On The Value Added by Middle Folk

It is said that half of advertising is a waste. The problem is deciding which half.

With that in mind, I have compiled a little list of statistics of my job applications to date.

Over the last six months, I have applied for 57 jobs. 30 were advertised through agencies, while 27 were from the company directly.

Of the agency applications, 16 (53%) were acknowledged (ie didn't just vanish into the void) whereas 15 (56%) were acknowledged by companies.

Of the agency applications that were acknowledged, 2 (12.5%) led to further contact. None led to a proper interview.

Of the company applications that were acknowledged, 8 (53%) led to further contact. 5 (30%) led to a proper interview.

Now, I should add that none have actually led to a job offer. Nevertheless, I have to wonder: which half is a waste of time?

Locked Out

The popular employment-oriented social website LinkedIn seems to have a policy of not working with Linux based users. (Ubuntu mainly, although other users have reported difficultes)

I find that any search or edit request causes a freeze. What's been your experience?

More details are provided by a few industrious burrowers here

Update: a solution has been posted. Type in the following command:
sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu 1360
Arcane mumbo-jumbo it may be, but it does work!

Get a Mission Statement!

As part of the preliminaries for a recent job interview, I was given a form with some questions to answer.

Q: What is your personal (ie non-work) mission statement?

A: Life is not a mission statement!

I haven't yet heard whether or not they want to see me again.

[Update: turns out they didn't! I'm a little disappointed but, really, I have difficulty taking people who ask such questions as seriously as they'd like to be. Oh well, to other prospects...]