July 1st, 2009 at 10:10 pm
(New, work)
Well I had the second interview at UW Parkside. Eh, it could have gone better.
There were some questions that I answered well, and some that I don’t think I answered very well.
Just by looking at their facial expressions I could tell that they were looking for more, or something different.
There was one question that had multiple parts, and while answering the second or third part I caught myself rambling, my first clue was that I wasn’t sure if I was in the second or third part. So I decided to wrap up the question quickly, then I realized I had lost focus as to what the main topic of overall question was. So I am sure that didn’t go so well.
There was the question “Tell me about a time you lost you temper at another coworker, at work, and how you handled it?” Well I took some time to try and recall a time where I had lost my temper at another coworker, but couldn’t think of anything, I have lost my my cool with hardware, or software, and in those cases I really tell the the offending pice of junk just how I feel right before I put it to death by unplugging the unit. Since I thought that the real question was how I would handle a bad communication moment, I old him that I don’t usually have those but I have had a time where I told a joke, that was interpreted badly and how I worked through that. Again not the best way I could have answered that question, but that is what I did.
Probably the biggest mistake was that I was so focused on trying to get the the questions nailed down, and I didn’t go over the actual job description, and there were at two questions that referred back to it, so I had to “wing it” on those.
This was an interview of the final five candidates, out of probably 200 people who applied for the position. There where three interviewers again, but all different from the first time and each had 12 questions this time.
At least this time I set my alarm to go off 2 hours before the interview, good thing two because I lost my tie right before I was going to get in the car, and spent 15 minutes looking for my “luck tie” before just grabbing the most red tie that I had.
I might still get the offer, but it is a bad sign the the facilities manager, was trying hard not to fall asleep while I was answering other peoples questions. i am just saying…
I’ll keep looking for more jobs, and applying to the ones that make sense, even if it is a stretch.
One thing I learned for me, is to write down my achievement answers so that I have something to rehearse from, and to help limit my answer to only a few minutes, and keep the answer focused.
7 Comments
June 29th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
(New, work)
Well the first interview at UW park side went well.
There were three people I would interview with, and I was told that each would ask five questions, but that some questions would have multiple parts, so it might seem like more than just five questions.
At first I was worried because all three of the people would be in the room at the same time, but it went well and helped in that if my answer covered more than one persons question, they would check it off, and they wouldn’t have to ask that question later.
Many of the answer that I give are short vignettes (as short as I can make them) from longer stories that I have of my significant accomplishments. When I tell the vignette, I layout the situation in general, so they know what I am talking about. This is also helpful when I tell a different vignette from the same story line, in that I do not have to do as much setup, and it also shows how big the scope of some of these projects are. I also have more than one in case they want a “different” example, just to make sure I am not a one trick pony.
The hard part for me is in keeping it short, because I just talk to much, and just keep throwing information at you, and eventually end up sidetracked on a completely irrelevant topic. The interview is only 45 to 60 minuets long, so if I am not careful I could end up wasting five minuets on why I prefer custard to frozen yogurt, which while entertaining at the time, is not likely to get me a job.
There were a lot of people skills questions which I did not anticipate, as the job has no direct reports, but I think I did OK with them.
Example: “Talk about a time where two key people dislike a product or program but for different reasons, and how you reconciled that?”
Example 2: “Talk about a time when you had to put forth a policy change that was unpopular?”
Example 3: “Talk about a time where someone was unhappy with you, and how you resolved it?”
Lucky for me I have been in these situations, many times before, and I could pick from ones that went well, but this time I am preparing answers, so I can deliver them more effectively.
By far my favorite question was: “If we asked your previous supervisor about you, what would they say?” The reason it was my favorite is because I could answer is like this, “He would say that am awesome, and that he was sorry to see me leave.” Then I asked if they wanted a letter of recommendation.
When we were done, they asked if I had any questions, and I told them that I had the same question for each of them, “With what you know about me, what trait or ability do you see me using here.” This is a good questions because it lets me know where they see me fitting into there organization, also it helps them mentally place me in the job, and finally if there is a second interview, I know what strengths to play up.
One of them liked my sense of humor, an other could not decide where to start because I had too many useful skills, and the third didn’t answer my question, but rather took the time to sell me on the job. Then they all started talking up the job.
In most interviews, they always try to leave you smiling, even if they are not going to give you the job, most say “you did really well, it was nice talking to you”. But I have learned the hard way that that is just smoke and mirrors. The interviewer will usually not take the time or effort to sell the job to you, unless they actually want you. So I took that as a good sign.
And they did ask me back for a second interview.
I have go back Wednesday, so I will try to post as soon as I get back on how I think it went, wish me luck.
I’ll spend tomorrow and Wednesday morning prepping for the questions.
5 Comments
June 17th, 2009 at 8:28 am
(New, Uncategorized, work)
Had a killer head aches last night, when I got home.
The only thing that worked was a really hot shower, which was great until the hot water ran out.
So I went to bed.
The majority of my day was spent helping a fried set up a store, with most of my time spend labeling small boxes of dice. I think I spent hour just sorting and labeling, them.
Today I am getting the mini van ready to loan to a different friend for a family vacation.
Then on Friday I am helping yet another fried with her computer, she doesn’t like Vista (canpt blame her on that) so she wants me to down grade it to XP, I’ll have to check with Dell to see if I can with that model (I assume yes but the paranoid in me want to check anyway).
4 Comments
June 15th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
(New)
Wife and kids are off to Russia.
House aleady seems too big.
Even little sounds seem magnified.
Like the ice maker sounds like a giant walking through a mine field.
Hopefully when they come back, I’ll have a job, Xavier will be walking, Sergey will be potty trained, and Damien will be more social with his brothers.
7 Comments
May 21st, 2009 at 11:42 am
(Tech Talk)
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services – measuring and improving performance
§ Optimize your report queries. Usually the bulk of report execution time is spent executing queries and retrieving results. If you are using SQL Server, tools such as Query Analyzer and Profiler can help you optimize your queries and Database Tuning Advisor can suggest better indexes for your database.
§ Measure: The Report Server ExecutionLog table contains data on reports performance. The following query can give you a quick look at how long it took to execute certain reports, and where the bulk of the time was spent. TimeDataRetrieval contains the number of ms. spent getting data from the report’s data source(s).
use ReportServer
Select * from ExecutionLog with (nolock) order by TimeStart DESC
Make sure to include the “nolock” hint. The ExecutionLog table is used by the RS runtime and locking it can severely degrade your server’s performance.
A better solution is to run the DTS package that comes with Reporting Services. It will move data out of the runtime tables into a set of reporting tables. That way you are minimizing the amount of interference with the RS runtime. You can also take advantage of the built-in reports based on the execution logs, and/or build your own reports.
§ If you don’t need data in your report, don’t retrieve it. Levering database operations such as filtering, grouping, and aggregates can reduce the amount of data that is processed in the report, improving performance.
§ Keep your reports modest in size and complexity. Do users really want to look at a 1,000 page report?
§ If performance is extremely bad even for single users, check the Application Restarts counter in the ASP.NET category; some antivirus software is known to “touch” configuration files, thus causing expansive Application Domain restarts in the report server web service. For more information, search http://support.microsoft.com/ for articles relating to “antivirus and ASP.NET”.
§ If performance is slow on the first web service access after there have not been any accesses for a certain time period, disable the idle timeout on the Performance tab in the Application Pool in IIS Manager.
§ Execute reports from cached / snapshot data as opposed to live whenever possible.
§ Limit non-essential background processing to off-peak hours in order to avoid contention with on-line users.
§ If you load your report server up with 4GB memory, remember to set the /3GB switch in C:\boot.ini so application processes can make use of it.
§ If a single server can’t handle the workload, consider locating the Reporting Services catalog on a remote SQL Server instance as your first step toward increasing system capacity.
§ If one report server configured with a remote catalog still doesn’t adequately support your workload, consider increasing the available resources on the system hosting your report server (scale-up) or setting up a clustered web farm of report servers (scale-out).
From:
http://blogs.msdn.com/tudortr/archive/2004/06/28/167969.aspx
1 Comment
May 14th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
(New, work)
Well I have not gotten a job yet, but I am still looking.
For a moment I thought that IBM was opening up a datacenter in Milwaukee, because of all the IBM jobs that came up from a job search. After looking into each of them, all of them required relocation to Indiana. So I guess the new Milwaukee data center will be in Indiana.
Oh well I have widened my scope to as far West as Madison.
5 Comments
May 13th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
(My Kids, New)
Kids are well, Damien has improved from the 1% to 16%, in the last year, so that is great, and he wil be starting kindergarden on time, but with some special helpers from time to time.
Sergey is in the terrible twos, for example: this morning I asked what he wanted to wear, and that started an arguement.
Me: What do you want to wear?
Sergey: Pumkin suit.
Me: OK, pumpkin suit.
Sergey: No I don’t want to wear the pumpkin suit.
Me: OK what do you want to wear?
Segey: I want to wear the devil suit.
Me: OK, devil suit.
Sergey: No I don’t want to wear the devil suit.
Me: OK what do you want to wear?
Segey: I want to wear the pumpkin suit.
etc…
Xavier is doing well, and is a very good baby.
2 Comments
February 24th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
(New, Uncategorized, work)
Well I had another interview with the same company.
This would be the forth interview, but the first one that was in person.
So I figured that I only have one first impression, so I put on slacks, and then a white shirt (sans the colorful under shirts I like), and then a tie, and then suit coat, and then nice shoes. The shoes were skuffed, and I thought “only one time to make a first impression”, so I got out the polish kit. I didn’t want to redo my wardrobe, so I didn’t take it off, just polished extra careful. To top it off I wore my great coat, good thing I shaved and showered.
I arrived early, had all the info on me to fill in the paperwork, and some time to go over my resume.
Then the interviews started, I was supposed to have one with HR, one with the CEO, and a Tech interview.
Change of plans, it was to be one interview with me sitting opposite four people, HR, CFO, CEO, CIO, and the COD (chief operating dog).
Well I wasn’t about to say no, to the firing squad, or the dog, but since they all had copies of my resume, I pulled out mine, and my dote book, and wrote their names down as they introduced themselves. I got mentally ready as best I could and kept myself as colm and positive as possible.
The first question was a multi part question from the CIO which covered Networks, Exchange Email, and User Accounts. I was interupted 5 times during that questoin, and it took me over 5 minuets to finish, answering evern part and filling in all the details for each interruption. After that I was parched and got a Mt. Dew, and it was all smooth sailing from there. and one point I asked the CFO if she had a question becuase, I hadn’t heard from her in a bit. It lasted two hours, but we would have all spent more time, if none of us had other things to do.
At the end it was me and the HR guy and I asked him how he thought it went. He said I look like a good fit for the company personality wise, but they were not sure where to put me.
Still waiting on a call back, but hope to hear from them soon.
When I went to pick up the boys, it actauly took a few seconds for them to recognize me, because they are used to seeing me in my winter coat, and Russian hat.
8 Comments
February 4th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
(New)
Well we canceled our Cell phone service with AT&T, since we really didn’t use it that much.
Olya’s phone number was moved over to a new phone and carrier, and my phone is now only a PDA, which is all it was ever good for anyway. As like to say my phone gets great reception in graveyards, but not so well in my home or at work.
It doesn’t help that the battery is going, as even a single call will drop the battery from the green zone to the orange zone.
This is also one of those money saving things that I do while looking for a job. If my new job (what ever it is) wants me to have a cell phone, they will probably provide one, and if they don’t I can always go get one.
2 Comments
January 28th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
(Recipe, Uncategorized)
well in an effort to save money I am trying to make home made pizza.
My basic technique is to steal other peoples recipies, and using them as my own.
Like this guy for example.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jays-Signature-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
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DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
1 Comment