Unfortunately, I have to interview a lot of candidates that have somehow gotten through the apparently inept first-line screeners. Most of these candidates are complete idiots.
One of the pet annoyances I experience when interviewing a developer is realizing that the candidate is completely clueless about certain skills he or she has claimed expertise on their resume. There are just too many outright liars out there — so many desperate people pad their list of supposedly known technologies in order for [...]
The company for which I work is in the information security business. You remember George Orwell’s 1984? The stuff created here is Big Brother v2006 and it’s freaking scary! The office computer is no longer your friend (assuming it ever was) and instead it’s purpose is to monitor everything — including printing, emailing, web surfing, [...]
Or, another way of putting it, I am Mr. Must Be Resourceful Because Sometimes I’m An Idiot.
Names and other identifiable information have been changed to protect the innocent.
This past Monday, while out on a consulting gig in Menlo Park, I received a phone call from a new client who needed some notarizations done during the [...]
This is a letter I sent out a week ago to friends and family, introducing my move to the mortgage industry.
You may be surprised to see my name on letterhead from an established brick-and-mortar mortgage corporation — as far as can be expected from the high-tech dot-coms with which I have previously associated.
But when you [...]
I received this response to my recent email, another episode in the continuing saga of my dealings with an ex-client:
I am sorry that you feel this way. I have been asking for months for you to call me to discuss your contract, and you have chosen not to do so. Thank you for the information [...]
December seemed to be the month of Screw You. I had a client that I had performed some work for last October that decided in his own way that he wasn’t going to pay the entire amount due for my services already rendered:
I just went over the invoice. I have to admit, your fee is [...]
I recently received an email from an ex-client, a candidate for State Assembly, excerpted below, in response to my demand for “payment after working [for her for] two months without compensation” and that she “obviously have had no intention of paying me at all.”
I am sorry you feel that way. You can be angry, or [...]
Crack! The gavel banged on the county supervisor’s desk.
“Lot number 16. Sold for $10,200 to the man in the striped shirt!”
I had made another trip to El Dorado County to attend their annual tax sale. Properties owned by taxpayers who failed to make the required annual installments for periods of longer than five to seven [...]
Given some of the many circumstances that have occurred during the past few weeks, it has become obvious that while I am able to provide you with the initially agreed-upon minimum of twenty hours of weekly labor, my schedule will not allow me to be what you are asking for at this time — someone [...]
