about 3-4.5 million people that are potentially shut out from society. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Iwritecode]

There are companies that will hire people with disabilities. It's just a matter of finding one that's a fit for your skills. 

I have a friend that is disabled and receives SS disability but he did have a job at one time with a company that specifically hired and created jobs for people like him. I don't remember exactly what it was that he did and it was only like 15-20 hours a week but he enjoyed it.

Here's the story of one person:

 

[lane]

14 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

I just think we don't do enough as a society for people that can contribute but are shitty at interviewing and/or have other issues. I don't think we do enough for people who want to contribute but struggle in certain areas. I'm horrible at processing verbal instructions. My brain doesn't process them as fast as they're coming in. I struggle to take notes fast enough as well for the same reason. I'm a smart guy, I got my Chem E degree but it would have been impossible for me to do it if I wasn't given the accommodation of a note taker in class. It shouldn't be the responsibility of those families that are affected by autistic spectrum issues(or other disabilities that don't affect one's ability to learn overall) to create companies that employ these people. It's the responsibility of society to cover them.

By society, you mean government, and by government, you mean you need tax money. My tax money. Does your disability mean I should have less money to feed, clothe, educate, and house my kids? Is that just?

[Jack Parkman]

56 minutes ago, lane said:

By society, you mean government, and by government, you mean you need tax money. My tax money. Does your disability mean I should have less money to feed, clothe, educate, and house my kids? Is that 

I'm done as this devolves from here. Not hijacking this thread again. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Jack Parkman]

3 hours ago, Iwritecode said:

There are companies that will hire people with disabilities. It's just a matter of finding one that's a fit for your skills. 

I have a friend that is disabled and receives SS disability but he did have a job at one time with a company that specifically hired and created jobs for people like him. I don't remember exactly what it was that he did and it was only like 15-20 hours a week but he enjoyed it.

Here's the story of one person:

 

I know there are companies out there that make this type of stuff work. Been there, done that. I'm just saying that the unemployment rate shouldn't be as high as it is. Someone could invent a voice activation program that allows a quadriplegic to write code via talking. But, people don't care enough to do it. It probably wouldn't be that difficult. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Jack Parkman]

33 minutes ago, Tony said:

Then do it. 

I'd be glad to, if I had the tools necessary to do it. 

As someone struggling myself, the burden shouldn't be on me to do that. There are plenty of other people out there that have the ability to create something like that.  This is something that could be done for research at a university Computer Science department.  If I were going to study for a PhD in computer science, it's absolutely something that I'd consider researching. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Jack Parkman]

3 minutes ago, Tony said:

You really are something

You don't get it...I don't have the skills or the funding to do that. My point is that nobody would care to fund that type of project outside of a university. (Which is a separate problem in and of itself) 

If I were a PhD student at a university, I'd do it in a NY minute. I'm not. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[lane]

32 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

You don't get it...I don't have the skills or the funding to do that. My point is that nobody would care to fund that type of project outside of a university. (Which is a separate problem in and of itself) 

If I were a PhD student at a university, I'd do it in a NY minute. I'm not. 

Why would anyone do that? I mean, yes, it'd be cool, but is there a deficiency in the number of people who can code which could be filled by quadriplegics? That's the only thing that matters.

[Jack Parkman]

Just now, lane said:

Why would anyone do that? I mean, yes, it'd be cool, but is there a deficiency in the number of people who can code which could be filled by quadriplegics? That's the only thing that matters.

There are benefits to the non-disabled coder as well:

1. It would be more efficient to code if you could say "nested while/for loop" and the entire structure showed up on your compiler instantly. 

2. You can talk faster than you can type, so it would be more time efficient.

3. The career programmer no longer has to worry about Carpal Tunnel syndrome

 

[Iwritecode]

I would absolutely hate that. So would my co-workers who sit 5 feet away from me.

It's bad enough that one of them already mumbles to himself throughout the day.

 

Also, many programming languages have keywords that aren't really English words. Especially field names. It would actually make it more complex.

Here's just a small sample of some of my code. Imaging trying to "speak" this:

 

Quote

        strDesignSearch = "SELECT * FROM tbl02Proposals WHERE ID = '" & txtProjectID.Text _
                            & "' ORDER BY ProposalNum"

        daDesigns = New SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
        dsDesigns = New DataSet

        cmdDesignSql = New SqlClient.SqlCommand(strDesignSearch, objDesignSQLServerConnection.cnSqlConnection)

        daDesigns.TableMappings.Add("ProposalNum", "tbl02Proposals")

        daDesigns.SelectCommand = cmdDesignSql
        objDesignSQLServerConnection.OpenSQLConnectionToMaster()

        daDesigns.Fill(dsDesigns, "tbl02Proposals")

        objDesignSQLServerConnection.CloseSQLConnectionToMaster(False)

        nodes(0) = New TreeNode(projects.txtProjectName.Text & " -- " & txtProjectID.Text)
        For Each row As DataRow In dsDesigns.Tables("tbl02Proposals").Rows

            'nodes(0).Nodes.Add(row.Item("SourceSBRDesignID").ToString)
            nodes(0).Nodes.Add(row.Item("ProposalNum").ToString & " --- " & row.Item("ProposalName").ToString)
        Next

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Iwritecode

[almagest]

I don't think I would spend time building a "speech to code" interpreter, unless the problem was constrained to very specific languages so the parser would know that you were intending to call a specific language feature. You would also need a way to store local keywords so class, function and variable names would be properly referenced.

I would still rather work on alternate input methods, like Microsoft's adaptive controller: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/controllers/xbox-adaptive-controller

Also after reading some of this thread it's clear you're the largest obstacle to your own success @Jack Parkman. Hopefully the perspective of the people in this thread helps you work past that, but given the litany of excuses and blame-shifting I've seen I doubt it. Best of luck with your job search.

[Jack Parkman]

29 minutes ago, almagest said:

I don't think I would spend time building a "speech to code" interpreter, unless the problem was constrained to very specific languages so the parser would know that you were intending to call a specific language feature. You would also need a way to store local keywords so class, function and variable names would be properly referenced.

I would still rather work on alternate input methods, like Microsoft's adaptive controller: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/controllers/xbox-adaptive-controller

Also after reading some of this thread it's clear you're the largest obstacle to your own success @Jack Parkman. Hopefully the perspective of the people in this thread helps you work past that, but given the litany of excuses and blame-shifting I've seen I doubt it. Best of luck with your job search.

It's more extreme frustration than anything else. A positive attitude can only get you so far. If it were that easy, nobody would have any issues, everyone would be successful, and there would be no issues. This only exists in fantasy land. 

The big disconnect is that you guys accept the system, and all of its flaws, while choosing to work around them. I refuse to accept all of the flaws and want to create a better system. 

It's really the collectivist vs. individualist mindset. I'm significantly more collectivist than most people. Do I think we should go 100% on the collectivist spectrum? No, because individualism is a part of human nature. There's a balance that needs to be found, and we're skewed way too much toward individualism. Too much in either direction leads to crimes against humanity. 

I'd define our culture here in the US as "toxic individualism" right now. It's fuck your neighbor instead of help your neighbor. 

In my opinion we're all overworked and underpaid. It leads to resentment and finger pointing. The problem isn't you or me, the problem isn't even system as a whole. 

The problem is the application of the system. Too much responsibility is assigned to the individual, and not enough on the collective. We could easily decide to do things differently. But we don't, and that perpetuates the issues. People in general are too selfish and stupid to realize that it's not a zero-sum game. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Jack Parkman]

7 minutes ago, Tony said:

What steps are you taking to create a better system? 

I'm very politically active. I actively research a better application of economics/capitalism in order to educate people. It's tough though when people don't approach it with an open mind. I feel like I'm talking to a wall most of the time. 

I'm also pretty active as a disability self advocate. Mostly try to educate people. Again, I tend to get in front of closed minded people. 

I do about as much as I can handle. I believe knowledge is power. 

If I could get a bigger platform, that would be great. The huge thing I've realized though is that people don't want to hear what I have to say because it challenges their worldview. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[lane]

43 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

I'd define our culture here in the US as "toxic individualism" right now. It's fuck your neighbor instead of help your neighbor.

I help my neighbors. We babysit each other’s kids and dogs and even houses, we lend each other stuff, and I chased some douchebags two blocks when I caught them egging his car. Then I walked back and I helped him clean that junk off. I also help my friends, my family, and so on when needed, to the max of my ability.

I am fiercely individualistic, but I am a collectivist with the people I care about.

You want my collectivism/altruism to help you. Well, I don’t know you. And I’d rather not have a different neighbor in a crappier neighborhood because part of my paycheck went to you. Sorry.

[Chicago White Sox]

1 hour ago, Iwritecode said:

I would absolutely hate that. So would my co-workers who sit 5 feet away from me.

It's bad enough that one of them already mumbles to himself throughout the day.

 

Also, many programming languages have keywords that aren't really English words. Especially field names. It would actually make it more complex.

Here's just a small sample of some of my code. Imaging trying to "speak" this:

 

 

I can’t even get Alexa to play the right song, good luck getting voice recognition software to get all that code right.

[lane]

23 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

I'm very politically active. I actively research a better application of economics/capitalism in order to educate people. It's tough though when people don't approach it with an open mind. I feel like I'm talking to a wall most of the time. 

I'm also pretty active as a disability self advocate. Mostly try to educate people. Again, I tend to get in front of closed minded people. 

I do about as much as I can handle. I believe knowledge is power. 

If I could get a bigger platform, that would be great. The huge thing I've realized though is that people don't want to hear what I have to say because it challenges their worldview. 

I'm sorry, I just can't imagine you being an effective advocate. Multiple people in this thread are telling you that you have an attitude problem, and you respond that your efforts don't get far because you "tend to get in front of close minded people" and your spiel "challenges their worldview." Because they disagree with you? You want to tell Iwritecode that he's close minded because he doesn't think your coding idea will be at all useful? Come on, man. Can you not see why nobody would be persuaded by your style?

[Jack Parkman]

3 minutes ago, lane said:

I help my neighbors. We babysit each other’s kids and dogs and even houses, we lend each other stuff, and I chased some douchebags two blocks when I caught them egging his car. Then I walked back and I helped him clean that junk off. I also help my friends, my family, and so on when needed, to the max of my ability.

I am fiercely individualistic, but I am a collectivist with the people I care about.

You want my collectivism/altruism to help you. Well, I don’t know you. And I’d rather not have a different neighbor in a crappier neighborhood because part of my paycheck went to you. Sorry.

This is an extension of the toxic individualism I rail against. You live in this country, you benefit from it, you should be willing to help your fellow citizens, regardless of whether or not you know them personally. 

You make choices based on whether or not it helps people you know, I make choices based on whether or not anyone in the country, regardless of personal friendship/acquaintance, can benefit from my choice. 

[Jack Parkman]

4 minutes ago, lane said:

I'm sorry, I just can't imagine you being an effective advocate. Multiple people in this thread are telling you that you have an attitude problem, and you respond that your efforts don't get far because you "tend to get in front of close minded people" and your spiel "challenges their worldview." Because they disagree with you? You want to tell Iwritecode that he's close minded because he doesn't think your coding idea will be at all useful? Come on, man. Can you not see why nobody would be persuaded by your style?

I don't believe I have an attitude problem. I do believe that most of the people in this thread, including you, are entitled and selfish, Look in the mirror, because maybe you are the one with the attitude problem. You just don't realize it. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[lane]

5 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

This is an extension of the toxic individualism I rail against. You live in this country, you benefit from it, you should be willing to help your fellow citizens, regardless of whether or not you know them personally. 

You make choices based on whether or not it helps people you know, I make choices based on whether or not anyone in the country, regardless of personal friendship/acquaintance, can benefit from my choice. 

I’m 100% satisfied with my contribution to my country, which I love dearly. Thanks.

[Chicago White Sox]

1 hour ago, almagest said:

I don't think I would spend time building a "speech to code" interpreter, unless the problem was constrained to very specific languages so the parser would know that you were intending to call a specific language feature. You would also need a way to store local keywords so class, function and variable names would be properly referenced.

I would still rather work on alternate input methods, like Microsoft's adaptive controller: https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/controllers/xbox-adaptive-controller

Also after reading some of this thread it's clear you're the largest obstacle to your own success @Jack Parkman. Hopefully the perspective of the people in this thread helps you work past that, but given the litany of excuses and blame-shifting I've seen I doubt it. Best of luck with your job search.

As one of the few people who have met Jack in person, I agree he’s his biggest obstacle.  Even though it was only for 15 minutes, it’s very clear he’s an incredibly sharp guy and for the most part very normal.  His autism is not blatantly obvious IMO.  No doubt being on the spectrum is a huge challenge on a day to day basis, but Jack routinely blamed others and/or the system for his shortfalls.  And to be fair, it sounds like he’s had some bad breaks, but at some point you got to own your fate and do whatever it takes to get by.  It just seems like he assumes he’s fucked without external assistance and has accepted that reality, which is sad because there is a really smart guy somewhere in there.