Lone Coder Blog - A Lone Coder in a Big Pond

[Ken Burtch]

On Wed, 2006-06-21 at 10:45 -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Alex Beamish wrote:
> 
> > On 6/17/06, *Ken Burtch* <kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org 
> > <mailto:kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>> wrote:
> >
> >     This month I talk about dealing with depression if you are a
> >     programmer.
> >
> Hi Ken,
> 
> I don't think what you've gone through is in any way restricted to the 
> IT field. I also have a few comments about what you said, and about 
> Alex's response.
> 
> >     "In 2005, I went for a job interview at a company in Niagara area
> >     which manufacturers equipment for dentists. The receptionist said
> >     I was the most polite and pleasant candidate they had interviewed.
> >     I walked into the meeting room to talk with the HR person. With
> >     too much make-up, over-styled hair and flirty-but-fashionable
> >     clothes, she looked like someone who wanted to be a regular on
> >     "Sex in the City". "Our company," she said, "has offices in major
> >     American cities." You could almost hear her add, "And I won't be
> >     stuck in this backwater dump for long." She looked me
> >     over--overweight, glasses and balding--and immediately turned
> >     cold. I wasn't one of those handsome TV guys. I was a computer
> >     geek applying for a computer geek job. Interviewing me didn't fit
> >     with her plans for becoming Somebody..."
> >
> I have to say that the irony in the above paragraph floored me. You're 
> complaining about the superficiality and lack of depth of the HR people, 
> yet you above have been more than generous with your own negative 
> stereotypes and assumptions.
> 
> She sized you up and you sized her up, and the interview went downhill 
> from there. If your attitude in the interview reflected your first 
> impressions as stated above, you may have subtly come across as 
> disinterested as you said she was.

I never said that I treated her differently because of her attitude or
appearance...why are you saying that I did?  Are you saying that all
people are prejudiced?

> This is, of course, not to say that your Niagara HR person _wasn't_ 
> incompetent -- but it was hard to say from your description if that was 
> the case. Since you seemed so disgusted with the way she looked and 
> acted, why complain when the favour is returned?

Thank you, Evan.  You're ability to colour things to your own opinion is
most impressive. ;-)  When you want to comment on what I said instead of
making stuff up, let me know.

KB

> - Evan
> 
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Ken O. Burtch                                     Phone: 905-562-0848
Author "Linux Shell Scripting with Bash"            Fax: 905-562-0848
http://www.pegasoft.ca                            Email: ken-8VyUGRzHQ8IsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
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Caution: Comments may be less negative than they appear.

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The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
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