Thoughts on Resumes

Here we go again, another main topic inspired by a blog post by Joel Splosky. This one was about how to effectively sort resumes, and he clearly defines the real purpose of resumes: to simply narrow the pool of applicants a bit, not to be a deciding factor in whether someone gets the job. I have to admit that I don't like the idea of having to cram a snapshot of my professional life into a single page. I guess it's one of those things you have to come to terms with in life though because there's no easier way to help employers decide whether to consider interviewing you or not. I agree that the additions some companies make to the application process are detrimental. I enjoy the challenge of technical questions in an interview for a company, but not before then. I don't like the idea of being ranked against competing applicants based on some standard test. He also makes great points as far as things to look for from a resume objectively such as brains, diversity from your existing group, and passion among others. The one thing I don't like, and I believe Joel briefly mentioned it, is the alphabet soup. I can't imagine a programmer not having been irritated because a company was unhappy that he wasn't an expert in a special language. Not everyone can be an expert in every language out there! Anyway, I do actually judge companies based on how well they recruit. TI is still rather immature in recruiting (they're relatively new to it), whereas companies like Microsoft have it spot on, and when I say recruiting I definitely also mean the process of sifting through people. If I think I'm perfect for a job but I don't get invited to a second round of interviews (or, in some cases, a first interview) it totally debases my opinion of that company. I don't envy the jobs of these recruiters, though I think that more of them should be tech-savvy than they are.

Have you noticed that Windows' boot time stretches with time? I always though I was imagining it, but there are valid explanations for why it happens and how you can stop it, so I highly recommend reading up on it if you're tired of waiting like 5 minutes for Windows to boot up. For the record, I'm disappointed in how inefficient the prefetching algorithm is. If they had designed it right, it wouldn't be so impacting. This guy who recently lost a lot of data on his hard drive made a post plugging this book about why smart people do dumb things, and it's kind of funny because a number of tech-savvy people don't backup their hard drives full well knowing how dangerous it is to not backup every few days (or week, at the most). I just enjoyed reading that and wanted to share. Mark Zuckerberg finally caved and apologized for the lack of security options on the feeds in the new Facebook, which I figured was going to come eventually, just not two days later. I don't think it warranted a long-winded apology though, because people were stupid for getting so mad about it. Also, anyone find it ironic that our country would be better if they mobilized themselves nearly as well in voting as they did for something as useless as Facebook? Lastly, this blogger posted some neat things you probably didn't know you can do on a Mac, even if you own one, and I'm totally holding on to this article for when I get my first MacBook Pro.

Once again, I'll keep the movie news short and sweet. There's a trailer online for Flags of our Fathers over at the Military site, and it actually looks really really good. After seeing that trailer, I'm hoping that this is one of those classic war movies like Saving Private Ryan, but I'm sure that I'm just setting myself up for disappointment here. Brendan Fraser has agreed to come back to do a third Mummy movie, which makes sense since he doesn't really have anything better to do (the last and possibly only good movie besides the entertaining Mummy movies was Crash). Lastly, I'll leave you all with a relatively new poster from The Departed since it's been getting good reviews overall so far and I'm genuinely interesting in seeing it when it comes out early next month. Did I mention how awesome Jack Nicholson is as antagonistic characters?



Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Name 3 things that you are wearing today.
I wore brown cargo pants, a grey UT shirt, and sneakers for a good portion of the day.

Soup
Who was the last person you hugged?
Robert, a friend of mine I met at TI this summer. He came to visit Austin claiming that he "missed [my] warm embrace."

Salad
What do you like to order from your favorite fast food place?
I don't eat fast food, but if I ever go I like to order a spicy sandwich (no mayo, of course), or I go totally overboard and get a tasty desert (always in the smaller size though because too much of it deadens your taste buds).

Main Course
What time of day do you usually feel most energized?
Probably the early afternoon or late morning. Sometime around lunch time, but not too long afterwards or else I get drowsy.

Dessert
Using the letters in your first name, write a sentence. (Example: Sweet unusual spaniels are nice.)
Elton likes to often nap. Speaking of napping, it's time for an 8 hour one...

Don't forget to watch #1 vs. #2 tomorrow night at 7PM CST on ABC! My day will be dedicated to those magical three hours.