MetaFilter posts tagged with jobs

Being the Adventures of Two Young Engineers in Silicon Valley, c. 1976

logicpunk — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:57:53 -0800

Patrick Farley of Electric Sheep Comix (previously, 2 , 3, 4, 5) has a new series featuring a young Steve Wozniak and a young Steve Jobs: Steve & Steve

A priest, a dominatrix and a brain surgeon walk into a bar

hoyland — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 06:35:53 -0800

Fifteen people summarise their jobs

It gets even worse if you borrow the money

Brian B. — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 15:21:47 -0800

ABC News issues a "Made in America" Christmas challenge. The average American will spend $700 on holiday gifts and goodies this year, totaling more than $465 billion, the National Retail Federation estimates. If that money was spent entirely on US made products it would create 4.6 million jobs. But it doesn't even have to be that big. If each of us spent just $64 on American made goods during our holiday shopping, the result would be 200,000 new jobs. The Christian Science Monitor: The way Christmas shopping affects the economy is best seen by examining 24 categories of consumer goods where reliable data from the US Census Bureau can be found. For all of 2009, Americans consumed just over $143 billion worth of these consumer products. Nearly 80 percent came from abroad, and nearly 45 percent were produced in China alone. In 2010, these purchases rose to just under $158 billion, with slightly higher percentages of goods imported from abroad and China. (The figures cited would be even higher if the Census data for consumer electronics products were included, but that data contain too many internal contradictions to be reliable.) Forbes Magazine: Apple’s iPhone is an interesting example. In 2009, iPhones contributed about $2 billion, equivalent to 0.8% of the Sino-U.S. bilateral trade deficit. One iPhone 3GS was sold for about $600. These phones were exclusively manufactured by Foxconn, a factory in a Southern Chinese city called Shenzhen. To produce them, Foxconn had to import $10.75 worth of parts from American companies. The rest of its $172.46 components came from Korea, Japan, Germany, and elsewhere. Out of a $600 iPhone, how much does China get? A puny $6.50, or 1% of the value. Apple makes vastly more. Combining with other American companies making parts, America receives close to 70% of the value.... China makes it possible for those companies to reward their shareholders handsomely and to provide thousands of high paying jobs in America.

The Chem Coach Carnival

Orange Pamplemousse — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:24:49 -0800

What do chemists do in a "work day"? What kind of schooling do they have? How does chemistry inform their work? Do chemists have any funny stories to tell? Last week chemist See Are Ohh* was wondering what a chemistry life coach would look like. So, he started a blog carnival in honour of Mole day, with fifty-nine chemists chiming in to share their experiences and offer advice to budding scientists. Announcement, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Wrapup. *CRO, contract research organization.

"...how great it could still be.”

zarq — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:30:04 -0800

"Is she O.K.?" a customer asks.
"My mom?" asks Kristy, the waitress.
"Yes," the customer replies.
"No."

Since Sunday, the front page of the New York Times has been featuring a portrait in five parts of Elyria, Ohio (pop: 55,000), seen mostly through the lens of a local diner. (Second link is to a full multimedia feature, but direct links to the five individual articles can be found within.) Part 1: Donna's Diner: At The Corner of Hope and Worry Part 2: Elyrian Landscape: New Mayor, Big To-Do List Part 3: Elyria Then, Elyria Now: After a Childhood Pouring Refills, Reaching Beyond the Past Part 4: Never-Ending Conversation: In the Hard Fall of a Favorite Son, A Reminder of a City's Scars Part 5: Resilient Reinvention: With a New Menu and a Makeover, A Promise to Keep Going (Published today.) The author's article archive: Dan Barry. His column was the subject of a MeFi post in 2007. Elyria's official site. The Times Ombudsman weighs in: The “Donna’s Diner” articles, which have been featured on the front page since Sunday, are quiet, clear-eyed and thoughtful. They make no violent assertions. They merely offer a window into the way many Americans live today in parts of the country that get little attention, except as places where swing-state voters remain undecided. The stories offer that window through skillful storytelling about good people who are struggling to get by. The series is, indisputably, very long. Its opening piece last Sunday was 4,000 words — beginning on the front page under an inviting headline, “At the Corner of Hope and Worry,” and continuing to two full pages inside. I wondered, for a moment, if I had misunderstood. Five parts about a diner in Ohio? A total of almost 14,000 words?
A response from someone who grew up in the town: Where I Come From How does the town feel about the profile? Poynter is hosting a live chat at 2pm ET today with Dan Barry for a "behind-the-scenes look at the Elyria series."

How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career

shivohum — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:58:52 -0800

How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career (PDF) (non-PDF version requires free registration): Conventional career change methods...are all part of what I call the “plan and implement” model of change. It goes like this: First, determine with as much clarity and certainty as possible what you really want to do. Next, use that knowledge to identify jobs or fields in which your passions can be coupled with your skills and experience. Seek advice from the people who know you best and from professionals in tune with the market. Then simply implement the resulting action steps. Change is seen as a one-shot deal: The plan-and-implement approach cautions us against making a move before we know exactly where we are going. It all sounds reasonable, and it is a reassuring way to proceed. Yet my research suggests that proceeding this way will lead to the most disastrous of results, which is to say no result. (by Herminia Ibarra, who expands on these ideas in her book Working Identity)

Ioctl

Ad hominem — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:38:58 -0800

The TTY Demystified. History of the TTY and interrelationships of modern TTYs,Jobs and SIGs.

The limit does not exist

Hypnotic Chick — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:15:00 -0800

The complete guide to America's jobs crisis and the failure of monetary policy using animated gifs

Get a Job

ChrisR — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:43:32 -0800

Just how many applications does a company recruiting on Craigslist have to wade through? It turns out that in 24 hours, for a basic full time job with benefits, the answer can be as high as 653.

What advice would you give a Deaf/Hard of Hearing person who is looking for a job, career, or calling like yours?

desjardins — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:15:04 -0800

This website aims to show the wide variety of jobs, careers and callings that deaf and hard of hearing adults are pursuing each day. Interviews with and biographies of deaf and hard of hearing people at work, some of them in careers you might not expect, like a firefighter, a veterinarian, and a comedian.

"Man is made for something better than distributing dirt."

byanyothername — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:28:47 -0800

"It's the 21ist century--why are we working so much?" In which Owen Hatherley exhumes the humiliated, expired idea that the reduction of work is a worthwhile goal. "If there's one thing practically all futurologists once agreed on, it's that in the 21st century there would be a lot less work. What would they have thought, if they had known that in 2012, the 9-5 working day had in the UK become something more like 7am to 7pm? They would surely have looked around and seen technology take over in many professions which previously needed heavy manpower, they would have looked at the increase in automation and mass production, and wondered – why are they spending 12 hours a day on menial tasks?" "The Politics of Getting a Life." In which Peter Frase explores the ideological underpinnings of our concept of "work." "The furious passion for work is not a constant of human nature but rather something that must be constantly reinforced, and successive versions of the work ethic have been used to stoke that passion. At the dawn of capitalism, the call to work was a call to salvation, as Weeks explains in her reading of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. She recognizes that, far from providing an idealist alternative to Marx’s account of the rise of capitalism, Weber complements historical materialism by describing the construction of a working class ideology. The word is used in Althusser’s sense: “the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.” The Protestant ethic allowed workers to imagine that when they worked for the profit of the boss, they were really working for their salvation, and for the glory of God." Both essays reference Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man under Socialism. All three are discussed (and pilfered from) Ran Prieur, who frequently muses on the coercion of work and the value of idleness. Related: Anti -work.

anyone who goes into science expecting employers to clamor for their services will be deeply disappointed

gerryblog — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 09:38:40 -0800

In the sciences, Ph.D. ≠ job.

Her Majesty Requires a Help Desk Technician

DarlingBri — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:21:39 -0800

The Royal Household is hiring. Apply online now! The Royal Household consists of 1200 full time staff and 350 summer staff, the majority of whom are paid from the Privvy Purse, the Queen's private income. Roles range from IT support jobs to incredible decorative arts internships, and vacancies are advertised online. "Please note that, for the majority of vacancies, we are unable to accept applications from individuals who do not have the right to work in the UK."

TED: Yes to "Drying your Hands," No to "Income Inequality."

blazingunicorn — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:43:15 -0800

"I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small," said über-rich venture capitalist Nick Hanauer in a March 1st TEDx talk, which TED is refusing to put on its website. When asked why, TED curator Chris Anderson stated that "We have a general policy to avoid talks that are overtly partisan, and to avoid talks that have received mediocre audience ratings." Was it overly partisan or mediocre? When Geekwire asked, Hanauer stated that he got a standing ovation. In a discussion on Reddit, user TEDChris, reportedly the TED curator Chris Anderson, states that "The trouble with this talk is that it tackled the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan, framing it as a critique of "an article of faith" for Republicans. TED is avowedly non-partisan. We want to share ideas in a way that brings people together, doesn't throw sand in their faces." The National Journal has posted the full text of the speech here.

I'm sure your victory will be great. Insanely Great.

unliteral — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:32:17 -0800

1944 - Apple's Internal Marketing Video dated 1984 with Steve Jobs as FDR - The backstory.

The Beer Game

gilrain — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:17:48 -0800

Mark Sweep describes an interesting game from his childhood which helps explain why companies move and keep their manufacturing in China.

Life on the Breadline

modernnomad — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 05:34:08 -0800

Welcome to the world of Britain's working poor. The Rowleys belong to a section of society not much mentioned in ministerial and media dispatches. They are neither the very wealthy affected by the 50p tax nor the "squeezed middle" expressing anxiety about child benefit and this week's budget; nor are the Rowleys representative of the long-term unemployed or one of the 120,000 "troubled families" in which the government is investing £448m over the next three years. Crisy and Richard are one among thousands of couples who, without attracting much attention, live daily on a precarious and crumbling financial cliff edge. They are the working poor, frequently self-employed, paying dearly and disproportionately simply because they want to stay in jobs, no matter how low the pay.

"I have difficult news."

These Premises Are Alarmed — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:42:03 -0800

Ira Glass retracts the This American Life episode "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory". Mike Daisey responds. Previously.

Apple's design philosophy

Kattullus — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:07:03 -0800

The idea that the form of a product should correspond to its essence does not simply mean that products should be designed with their intended use in mind. That a knife needs to be sharp so as to cut things is a non-controversial point accepted by most designers. The notion of essence as invoked by Jobs and Ive is more interesting and significant—more intellectually ambitious—because it is linked to the ideal of purity. No matter how trivial the object, there is nothing trivial about the pursuit of perfection. On closer analysis, the testimonies of both Jobs and Ive suggest that they did see essences existing independently of the designer—a position that is hard for a modern secular mind to accept, because it is, if not religious, then, as I say, startlingly Platonic.

— Form and Fortune is an essay about Steve Jobs and Apple's design philosophy by Evgeny Morozov.

How to do what you love.

shivohum — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:42:39 -0800

To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: "Do what you love." But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. From How to do what you love, by essayist (and programmer, and entrepreneur) Paul Graham.

Steve Jobs FBI files

Ad hominem — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:28:00 -0800

Please be advised that the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release regarding (STEVEN PAUL JOBS) is now available.

Take Your Parent To Work Day

freshwater — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:02:32 -0800

"Four percent of respondents reported that a parent actually showed up for the candidate's job interview"

Sacred Economics and Beyond

velvet winter — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:16:51 -0800

"It’s a very ancient idea that the universe runs by the principles of the gift...in fact the purpose for our existence, the reason why we’re here, is to give." Writer Charles Eisenstein speaks on his book Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition.

How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:19:35 -0800

“You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.” Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher of the NY Times give an in-depth report on Apple's migration of electronics manufacturing to Asia and its impact on middle class Americans.

Mr Jobs comes to Lund

mr.marx — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:23:08 -0800

In 1985, Apple started the "Apple University Consortium Europe" collaboration program, and one of the first universities to enroll was that of Lund, Sweden. To celebrate the collaboration, Apple CEO Steve Jobs came to Lund - and a 16 minute film of his visit has now been found and been made available by the University of Lund. You can see the clip here (.mov).