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dsk3801
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Name: Dave
Country: United States
State: Texas
Metro: Dallas
Birthday: 4/12/1978
Gender: Male
Interests: PHP/MySQL programming, web design, computer games, technology, movies, theatre, music, and politics
Expertise: procrastination
Occupation: Computer related (Internet)
Industry: Computers (Software)
Message: message meEmail: email me
Yahoo:  davesk78
Member Since:
4/3/2002
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| I
almost thought this article was some sort of joke. Sadly, it's not.
Banning Fahrenheit 451, a book named for the temperature at which books
burn, is so ironic it hurts. While we're at it, we should ban 1984 and
Brave New World, too. | | |
| God damn - some people are complete morons. We've recently placed an ad on Craigs List for a technical writer to help us write documentation for my software. We're not entirely sure what to charge, but we're not exactly rolling in the money. We've asked people to supply us with a short writing sample, resume, and their salary requirements. This is for a full-time contract job, so we're going to pay this person for 35-40 hours a week.
First of all, some people seriously think this job is worth much more than even I make, as the Software Designer. Some have asked for as much as $60 / hr. For a full-time contract job, that's almost $125,000 a year. I don't even make half of that! One of the first responses I received went something like this... keep in mind this is for a WRITING job:
I,ve just read about this job.Well,I am glad to do this job.I am a
webhost since 2000 and have a pretty good experience infact i am going
to create a SEO,WebDesining,WebHosting & Server Mangment Services
Company.But if i get job in your company i might not open it.I am
pretty good with webservers,ftp and other stuff.I can understand all
CMS etc within 1 day.I used many bulletin boards,cms,image hosting etc
scripts.I think I can do this job.
No writing sample, no resume, no salary requirement. Another response included a resume and a salary requirement of $32 / hr, but no writing sample. In the resume under "Qualifications", the first line was:
I have been designing websites since 1999. All of the sites I have designed are animal (ferret) related.
The resume was also a mess. Poorly formatted, typing mistakes, etc.. My favorite, I think, is the guy who sent a very short email and attached only his resume (no sample, no salary requirement):
Please consider the attached resume for this position. I have broad
experience in field, development, and test engineering.
His resume seemed to match with our needs, so I sent him a short email back stating that we haven't found anyone for the job yet, our salary range of $10-$15 an hour, and asked him when he was available for a phone interview. His response?
At what you call a "rate" it's small wonder you've not found any help. I'll pass.
That's real nice. First, I admit our rate is low, but we might be willing to negotiate upwards if we like you and think you'll do good work. Negotiations for wages will always start out low, especially if you're too lazy to comply with the ad requirements. Come on people... it's not brain surgery. You want $60 an hour? Become a doctor or a lawyer. We're asking you to sit at home, learn some software, write some how-to guides with screen shots where appropriate, and that's pretty much it. You don't need a degree... just a little computer savvy and have the ability to put a sentence together.
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| Back in February, I posted this. Apparently the guy actually went a little nuts. I hope it wasn't my code that did it.
In related news, I've gone back to VisionGate. Things started getting very weird, very quickly at the other place, but I don't want to get into specifics. I negotiated with the VisionGate folks and we came up with a deal for enough money and more reasonable hours/expectations. When things reached a head at the old job, I quit.
Overall, I'm pretty darned happy with how things turned out. :)
Oh yeah... forgot to add... Den and I just finished watching Brokeback Mountain for the first time. If you haven't seen it yet, spare yourself and don't. The movie flat out sucked. I have no idea what anyone saw in this movie. The direction was about as good as a freshman film major's first project. With the exception of a few minor roles (Jack's mother, for example), the acting was poor. Half the time I couldn't understand Heath Ledger's Brando-esque mumbling but it didn't bother me too much as I honestly didn't care. There was no lead up to the start of the romantic affair between the two lead characters, and nearly every sex scene in the movie was uncomfortable and in some cases disturbing (and not just the gay scenes). I don't understand how this movie won any awards at all, and after seeing Crash, I'm glad that it won over this 134 minute long waste of celluloid. Bleh.
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The way I see it, un-documented immigrants do present some
problems. Because they are not
citizens, they are not protected by federal/state/local labor laws, and
therefore work for wages that would not be legal for citizens. They do
this because $2.50/hr is more than they could have made in their home country
and they are blocked from obtaining higher paying jobs. This artificially
depresses the wages of a number of industries that would otherwise be forced to
pay a higher wage. Also, because the path to citizenship is so daunting
and difficult, those wanting to simply make a better life for themselves and
their families are backed into a corner. Immigrants are too often forced
to make a choice between living in absolute poverty or risking deportation in
the hope of a better life.
The biggest problem is that we can never stop the flow of immigrants over our
borders. However, since 99% of them are otherwise law abiding members of
the community, if we offer them a controlled, easy, legal method of entering
and staying here, it will be much easier to find and detain those who really
shouldn't be here. We can leave the hard-working families alone and
target those who really want to sneak in (read: terrorists). At that
point, if they aren't documented, they really shouldn't be here.
A lot of people's immigration concerns seem to boil down to racism and
fear. If it's not because they're mostly poor, aren't "white",
look differently, worship differently, or speak differently, then what's it
really about? I don't buy that it's about Americans' losing their jobs.
In keeping with those theories, here’s my simple immigration
policy that also helps protect our borders:
* All non-US citizens who wish to work in this country
should fill out paperwork with the INS in advance; the paperwork will be in
several languages so the immigrants can read them. It’ll be simple,
asking for basic information so a background-check can be done. Once an
immigrant finds residence in the US, he/she must re-register with the INS
within 10 days. Once an immigrant finds employment in the US, he/she must
notify the INS within 10 days (as must the employer).
* Any immigrant who violates any law above a misdemeanor
class C (like speading tickets) will be deported. Immigrants may remain
in this country as long as they continue to notify the INS of their place of
residence and employment. Immigrants must pay federal, state, and local
taxes just like any citizen would.
* Immigrants will have all rights/privileges of citizens
except for the right to vote, hold an elected office, or be a member of law
enforcement or military. Any immigrant who so wishes can follow the
current path to citizenship. All currently un-documented immigrants will
fall under these new rules. Violation of registration rules will
terminate the immigrant's right to remain in the US. | | |
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