'Dumb & Dumber' Seeks 'Best & Brightest'

Fri Jul 11 12:24:04 PDT 2003

richard childers / kg6hac writes:
[...]
>- People who think version numbers and product names are handed down 
>from On High and are not to be questioned or discussed. (For instance, 
>Solaris 2.8 is now referred to, by Sun salespeople, as "Solaris 8" ... 
>but if you type 'uname -a', it will say "SunOS 5.8". All three are valid 
>names ... but the person you are speaking to might not know that, and 
>definitely isn't inclined to believe you.)

In this case, the fix is easy - use the highest of the numbers.  If
the recruiter hears 2.8 or 5.8 from the client, and your resume says
8, then they can guess that 8 is greater than 2.8 or 5.8 and assume
you qualify.  But if you put 2.8, and the client asks for 8....

[huge snip - lots of great stuff]
>When all is said and done, I think the lesson of the past five years is 
>this: that it is simpler for an engineer to learn business, than it is 
>for a businessman to learn engineering. For this reason, businessmen 
>would do well to beware.

Yes.  And that's just what I've been doing.  It's why I joined
Tupperware - to learn to sell and to run a business without a lot of
capital outlay (and stock my kitchen at a discount in the process).

And it's why I do Bay View Training (http://www.bayview.com/training)
and my Perl 101 class (next one July 26).

>It's not impossible that this collapse may provide the seed for a great 
>number of new, small, aggressive companies to get their toehold on new 
>markets; hopefully, this time around the engineers will have learned 
>enough of the lessons of Machiavelli to remain in the driver's seat.

Hopefully.

>So stay tuned for further developments; and don't lose hope yet.
>
>Keep an eye out for a garage to live in, for the short term, though.    /-:

Yes, but once all the people's savings have been exhausted paying for
real estate, I believe that housing prices will see a "correction."
Hopefully by then, I'll be able to afford to buy a house.

I think the key thing is to keep your head down and learn all you can
about marketing, business, and sales, until things pick up again.

--Bill.

-- 
William R Ward            bill at wards.net          http://www.wards.net/~bill/
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by
 little statesmen and philosophers and divines."        - Emerson