@Carnival-Boy said:

I actually see very few SMB jobs in the UK. A lot of SMBs don't employ their own internal IT staff and outsource everything to MSPs. Most IT jobs I see advertised are for large enterprises or IT companies - neither of which interest me. Added to that, we're a manufacturing company, and there is even less SMB manufacturing around here - most manufacturers are either massive employing hundreds or thousands, or tiny engineering firms employing just a handful of people.

Ideally, I want someone who prefers to work for an SMB manufacturer. It would be nice if they were to actually say that in there covering letter.

You see, I get where you're coming from, but now you've shifted your focus. Now you've kind of said that the technical qualifications are not the most important thing, which there are times they aren't. To me, it sounds like you are looking more at the person than their resume, which means interviews are going to be your friend. You could put in the ad that you are looking for someone who wants to work both SMB and manufacturing, and I can almost guarantee that 19/20 candidates are applying simply because they feel they could do the job and don't really care what market it's in. Maybe some do prefer SMB to enterprise. But you're looking for something very specific, and it's far too easy to lie on a cover letter. I think we've all done it. "Why do you want to work for this company?" You can put any of 100 things there, and you have no way of knowing what's true and what's not. Open interviews might be your friend.

@shauns The thing about this approach that makes sense is that instead of hosting definition files on your user machines or on a local server and have to make sure that those are pushed out from Webroot to you to your endpoints, it's A to B and nothing in the middle. I remember the first time I heard about Webroot being used in business and almost choked on my drink. However, they have done what most businesses only try to do and that's actually start fresh. Most are afraid to do the necessary work or go the extra mile. They managed to go from about as bad as you could be to really taking over the industry. as a leader.

This is far from the "official" thread but I was curious what TV shows/movies people...

Started and watched the whole series in 48 hours?
Shows you grew up with that hold fond memories?
Movies that had a profound impact on you?
Movies that just need to disappear off the face of the earth and from history?
Recent finds/things you're excited to see?

I'll start.

@Dashrender said:

I read something last year (more earlier) about how our education system is actually just a way to keep the masses down. I personally don't believe that to be true - but I'll definitely give you that we are not using the best methods for teaching.

Global online individual learning is probably the way we need to go. Now just to find out how to build it and financially support it.

If you want to really get into it, the American education system is an early indoctrination system.

@IRJ said:

@thanksaj said:
I can almost guarantee that 19/20 candidates are applying simply because they feel they could do the job and don't really care what market it's in.

Very true. Also I do zero research on a company unless I make it to the interview stage. Otherwise, its a waste of my time

Exactly. If I get an interview, then I'll spend some time researching the company, especially if they're a small company. McAfee couldn't care less if I researched their history, etc when I interviewed. But at my current job, I'm employee number 22 in the entire company. You show up at an interview having read their about us page and spent a few minutes knowing their history, it goes a long ways. I've found you often get a decent story/history lesson when you interview at small companies. But I don't research every company I send a resume to or fill out an application for. That would be a huge waste of time.

@scottalanmiller and considering this is a new community, the other beauty is I have a chance to outpost Scott and keep it that way!

@Nic said:

I would love bidets to take off in the US. Or hi-tech combo toilets. Bathrooms should go paperless!

Save the environment and trees and all that stuff!

@art_of_shred said:

@scottalanmiller I don't even think the status quo model fits so well anymore. It's a self-esteem building exercise that is more worried about not offending fringe groups than anything to do with education. It might not be a bad shift, seeing as how fantastic of a job it was doing in the education department. Oh, and don't get me wrong. I am not supporting the whiner-coddling that goes on for the sake of the fringe groups, either.

I agree. The system is designed to make you feel good, and prevent you from failing. They disillusion kids to what any semblance of real life will be like and then wonder why so many fail. Then they blame the education system for not "encouraging kids to be better" by things like going to college and "being all they can be". It's cyclical, and downward-spiraling.

@Carnival-Boy said:

@thanksaj said:

You could put in the ad that you are looking for someone who wants to work both SMB and manufacturing, and I can almost guarantee that 19/20 candidates are applying simply because they feel they could do the job and don't really care what market it's in. Maybe some do prefer SMB to enterprise. But you're looking for something very specific, and it's far too easy to lie on a cover letter. I think we've all done it. "Why do you want to work for this company?" You can put any of 100 things there, and you have no way of knowing what's true and what's not.

Yes, but I was answering a specific point IRJ made that people can't be expected to be bothered writing a covering letter because there are so many IT jobs they can apply for. So my point is that my job is fairly unusual and so if it is the kind of thing that interests you, you might be happy to spend a few minutes writing a covering letter. The mere fact that they have bothered to write a covering letter at all might therefore indicate that they are genuinely interested in working for an SMB manufacturer. It's about sending the right signals.

Yes, but how can you be sure you're getting the right signals? You might filter out some people who just don't want to go to "that much trouble", but you'll still get tons of people who write the letter just to make you happy and still aren't what you're looking for. I think that if you are going to get the kind of person you want, you need to interview EVERYONE that applies, period.

It's free and made by the same people who make CCleaner and Defraggler. I've used it on a ton of hard drives to get data off that "professional" utilities couldn't get. There is, of course, also the old freezer trick. Don't do that if you've opened the drive up though. That'd be bad...

@Nic said:

@ajstringham wait, you went back to New York?

No but living in Texas does not make one a Texan.

@scottalanmiller said:

Mattel has pulled the book!

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/19/mattel-pulls-sexist-barbie-book-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-off-amazon/

WOOHOO!

@Carnival-Boy said:

Well, this has turned out to be a really interesting thread. I'll confess, I'm crap at recruiting. Dealing with human beings isn't my forte. So this has given me lots to think about. I still don't see why anyone would have an issue writing a covering letter but I'll try and be a bit more sympathetic to those that don't. Maybe asking them why they didn't would be a good interview question, what do you think?

No, because it's an awkward question. It puts them on the spot in a way that they will feel like they can't win no matter what they say. That's how I see it. What you need to do in this hunt for a new employee is establish values. What I mean by that is determine what's the most important thing for the applicant to have? Second most important? Third, and so on. If it came down to two candidates where one was less qualified technically but more eager about SMB and manufacturing vs a much stronger candidate technically but for whom they didn't care what the industry was, who would you choose? It sounds like you haven't really determined what criteria to measure by yet and that you almost might be using the cover letters to help you figure that out. Just an observation. Hope it all works out well for you!

Thanks,
A.J.

@Bill-Kindle Why are you retiring a dd-wrt router?! For shame!

@Nic And okay, was just curious if I could do Netflix or had to...procure it via alternative means.

@scottalanmiller said:

@technobabble said:

@thanksaj Yep..you could do that...and while you're at it..you could use only one PC monitor and do the same thing. But that would suck now wouldn't it?

AJ is the ultimate "more than one screen" user.

Yeah, kinda...lol

I am often described as being too straight-talking with most things in life. I've lost potential girlfriends because I just say things like they are, and most people are looking for you to lie to them early in a relationship...jobs are the same way, except they want you to lie to keep up appearances usually indefinitely...

@aaron-studer if you must have a GUI, ClassicShell is good. However, this sounds like your boss is whining. It's a server. If the end users were fighting it hard and making issues, that's one thing. If it's just you guys working on it, deal with it. Or use a Core install and manage it via Server Manager, etc.

@scottalanmiller, you don't use Powershell. You use Server Manager. You think you're @martin9700??

@scottalanmiller We'll set that up in the lab too. @art_of_shred and @minion-queen

@Nic said:

F[moderated] it - just go back to pirating.

I pirate what isn't on Netflix and use Netflix for what I can.