Thursday, February 13, 2020

Unknown knowns: Location of Apache httpd.conf (000-default.conf) on Debian 9

/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

I am still quite new to Debian environment much less Linux, so I have trouble finding things especially when they are configured slightly differently. I am not sure if I am just not searching refine enough or something else.

Sometimes I run into configuration issues like setting up the static folder for Django. The instructions I find online point to a httpd.conf file which I cannot find. I see other similar files, but none does the trick. Then I recall updating 000-default.conf file from previous setups as I stumble across it again in search of httpd.conf.

Of course, this requires a service restart.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Job Search: Re-applying to Amazon, Google, other less known companies

http://blog.interviewing.io/no-engineer-has-ever-sued-a-company-because-of-constructive-post-interview-feedback-so-why-dont-employers-do-it/

I just read this article that I saw on LinkedIn. This got me thinking about my reaction to companies' response or lack of response. I know that is not what the article is about, but that is what triggered my thought.

Amazon

I was daunted by Amazon's initial application process. It was long and tedious. I actually avoided applying for a lengthy period of time because of it. But once completed, Amazon is impressively fluid to use compared to almost all other sites. Their interface is also levels better than other sites (including ATS systems which you think should be the best in market since it is their industry). I have to say that I am personally surprised.

I have applied to a couple positions, and only one interview. When the position closed, I received an automated email that I was not selected. I had an interview, was not selected, and received an automated email that I was not selected. The interview itself was not great, but that was more on the interviewer than Amazon.

Will I apply again? Yes. My experience with them is quite positive (relative to others), especially after each experience with another company like Google.


Google

Applying is simpler. I have applied years ago, and also a couple recently. No responses at all. The applications can still be found on their website untouched.

Will I apply again? I have to say that after a period of time after each application, I am less inclined to apply to Google. Today I even saw a couple new positions on LinkedIn, I shuddered, and didn't even bother to see the job description.


Snap

Applied once, and had an interview. My interviewer was great: charismatic and a pleasure to talk to. She was very up-front about my shortcomings which I also agreed with but did argue that I had similar experiences. I was applying to a management role with no direct report experiences. I had many leadership experiences but clearly not enough.

This position would also have been a 1.5 hour commute. Just because of the recruiter and her enthusiasm, I probably would have accepted the role if they offered. I received emails that I was not selected.

Will I apply again? Yes, and I would recommend others to apply to Snap.

Other Companies

Many companies are like Google. Even using Indeed or Glassdoor who automates some of these steps, I will still not receive any responses. I have most definitely skipped over companies that I have applied to previously where I have received absolutely no responses.

I have been highly selective in re-applying to companies that I have received no responses for.

I still re-apply to companies that I have received automated rejections. 

I continue to look at opportunities to companies that have more personalized messages that are not automated.


My Conclusion About Feedback

I feel that this is a classic game theory situation. If all companies gave personalized responses, then they are all equal again. So a couple companies that do not will benefit because there is not enough to detract people who apply. The reasons that I prefer companies that give personalized responses is that others do not, thus benefiting those who do. And this is why most companies don't because it is practically the same state as everyone doing it but less effort.

Reference

http://linkedin.com

Friday, February 7, 2020

Exercise (238) Finding time to exercise

The difficult part of finding time to exercise in the beginning even for 20 minutes is that it actually takes more than 20 minutes to return back to normal life routines. I would say initially, the whole process will take about an hour. So for me mentally, I had to prepare an hour amount of time to exercise for 20 minutes. As time went on, I was able to streamline some of my steps to maybe 45 minutes.

To me, I plan it kind of like a flight. Although the air time is 2 hours, you have to schedule time to pack, travel to airport, and wait prior to the flight, then wait, travel to hotel/home, and unpack after you land. For exercise, I have to dress and warm-up before exercising, then cool-down, shower/freshen-up, and re-dress after exercising.

This takes longer initially because there are some factors that you don't initially prepare for like weather, temperature, gear, etc. But after a while, you can start preparing ahead of time.

Anyways the point is that I found it much easier to be more consistent with exercising when I plan to reserve more time than the actual exercising, otherwise, after preparing I find that I do not have enough time then eventually aborting the plan to do "more important" things (which ultimately really is not that important but because you already planned it; the appearance is that it is more important at that moment).

On a side note, I have been able to maintain a sub-240 weight on a consistent basis now (including my high ranges). This is not just from exercising, actually exercise had little impact to this round of weight loss because I just started this week. A big factor was my diet which I did know but was difficult to control. I would like to say it was my will-power, but actually is due to combination of many factors outside of my raw will-power.

Moved away from my parents who are very concerned for my weight but does not care to consider my views on weight-loss because clearly I do not have a good track record (which they are somewhat correct). Moved away from work because I would eat out with coworkers. This was more primarily in combination with my parents because they did not like the idea of me eating out. So I ate two meals because I also hate wasting food and too shameful to tell my parents that I went out to eat. I had to eat their food because I had to return the containers on my way home. The last factor is that I live with my wife. I seem to naturally cook for two people. Maybe I could have cooked less, but it was probably due to my laziness. I didn't like to just cut half of an object, so I would cut a whole onion, tomato, chicken breast, etc. So I would just end up eating the whole thing also because I did not like having leftovers. So even though I did cook quite healthy, the sheer amount of food was not good for weight loss. At least this would explain why I am still relatively healthy for my size. Naturally, my wife now eats half the food I cook. My wife cooks a little more as she likes more variety of dishes but that is still way less than what I was eating before.

Not sure how this will last because one other major factor is that I work from home majority of the time. I have "gained" so much time without my 2 hours commute per day, preparing for work, logging back on, doing more work at the office to avoid rush hour, etc. On top of that, I get more work done in less amount of time.

Sorry to those who are looking how to change your mentality, but do not give up on hope. Change still starts with you and that is important. I went through most of my life on my own, so I had a chance back then. But some times there are external factors that impact you, and those factors will feel very daunting even if they aren't in hindsight. I have argued with my parents a lot on stop making me food, and they continued to ignore me. I could have refused not to go pick up food, but to me it was not worth a lifetime's worth of disappointment (I would rather be fat and content than unhappy and fit).

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Job Search: Does PMP Correlate with Being A Good Project Manager (PM)? (My Super Limited Personal View)

While I search for jobs, I often see that many project management jobs require or prefer people with a PM (Project Management) certification. This some times causes me to think of all the project managers that I have worked with in the past.

In summary, I really do not feel like there is any correlation with a good project manager and being a PMP (Project Management Professional). My opinion could be flawed in what qualifies as a good project manager, but I think some of the qualities of the project manager far outweighs certain biases.

For starters, a good project manager should be able to handle a project well (not necessarily to completion/deployment). I specifically want to avoid saying successful because there are too many external factors on why a project could "fail" that is out of the PM's control. If anything, I feel that a good project manager really shines when a project is failing.

I have probably worked with over 50+ project managers with about half PMP (an extremely rough estimate). Most do the bare minimum; some do a decent job; and, very few do a good job. Bare minimum to me is just to keep their job. I often have to follow up with these PM; they often "lose" emails, notes, etc. on a consistent basis. Decent job to me is doing what is needed when things are not ideal. They will help out a little or upon request, but not more. Good job is when they don't need to be told multiple times to do their job.

By doing their job, I mean that they tell resources when their project is going to be delivered, the status of their projects, things I think a PM should know. So, I suppose I fail to see how a PM certification helps identify good project managers. What is it that they do that is so difficult? I practically do at least half the job of poor performers. I don't have a PMP. Those with PMP is about the same distribution across each quality of project managers.

To me, a company really only needs one person with a PMP and that should be whoever is managing the PMs. The other PMs just follows directions because almost all companies have their own variations so it is nearly impossible to really transfer one company process with another. Those who are more pro-active are able to figure it out, and those who are less or non-active are able to figure out how to fly under the radar. Yet, the company continues which seems to me that PMP really is rather useless, waste of money, and time.

Does PMP title mean a good project manager? To me, easily a no. Is it worth getting one anyways? Yes. Why? Because companies think PMP title means a good project manager which means they are willing to pay for it, therefore PM certificate is of value (unless I am the hiring manager, which I am not, so you are safe).

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Job Search: Why can't ATS (Applicant Tracking System) transfer my profiles to other companies?

ATS solutions like Taleo, SuccessFactors, iCIMS, etc., do not transfer your profile from one company site to another. Yet LinkedIn and Google can, albeit they do a pretty terrible job of it.

Completing an online job application form is already a pain in the tuchus, but what drives me near insanity is the constant steps of upload resume, re-enter resume information into digital format, then cry/whine and repeat with maybe a 5% chance to get an initial call.

After so many applications, you start to realize a lot of sites use similar ATS solutions, which makes me question why they cannot just pull my information from last application to this one? I thought maybe it was a regulation issue but LinkedIn basically does that so does not seem like it. Perhaps if the ATS solution has a contract not to, they can at least build it on their main site so that I can provide them my information voluntarily for them to auto-populate the fields.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Interview: Have You Experienced Something (When You Haven't)

I had an interview when the interviewer asked me to describe an experience when I had direct influence in pushing an agenda in a release last minute for a role in release management.

I am paraphrasing the question as I cannot remember the exact wording of the question, and also that he repeated the question a couple more times with different words.

My Response

My response was on the line that I had never had to step-in to "force" a deliverable to be in a release. The reason I believe that I do not have these situations in my 8 years as release management is due to my ability to bring people together to re-evaluate the situation and re-prioritize the work. Development team can only do so much in 24 hour days, and there is a limit to how much can actually be done no matter how many people you throw into the issue within a short period of time (ie last minute). Both teams have had little issue with my methods. I manage the most applications on the release management team, so I handle a lot of different teams. I have had good reviews, and no one has complained of my methods.

I wish I responded that eloquently on the interview, but the bulk of the message is there.


My Reaction to the Questions

Oddly enough because the interviewer was really stressing this question, I was suspecting there was so underlying issue at the company especially in the release management role. I tried to address this concern (unsure if that really is the case). I mentioned that specific task really lies on the product or program owner. I am not shy on taking on other responsibilities or going beyond the traditional bounds of the release management role to get things done. 


My Personal Thought on Result

I do not think I passed the interview, unless the line of questions was to try to incite some reaction from me by asking the same question differently. At the end of the interview, the interviewer also did not seem interested in answering my questions. I do not believe that I answered his question.

Post-Interview Thoughts

I spent too much time rewording my initial answer to answer his follow up questions. I should have redirected the question so that he gave me a scenario and I would then describe to him how I would have handled it. Thinking back on it, I think that would have been the best method to clarify the concern or at least in some way to side-step the initial question.

Job Search: There Is NO Shortage on Skilled Workers, Just Shortage on "Below-Market-Pay" Skilled Workers

I have always been wondering how can the United States be short on skilled workers, because there are plenty of non-skills workers who do not enjoy their work. Maybe short on general workers to current jobs and unfilled jobs, theoretically. But even then that is very hard to believe because there are plenty of people who do very little in existing jobs.

And as I apply to several positions, the most common articles I read about is recruiters being inundated with thousands of applicants. When I talk to hiring managers, they most definitely are not short on candidates and most I have spoken to have had no problems hiring a fitting candidate within the last couple years.

When job posters have on their form your minimum pay requirement or pay history, this seems pretty evident that there is no shortage on people looking for skilled work (possibly other works; I have only searched skilled work). 

One conclusion I can come up with that perhaps I am wrong is that HR really, really has no idea what they are doing. This is also a very high possibility in my opinion as they go through so many motions that make seem to limit their search on quality and possibly cheaper alternatives.

One example is that almost all jobs list out the requirements of the candidate to a generic person yet they require all candidates to tailor their resumes to them. They should be tailored to their target audience who are not generic people. In an opening for a manager, many descriptions will have a requirement with "ability to work in a team" or if they are a level higher "ability to work in a diverse team". The position is for a person specifically leading a team. Or another opening for an experience developer who has a specific tool experience that is almost irrelevant to the actual job. There are development posts where they require "X+ years of experience with Jira" (Jira is a bug-tracking tool). If they hire a developer that cannot figure out how to use any type of bug-tracking tool is not a developer worth hiring.

In either case, there is most definitely no shortage on skilled workers. Companies are either just too cheap to hire them or too simple-minded to identify them.