Tag Archives: work

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imagesYou know, that site where people accept each other in their “connections” without ever talking. Where peoples worth is valued on how many connections they have and not on the contents of their profiles. Where the profile feed (or whatever that thing with updates is called) is so full of irrelevant stuff that it’s beyond useless. Where you are constantly talked into upgrading to a pricey monthly fee for no useful extras and where product pages are skewered so badly that I’ve decided to rather not list any more or my products on it than have Linkedin “promote” them.

Groups

The groups I joined, some with several thousand members, are quiet. The few discussions that do pop-up occasionally are about self promoting “I’ve launched this site/product/idea, what do you think?” or are about support/tech related things that belong on a forum for the product/item.

And since everyone does that, I thought; “well that could be useful.” So I’ve put some stuff out there. My recent OmniCard plugin for example. This was last week, so far I got 3 pageviews from Linkedin and Linkedin even imported the wrong url into the post which I couldn’t correct afterwards. So the only reaction on my “discussion” was me, correcting the link. I got a few profile views. But again, nobody clicked my link.

Skills & Reviews

I did get some good reviews from people I’ve worked with or for. But only after Linkedin prompted me to ask for them.
I did get some of my skills endorsed. But only after Linkedin asked others to do so.

Where is the initiative here.

And the other way around, nobody really asked me for a review. But neither do I feel inclined to write any. There is no incentive.
I endorsed a bunch of skills, sometimes I remove a few of them because I know the person doesn’t know shit about that. But I’m sure many just click “endorse” to get rid of the question.

My Profile

I like to think that my profile is fairly complete and more importantly, true. But what’s the point if no one reads it and nobody acts on it. You may as well go to my real profile immediately and skip the Linkedin “experience.” Inmail is not free. But contacting me via my own site is… So why bother with Linkedin.

Luckily I’m in the somewhat “privileged” position that I do not need Linkedin to get me work so the lack of visibility and initiative isn’t a big deal for me. But imagine I would expect to find work, a proper day-job on there. I’d be pretty disappointed.

Product & Business pages

Maybe I’m missing something here other than an intuitive setup. I’ve made a business page on Linkedin a while ago. It looks like crap. It’s bland, boring and doesn’t invite people to contact me. I can’t really see a way to improve that.

Product pages are worse. Take the AdRotate page or Omnicard page for example. The logo… I uploaded a carefully made logo in high resolution. Look what Linkedin did to it. Pixelated and unreadable. And again, it’s a boring bland page which doesn’t invite the viewer to use the product.

Conclusion

With the growing number of people looking for work and the image that Linkedin has where “professionals” find work on there everybody now uses Linkedin. This made Linkedin into the new Facebook. Filled with uselessness and garbage.

And I’m guilty, too. This post goes on the Linkedin feed adding to the fluff. And I have a bunch of people in my connections I never talk to and so on.

A few exceptions aside of course. But overall, Linkedin has been fairly useless for me.

Note: This article is based on my experience with Linkedin and what I hear around me from other people. This article does not necessarily reflect the experience of others.

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That’s right! Tomorrow I’ll be a company owner… Woot!
I’ll be the master of the interwebs and can legally make money with it. That’s a nice improvement.
Lot’s of things to get going and setup but I’m actually excited and more nervous about it then i want to admit.

AJdG Solutions will be my moniker. And I’ve made a website! POW!
Take a look: www.ajdg.net. So far the comments are nice. People seem to like the site and logo. Which is good, i guess, for sure!

So there’s that. But seriously; if you need some help with your WordPress setup, AdRotate plugin or otherwise. As long as it uses PHP/HTML/CSS/MySQL and is not some proprietary thing. I should be able to help you out. This includes, theme and plugin customization or new code, just for you. Say you can’t find a certain plugin. Or your theme lacks that awesome feature. Or, you’re thinking of using WordPress but have no idea how. Get in touch! We should be able to work something out.

I’ll be bringing AdRotate including all of the services I provide for it under the companies wing including some other things I’m working on. You’ll see soon enough. Copyright notices changing and stuff. The plugin stays the same for the foreseeable future.

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So over the past 3 days or so the benefits office tried to contact me. Calling me every time i was in the shower or otherwise away from my phone. Leaving a SMS message every time telling me to call them back. Which i then did only to hear some computer tell me the number was out of service.

But friday she finally was able to get me to pick up the phone and we talked.

“Finally i get a hold of you! I have a job vacancy that suits you!” she told me.
Great…
“What kind of job?”
“Well, do you like developing ats?”
“What are ats?”
“Ats? No apps, applications.”
“oh apps, i heard ATS.”
“No, Uhm, applications. I don’t know exactly. But it includes a training course and the possibility of a job in the end.”

Notice how she said possibility… This doesn’t promise much. Also she doesn’t know specifics about the vacancy? Hmmm…
So i ask her to get some more information but that i am kinda, sorta, interested. If its a programming job within my skillset it might be cool.
She would arrange for that. She just needed my Resume and contact details.

So i tell her;
“I submitted my full resume at your website, including contact details.”
“Ah, uhm, but all i got from you is a note with your name and phone number, i have no access to your profile”
“But you work there, right?”
“Yes, but we don’t get access to profiles of people who seek work.”

Note that this is the benefits office, their sole reason for existing is to get me a job and pay benefits. I’d say it’s crucial they know all about me so they can match the right jobs for me. How can they function like this… Anyway, i promise to send my resume and stuff as soon as possible. Which i do in the next few minutes.

Saturday morning. Email. Some guy from a recruiting bureau confirming my appointment for the job application. Asking/summoning me to his office the next monday.

Wait, what? What appointment? Job application?

Kinda annoyed i mail back that i’m not up for meeting anyone if i don’t know what the meeting will be about. And that i would receive more information about a training course and job. After which i could decide if i wanted to proceed or not.

An hour later i receive an reply that its a paid job, requires no qualifications whatsoever and therefor is very interesting. No mention of a training. If i can confirm I’m coming to his earlier mentioned meeting on monday. Followed by a poorly formatted wall of text vaguely describing a job that sounds an awful lot like tier 1 support and drag-n-drop app building. The companies website confirms that that is their way of making applications.

A programmer function that requires no skills? Nothing? Chuckles!
Dragging preprogrammed widgets into place and call it apps? Laughable!

So i mailed the recruiter thanks but no thanks. That I’m not looking for such low key jobs.
This promises something for when i *actually* get benefits. Which is due to start somewhere next week. If this is how it all works… Ew. I better find something myself, asap!

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Oh yes… MacRepair didn’t work out in the end. So i struck some sort of deal to end my contract early. And i’ve since moved on to Seagate Data Recovery Services. As a Junior Data Recovery Engineer.
Sounds expensive… But, for now i’m just sat there with 5 PC’s moving data between disks while reading a massive book and study thing to learn about harddisks and the actual data recovery. Not so exciting so far. But i’m sure it will get better soon (few months!?).

In any case, the pay is good. Hours are flexible. And well, it’s specialized nerdy stuff so i will enjoy myself. Gotta work with Windows though. Which is a pain. Lots of manual labor, ugly screens and LOTS lots of software hanging and reboots. Mainly because Windows is being dumb or inflexible. But, i’ll try and find a decent way to ignore those annoyances. I hope.