252
votes
Can I buy my company internship laptop? Will they hunt me down if I keep it?
You should definitely contact the company you had your internship with, remind them that you still have their laptop and ask how to return it. It is company equipment so the ownership is theirs and ...
- 3,030
235
votes
Fired because your skills are too far above your coworkers
Well I hate to burst your bubble but if this is the third time this happened that almost rules out "it's not you, it's them". Your title says that you were fired for being "indispensable" but apart ...
- 59.4k
215
votes
I stopped an interview because I couldn't solve some difficult problems involving technology I haven't used in years. What could I have done instead?
suggested we could skip the assessment to discuss my experiences
instead.
Could I have salvaged the interview? Was there a better way to handle
the situation?
Apparently, you could have skipped the ...
- 387k
207
votes
How to attract people to work on very old and outdated technologies?
If you advertise looking for someone with COBOL experience, tough luck. So who could do this job? Someone less than ten years from retirement, who can afford to switch to a dead end technology, and ...
- 170k
200
votes
Work requiring employees install Mobile Device Management software on their phones
It's a great time to do the reasonable and explain that if the company expects to be able to reach you on a mobile phone then they should provide one. If they don't care enough to shell out for 50-100 ...
- 35.8k
164
votes
Accepted
How to attract people to work on very old and outdated technologies?
20% Time + Open Source
You've probably heard about Google's 20% Time policy. In essence, any employee can ask to use up to 20% of their time on pet projects.
I suggest that you implement something ...
- 3,540
151
votes
Accepted
Fired because your skills are too far above your coworkers
It's not a joke, I could not stand to have this happen a fourth time, it's impacting me mentally.
This line is important, because it shows that you feel it is time to change. It shows that you ...
- 3,040
146
votes
Accepted
Working on live dev code in the interview process: ethical?
From what I've seen in terms of questions on this site, the practice is at least somewhat common.
That said; unless I was being paid for this "assignment", I would not do it. It is an unreasonable ...
- 35.7k
136
votes
Fired because your skills are too far above your coworkers
There are always reasons.
A previous employer did this with a coworker of mine. His skill level was far beyond our skill. So, he was let go.
Why does this make sense?
He was the only one who ...
- 160k
132
votes
How to get employees to report to me as opposed to their previous boss?
If John wants you to succeed, ask John to reply to every report you should get but he gets instead:
Sorry guys, I am not responsible for this anymore, please run this by Menny.
If John does this ...
- 12.4k
116
votes
I'm technical referent but I lost the lead for technical decisions
Remember that coding does not exist in a vacuum. Even code that's less than ideal can solve real business or humanitarian problems.
Quality is not an all-or-nothing proposition. There are certainly ...
- 25.2k
104
votes
Are humanities subjects useful for Computer Science jobs?
In my professional experience as a software developer, if there is one skill I would say that is more useful than anything else, it is communication.
When you get into your career, you are going to ...
- 12k
93
votes
Accepted
I'm technical referent but I lost the lead for technical decisions
This line destroyed my confidence in your firm's leaders:
No more Test-Driven Development and no more unit tests.
That's such a bad decision, I cannot imagine working somewhere that behaves or ...
- 1,816
92
votes
Accepted
My proposals for introducing a new technology keep getting turned down
You are proposing to the wrong supervisor. You need to be making these proposals at a different company.
Naval architecture is by nature very conservative. It has to be. Too many lives have been lost ...
- 4,990
89
votes
My proposals for introducing a new technology keep getting turned down
There are 2 issues with your proposal.
Firstly, you seem to be more excited about AI than about contributing to fulfilling whatever goals your company has. Secondly, you haven't accounted for the ...
- 1,137
86
votes
How to attract people to work on very old and outdated technologies?
This is the issue with mounting technical debt and sticking with aging tech - the amount of people familiar with the technology declines slowly at first and then quickly as they age and leave the ...
- 21.6k
74
votes
Work requiring employees install Mobile Device Management software on their phones
Segregate Work and Personal Phones
A simple and best advise is to keep personal and work phones separate, and it should take care of most of the concerns which one may possibly encounter in scenarios ...
- 8,195
68
votes
How to attract people to work on very old and outdated technologies?
Maybe be more prepared to hire older people eg those that are returning to the workforce after being stay at home parents or carers.
My general experience is the IT industry is incredibly ageist, ...
- 721
67
votes
Fired because your skills are too far above your coworkers
Good code is easy to understand, even for poor engineers. One advice I often received is "program like if the person that will maintain your code is a mediocre programmer, and a dangerous psychopath ...
- 9,393
67
votes
I stopped an interview because I couldn't solve some difficult problems involving technology I haven't used in years. What could I have done instead?
It seems like you've made a confusing mess of the situation.
I've stopped interviews prematurely before, but never where I actually wanted to interview again with the same company, and still had a ...
- 14.6k
62
votes
IT having too much power
Unfortunately, IT is one of those parts of a business that is almost completely invisible to the rest of the business as long as things are going well. Generally, people don't know, don't understand, ...
- 27.5k
56
votes
Can I buy my company internship laptop? Will they hunt me down if I keep it?
You should promptly contact the company to ask for ways to return the laptop as soon as possible. You should have returned that laptop on your last day of work.
Please pick up the phone now (today), ...
- 23.8k
48
votes
How to attract people to work on very old and outdated technologies?
You're finding out painfully why so many developers specializing in old languages are making serious bank right now.
As a young developer, it's a losing proposition to adopt these technologies now - ...
- 23.5k
45
votes
How to get employees to report to me as opposed to their previous boss?
I think you need to rethink your outlook and consider how you want to lead your department and how it functions.
You mentioned in comments that John is the lead programmer, and you are Head of IT Dept....
- 1,503
45
votes
I stopped an interview because I couldn't solve some difficult problems involving technology I haven't used in years. What could I have done instead?
Never end an interview early if you still want the job.
Interviewers sometimes intentionally ask really difficult questions not expecting the right answer, but rather to see how interviewees cope with ...
- 3,363
44
votes
I'm technical referent but I lost the lead for technical decisions
I've fought this battle more than twice.
Here is what you are going to come to realize at some point: No executive wants to admit (and probably even to themselves) that they are producing garbage. ...
- 63.4k
40
votes
Working on live dev code in the interview process: ethical?
If you are feeling like this is some scam to get free work out of you, consider how much they've already invested in the interview process. If the whole goal was to get a couple hundred dollars worth ...
- 34.8k
39
votes
Fired because your skills are too far above your coworkers
It's unlikely that you are fired because you are too good. I guess that's just an excuse.
It's much more likely it's a behavior issue, or the boss just doesn't like you for reasons he can't tell you ...
- 14.6k
39
votes
Work requiring employees install Mobile Device Management software on their phones
I also asked what would happen if I don't install the software (it has
also been stated that installation of WorkSpace ONE is optional), and
my manager says I can still use OWA to access my email ...
- 387k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible