What Did We Learn?

My dad made a good point on Tuesday when I was discussing my job situation with him. The company I'm now working for (until it's sold!) essentially did what I had considered doing a month or so ago. That is, they hired me and then disclosed that it wasn't for the long term expected.

It's kind of funny being on the flip side of the equation. The situation isn't exactly the same (I will supposedly have a job at the purchasing company), but it serves to confuse my sentiments further on the issue of telling a company if you're leaving soon or not. So, we'll revisit the arguments once again:

The Real Company Treatment

Here's me last month on companies:

...I don't think for a minute that they are going to worry about me if they need to lay me off. I don't think that company loyalty or employee loyalty is a true principle or a moral obligation.

While I will supposedly have a job, the company didn't tell me about the change until after I had been hired (and after I'd quite my old job to take this one).

The Invisible Hand

The company was acting in its own best interest. They offered a reasonable salary and I failed to ask the appropriate questions. I thought I was acting in my own best interest, but me not doing my due diligence in understanding what I was signing up for is pretty much my own fault.

I'll still get value from the job in the month or so I'm there. The bonus and salary are good for the time. It's just a bit of an adventure right now.

Implications For Interviewers and Interviewees

So, if I were interviewing again with the intention to leave in 6 months, would I disclose that information? Yes, I think I would. I would personally rather be overly honest then appear dishonest. If someone else were to not disclose the same information in an interview though, I wouldn't hold it against them for a second.

I think the lesson I need to learn here is that when interviewing from either side of the table it's important to ask the right questions and be sure that what you are expecting from a situation matches the reality of the same situation.

New Job Turbulance

Sorry I didn't get anything posted this morning. My new job started today and I wasn't able to get to all the IRA research I wanted to. I did get open a Roth IRA at Fidelity, and I'll post about why I chose them soon.

The New Job

I started my new job today. The company is small, about 8 people. The salary is a step up from what I was making ($59,000/year vs. $52,500) and the work seems enjoyable.

Taking this job made sense for us. It seemed like a career step forward.

Stuff I Wish I'd Known

So, it turns out that a) my friend who I though was going to be my boss is actually training me to be his replacement and b) The company is being sold and I will be one of the assets being transfered to the new company.

It would have been nice to be able to factor those things into the equation when deciding if I should take the job.

Naive Optimism

Despite a sentiment of gee-you-should-have-told-me, I still feel good about deciding to take the job. We prayed about if it was the right thing to do, and we felt that it was. I put my trust in God that He knew these details and that taking this job remains the right thing to have done. It may be the case that I was supposed to take the job, but wouldn't have if I had known all the facts beforehand.

Here are the reasons I'm still naively optimistic :

• If me and my friend get everything fixed up by August 1st for the sale, both he and I will get $5000 bonuses when the sale completes (Mid to the end of September)


• With the type of product the company has, I have a few guesses on who it might be being sold to, and I wouldn't mind working for any of them. They're places I wouldn't have thought that I could get into very easily.


• I'll be having more of an architect position than I thought I would.


• As we were programming together today I was able to help spot several errors and make several important optimizations. I thought that I would be pretty rusty in the language we are using, but it looks like things will be just fine.


• This looks like fun project to be involved with. It combines several areas which I have been interested at a hobby level, which I don't have professional experience in.


• The new company my current boss is starting sounds pretty neat too, and if things don't work out at the company that is buying the current company I think I'd be able to get a job with him at the new place.

Expect Less Posts For The Next Couple Of Weeks

As I said, if we can get a specified set of features working completely by August 1, I'll get a $5000 bonus...so I probably won't be blogging as much till that's done. I'll try to post two or three times this week and next.

New Job : I Am Now Free To Move About the Country

I got a job offer last Thursday. It's for the position I interviewed for last Tuesday.

The salary is $59,000 a year. That's $6,500 more than my current salary. There are less benefits, namely no 401K, or life or dental insurance. There is health insurance though, which is nice.

The best benefit though is that it's a work at home job. Besides getting an office with a window (my current office is solid walls) this means that when we go to move in January I can take my job with me. It means that even in a new city we'll know what I'll be making before hand.

The work is more up my alley too. Less of a computer-for-computers-sake type product and more of a computers-as-a-tool-to-help-people angle. It's a small (6-8 people) company which gives me more autonomy, which I've been wanting.

Mostly though we're just happy that we'll be able to save more towards our house and that we'll be able to move there more easily when we find one we like.

--

I think we might just go out to eat to celebrate, even though it wasn't in our budget (neither was an extra $6500 a year!).

Interview Tip : They Know Who You Are

I had a great job interview today. I don't know if I will get the job, but the interview itself went well. It's for an online company, and would be a work from home position. Working from home would have it's own challenges but at least I would be able to take my job with me when we move in January.

Before the interview the interviewer already knew a ton about me. About the projects I've done, about my family and more. All sorts of things which I never told him and which certainly weren't on my resume.

Also today my wife interviewed a girl to be our baby sitter. With just her first name and Email address, we were able to track down her livejournal site, her facebook page, photos of her on MySpace and her profile on YouTube. Although the interview went well, based on what I've found about her online I don't think we'll be hiring.

How did my interviewer find out so much about me? How did we find out so much about this babysitter?

Digital Archaeology

I sent my resume from my Gmail. My Gmail users name is the same as the handle I use everywhere online. I also have a domain name or two which match that same handle. And one of those pages links to my wife's blog, etc. etc. etc.

In this case it was beneficial. I have done several projects which piqued the interest of my interviewer. There is also quite a lot of material on my website which showcases my programming abilities, but which aren't things I'd bother to put on a resume.

For the babysitter things didn't end up as well. It started the same way. She replied to our Craigslist posting, listing only her first name in the email. We googled her email address and got nothing. By dropping the '@yahoo.com' portion though we got enough leads to find out more about her. She's had 8 siblings, two died of cystic fibrosis. She says she is a Mormon but her pictures and words say she doesn't practice what she says she believes. (Note: Our baby sitter doesn't have to be Mormon, but we'd rather not have a hypocrite).

Shots in the Dark

Sometimes you can hit a dead end and can't find any more information via Google or other search engines. If that's the case it may be time for a couple of shots in the dark to try to locate the individual. Teens and college students can often be found on Facebook or MySpace if you know their name and school. Brazilians can often be found on Orkut, other South Americans on Hi5. Business professionals can sometimes be found on Linked-In (although most of Linked-In is also indexed by Google it seems).

Hiding Your Tracks

Being found online is a mixed blessing. It makes it possible to reunite with old friends and find out about others before meeting them. It also makes you more vulnerable depending on what you've put online.

If you have material online which you don't want a future employer, date or colleague to see, you need to hide your tracks. The best way to hide your tracks is to create a new online identity strictly for business (or nefarious!) purposes. For example instead of artickat9912@hotmail.com I might send my resume in via my new and improved college_alumni99@gmail.com address.

If creating a new identity isn't really an option, or if your name is unique enough that someone could search and find you (eg. not John Smith) then you may need to work to remove or hide the existing bad data.

The first thing to do is to remove pictures which don't portray you in a positive light from social networking sites. Make your profile private while you're at it.

Next, do some research on yourself. Make note of what information you can find about yourself via Google, Altavista, MSN Search, Yahoo, etc. For any site which you do have control over (eg. old forum posts which you can still edit) be sure that the content is what you want seen.

For content which you don't want to show up, it's a bit more difficult. You will likely need to do a bit of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for yourself. You will need to create enough new pages with your name (or handle) on them that Google and other search engines will link to those good pages before the bad ones. You can create good pages for yourself by blogging and posting in forums among other things.

Conclusion

Taking care of what of your data shows up online may help you land that next job interview. Be sure to research the person you're interviewing with if possible. And if you're going to be blogging about your salary and financial situation be sure to use an alias so future employers don't know how much they *really* need to pay you.

Making Career Decisions

So far we have been looking at job types in a two dimensional. In our 2d model your job is in the same position on the chart no matter your abilities for the given job type. The 2d model is good for understanding why you are making money, but it doesn't help determine how to make more money. For that we will need to look at the same chart in three dimensions.



We now hove a qualitative quotient rising vertically from each of the job types. In each case the vertical factor represents qualities which increase the attractiveness of your work to those who will be paying you. For example, a professional musician vs. an amateur.

In order to use this model to maximize your profitability we are going to need to find what jobs we are able to do and choose the best selection of to maximize the pros for each job type, while minimizing the cons.

I start by making a list of which skills and abilities I have, some major personal characteristics and things which I can make. I rank each of those abilities based on how much I think someone could potentially pay for each activity.

What I do :

• Programming (8)


• Wood Working (4)


• Network Security (5)


• System Administration (7)

What I make :

• Informative websites (7)


• Cool Program (9)


• Wooden kids furniture (5)


• Digital drawings (5)


• Cooking (2)

Who I am :

• College graduate (7)


• Son of well respected man in my home town (9.5)


• Young conservatively dressing tall man (7)


• Yet another personal financial blogger (4)


• Eagle Scout (10)

Now I plot them on the chart (either for real, or just in my head).



After listing and ranking my abilities, I add which abilities I would be interested in improving and to what level.

System Administration (9)
Wood Working (8)

Based on my chart I can see that I currently could probably make a cool program and provide something which is in higher demand than my current programming position.

In order to provide a more demanded skill in System Administration I would need to improve my skills a little bit -- maybe take a class, or study online.

To maximize my income right now, I should make a cool program. If I would rather maximize my income by doing system administration, I should improve my skills enough to command a higher salary.

To be good enough with wood working (Which I enjoy), I would need to get a lot better. If my life dream were to support my family as a wood worker then such improvements might be worth their effort. Since that's not my dream, my self improvement time could be better spent elsewhere.

Odds are good that you too will have several skills which will are in higher demand than others. Besides just trying to maximize your income, be sure to also consider that certain skill groups (eg. Programming + System Administration + Network Security) may prove more valuable as a cluster of abilities than a single higher valued skill (eg. Writing a single cool program). Also balance the different positions with the pros and cons discussed in part two in order to find a level of job security and type of job risk you are comfortable with.

Conclusion

This isn't the be-all end-all theory for deciding what to do for work. No model is perfect, and making the most money isn't the most important thing in life. What this model can do though is help you visualize potential areas to improve your income, and help you find ways out of a field you're not enjoying.

Job Interview Full Disclosure

Morality, Honesty and Applying For a Job

I have been pretty excited about this new job I'm applying for. I've felt confident that it would be a great fit and that both I and the company stood to gain from me working there.

Then my father in law asked if I felt there was any moral issue in not telling the company that I am planning on moving in January. I hadn't even thought about it before that, but his comments got me thinking.

Big Business

First of all, I've never really liked big business. I don't think for a minute that they are going to worry about me if they need to lay me off. I don't think that company loyalty or employee loyalty is a true principle or a moral obligation.

This is the logic that I use when I decide not to talk about my real future goals at work (move out of state, get a more interesting job). The same logic was what I'd been using in this job application process.

I figured that if they didn't ask, I wouldn't tell them. I don't think any business has the illusion that an employee they hire is going to be around for life. After my father in law's comment, I started considering different factors.

The Invisible Hand

First of all, I thought about Adam Smith's principle of the invisible hand which is summed up by Wikipedia thusly:

...[I]n a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community as a whole through a principle that he called “the invisible hand”. ...[E]ach individual maximizing revenue for himself maximizes the total revenue of society as a whole, as this is identical with the sum total of individual revenues.

I was definitely acting in my own self interests -- who wants to hire an employee for only six months? The business was acting in it's own self interests, they were trying to hire the best employee they could get.

Could I Provide the Company Value in 6 Months

I would have worked there for six months. My skill set was very closely aligned with what they were looking for. I believed (and still believe) that I could have been profitable for them within a month or two.

That is, I think that my benefits for the company would have offset the cost of training and of the hiring process within one or two months. Some sites however say that the cost of hiring an employee is 150% of their salary. Obviously I have no way of knowing exactly how much the company would have spent, but I find that number very high for this position.

Job Hopping Is Normal Now

My generation is the slightly maligned job hopping generation. There are many different sources saying that this is a normal practice for younger workers like myself.

Granted, I've only been at my current job for 10 months, and I would be at the new one for 6, but when we move I plan on finding a job to hold for a longer time.

Am I being Selfish? (And is that wrong?)

The wonderful MPR asks if my generation is 'the selfish generation', and you know what? Sometimes I feel like I deserve better. I can't blame businesses for doing what is best for them financially going forward, but when they cut pensions and 'let go' older workers I feel like if they're not going to give me a fair shake, so why should I give them a fair shake?

I think that I don't want a lot. I just want to do something that I can support my family with and which will leave me happy at the end of the day so I can enjoy my time with my kids and wonderful wife at home.

My current job doesn't do that. I feel frustrated, bored and grumpy at the end of the day without enough energy to say "Hey! Let's go to the park and play!", which is what my two year old would really like the most.

In part that's what this whole site is about. A big part of my self improvement is that I'm trying to find out how to support my family and be able to spend better time with them. If that's selfish, then by all means I'm selfish. If that drives me to not disclose to a future employer that I'll only be around for six months, then yes, I am inclined not to tell them that.

Is it Honest?

This is where all my invisible hand job hopping selfishness broke down. After several days of introspection, I decided that

• I wouldn't tell a lie to get a job


• Telling only part of the truth could be as bad as lying


• I would hate to be in the employers position and not have all the cards on the table


• If they were planning on laying me off in six months I would want to know


• Even if they are a big business, that didn't change the fact that deals should be done honestly


• I felt that if I withheld information that was critical to making a good decision on their part, I wouldn't be being 100% honest with them.

*sigh* I really wanted that job. It looked like it could be fun, certainly more fun that where I am now.

I sent an email to the manager I was to interview with last week, explained my situation and said that I felt that I could provide value in the next six months. I also said that I'd be happy to telecommute from new new location if that was acceptable. They sent me back an email saying that they needed someone local and long term.

I am disappointed, and still job searching, but I feel that it's what I had to do to be honest.

Interview Phase Two, and How I Write A Resume

>Job Hunt Update: I got an email today that asked if I could come in for round two of interviews next week! I believe that there are only two rounds of interviews, but I suppose we'll see what happens after this one. Since my resume presumably was one of the factors which got me an interview (I had a friend who works there deliver it too), I've decided to share my resume techniques. Maybe they'll be helpful to someone, and maybe someone can help me improve as well.

Resume Writing, My Style

I don't remember the last time I actually sat down to write a resume from scratch. My resume has kind of evolved and grown since I started college. Recently though I did have an opportunity to sit down with my brother Bob and help him with his resume.

Bob is a really smart kid. He got into computers way before I did, speaks fluent Spanish and is very responsible. And if that weren't enough, he just graduated from high school. Bob isn't very wordy though. His emails and essays make Hemmingway look verbose.

Before and After

So, here below is a before and after of his resume. The one of the left is the one he created himself, the one on the right is the one I helped him with.



Here are the differences:

Things Wrong With the First Resume

• Duplicate information


• Vague, tangentially related objective


• Only one work experience entry


• List formatting runs together


• No spacing between sections


• All fonts, except his name, are the same size


• One third of the page is blank space


• Non-work related interests


• No reason why visiting a foreign country is relevant


• Soft verbs and interest

Improvements In the Second Resume

• Single line address format saves valuable vertical space


• Name top and center makes it the most noticable page element


• Different fonts for each level of information


• Included all past, current and planned education


• Each skill or activity line starts with an adjective or, if appropriate, a verb


• Name software or other tools you know by name


• Title 'Work History' as 'Experience' and include related non-work activities


• Include real numbers in job descriptions where the demonstrate added value


• For jobs/positions without official titles, use a descriptive title that says what you did


• When possible, use verbs with positive connotations in the job title, otherwise use them in your job description

Other Notes

I'm sure there are other considerations that could improve the resume greatly. I'd love to hear your suggestions. One obvious thing would be to tailor it for the specific job you're applying for. In my brother's case, he doesn't have much to work with yet.

In my case, I have more jobs than fit on the resume, since I like to keep it at a single sheet. I include the most relevant jobs and projects I've done, and reword job descriptions to emphasize portions of my responsibilities that could relate to the job I'm applying for.

A good resume is only half of the package for job application; you also need a great cover letter. With the job I'm currently doing interviews for, I found out who I would be interviewing with initially and directed the cover letter to him.

Job Interview

Today I interviewed for the job I mentioned in "What Am I Worth?". Overall the interviews went pretty well. There were three interviewers, one attending via phone. I certainly did better with the in-person interviewers than over the phone.

The company is something of a cube farm company but I'm optimistic that it'll be a good experience, assuming I get the position. I should find out if I get to have the second and final round of interviews within a week.

I ended up asking for $60,000 per year. I choked and didn't play the 'how much could you offer?' game like I should have. I'll try harder when we move in January. My current position is dull enough that I'll take a non-maximum salary to switch positions.

--

Interviews are always fun in a way. I get nervous and a bit queasy, but the task of trying to relate my life experiences to the questions they ask is always an interesting challenge. My resume was prepped to help me this time, as I included several non-work projects I've done in the experience section. In the past I wouldn't have included them since I wasn't paid, I didn't have a manager, and they were relatively short term. They did use technologies tangentially related to this companies offerings though, so it ended up helping.

What Does a Pay Stub Look Like?

How Much Do You Really Get From Your Paycheck?

What does a real world pay stub look like? When I finally started getting real paychecks, I was initially let down. I had very naively divided my salary by 24 pay periods and imagined all the cool stuff I was going to buy.

Reality is a bit of a letdown sometimes. I actually only end up with a little over half of my salary coming to me.

So, without further ado, here's my current pay stub (with certain data blanked out!)


Green is income, red is expenses.

At the top left, Salary is the amount I supposedly get each pay period (every two weeks). It works out to be about $50,000 per year.

At the bottom left is the amount that gets deposited into my bank account every two weeks.

43% of my salary doesn't end up in my pocket!

It would be difficult to argue with the taxes portion of the paycheck, but let's take a closer look at the section titled "Deductions From Gross" and "Non-taxable Company Items".

Deductions from Gross

Deductions from Gross are voluntary amounts I choose to have taken out of my paycheck. As much as it stinks to get that much less cash, there are good reasons to get those amounts removed.

Less Taxes:
These deductions are taken out before taxes are calculated. It appears that the taxes are about 15% of the taxable amount. If this is correct, then I pay about $100 less in taxes each pay period by deducting these amounts from my gross paycheck.

What are these accounts though?

Health Insurance - Employee:
This is a medical 'flex spend' or 'cafeteria plan' expense. We estimated how much we were going to spend on medical costs this year, and are having that amount removed from my pay over the course of the year. This account can be used for dental work, eye doctor visits and glasses, birth and related expenses etc. Since we knew we'd be having a c-section baby this year, we knew at least how much we'd be spending.

FSA:
This Flex Spend Account is for child care. Since I'm at work and my wife is at school, we needed someone to watch our kids for part of the day most days of the week. With this account we can pay for child care from our pre-tax money.

401(k):
We are currently putting in 15% of my gross salary into our 401(k). We'd like to retire well, so we've got to make sacrifices now.

Even though these deductions don't come home with me, two of the three are or will be used by me during this year.

Non-taxable Company Items

This is the section which shows non-salary benefits that the company is providing. It appears that they company is paying $306.07 per pay period for insurance for my family.

They match 100% of my 401(k) contributions, up to 3% of my salary. It's true then that I am not being matched completely with my 401(k) donations, but at least it's something.

Take Home Per Year

In all my excited imagining about how to spend my money, it turns out that I should have been thinking about taking home just less than $30,000 per year instead of the $50,000 gross salary figure.

So, if you just barely landed that dream job with the huge salary, don't make too many plans till you carefully review what you're actually bringing home each month.

What am I worth?

The Value of a Soul...(or at least a warm body)

I am currently making $50,000/year. I applied for a new job today and will eventually have to tell them how much I'd like (assuming I get the position). What do I say? I am satisfied with my current salary. 50k is nothing to sneeze at, and with some basic money management skills we should do quite nicely as a family of four on this income.

On the other hand, what if I ask for 60k and get it? I don't want to come across as pretentious, cocky or greedy, but I would like to make as much as I can. An extra $10,000 a year would help nicely with our house buying goal.

Dispair..ity

Today after I had prepped my resume, I asked my colleague on the inside of this company if he would be able to give me a salary range I could expect. Through our conversation I discovered that he is making substantially less than I am currently -- probably in the $40,000 range. His skills are nearly as good as mine in some areas and better in others, and he's probably a harder worker.

He isn't, however, as assertive as I am. I'm not pushy or anything, but I know what I can do and I know what I want. If this company won't give it to me, I am blessed to be in the position that I can walk away from it. I'm not sure that my colleague could pull off the same thing.

If we were sharing salary info, he would know that he is being under paid, and could ask for a raise. On the other hand, if his request for a raise were turned down, and I were hired on at my current salary or higher, there might be a bit of animosity or bitterness between the two of us.

A Tradition of Secrecy

My dad has never told any of us what he makes each year. The closest I came to finding out was when I took the ACT test in high school. It asks for your parent's salary info during the registration, and when my dad said $100k+ I was amazed. To this day I have no idea how much more than that he makes. I expect I'll only find out when I have to handle the will.

I think that his attitude is typical and professional. I'm not completely convinced however that it's the best for everyone involved.

In Praise of Openness

In an open market place I would know what others are making, and I would be able to ask for a salary that isn't too far off the mark from what my peers are making. If I wanted more money than they are making, I would have to argue why I am a better value to the company than the other workers.

On the up side for me, I wouldn't know if I was getting what I am worth.

As an up side for the company, they could offer lower salaries, but then offer more performance bonuses.

In Praise of Closedness

Secretive salaries have many benefits for companies. For one thing, it is harder for competitors to poach employees. The competitor would have to offer enough extra money to be sure to pass the employee's current salary.

Another reason is that some workers aren't going to request enough money for their pay, and the company will get a good deal since the employee doesn't know that they are being undervalued.

Employees not knowing each other's salary provides less opportunities for disgruntlement between them.

Lastly, as a potentially valuable employee I know that I can request a larger salary because I know that they are saving money by not paying my colleague as much as he's worth. (Of course, I'll never know if I'm also getting low balled, just not as badly as him!)

Conclusion?

I'm still undecided about if I would rather have everyone's salaries out in the open.
Perhaps the best solution would be to publicize anonymous statistics so that the data is available, but that individuals won't know who to be bitter with.