Looking for a Job

I got an automated email from Tektronix this morning with a list of half a dozen software engineering positions. When I checked on them, they were all in Singapore or Bangalore (India). The last time this happened, I went to their website and set my preferences to let them know I was only interested in jobs in the US. That worked for a bit. The last few emails I received listed jobs in Richardson, Texas. I am not interested in moving to Texas, at least not this week. But now we are back to China and India. Does not speak well for Tek's competence.

I applied for a bunch of jobs on Intel's website over the last month or so. I haven't heard diddly from them, not that I really expected to. A week or so ago I was looking on craigslist for jobs, and I found one from Intel. I thought this was a little odd, so I went ahead and sent them an email. I figured the ad was placed by a manager who was fed up with dealing with their internal HR department. Turns out it was placed by the HR department. I should have known better to than to think Intel would allow someone with an independent streak to exercise any initiative.

I had three phone interviews with outfits in Seattle last week. Two were for contracting jobs with Microsoft in Redmond. That was a little weird: interviewing with my arch-nemesis. I was kind of pumped about it for a while. My daughter starts at the University of Washington in the Fall and they charge an eighteen thousand dollar annual premium for non-residents. For that kind of money, I could move to Washington and establish residence there. Even become a micro-serf.

Looking at the ads, I see the same positions coming up over and over. Sometimes they are just a couple of weeks old, but reposted with new dates to make them look fresh. Sometimes they are several months old. Maybe they hired someone and they didn't work out.

Some of these job requirements are quite absurd. I see ads for people who are expert in that companies exclusive technology. The only people who are going to be expert in it are people who have worked there before. If that's what you want, look them up and give them a call. Don't bother the rest of us. I see ads for people who are expert in everything under the sun. Those people don't exist. These are the same ads that you see floating around for months on end. Methinks they don't really want to hire anyone. So why do they post ads? Politics of some sort, I suppose.

Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.