How to ride out the tough times

Posted to The Age (29/9/2011) on 29/9/2011 at 12:53 PM
Commenting on "How to ride out the tough times"
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enterprise/how-to-ride-out-the-tough-times-20110929-1ky7j.html

Have you ever got reply from job application? If so, what's the hit rate? Have you been told you are over-qualified? Having diverse qualification can be viewed as Jack of all trades and master of none; but there are always exceptions. I have been training and advising trainees how to tackle problems, until I realise in the real world, many textbook techniques don't work. Self confidence is good when one is competing in good times, but it soon gets eroded when every technique has been tried and failed. Age is definitely a barrier as long as young interviewers are doing the interviewing, whether from the organisation or employment agency. Most companies can be more efficiently run if the aged but experienced people are given a chance. By the way, I am a victim, but fortunately I can hang up my boots today. I don't want to waste my useful brain cells if I am given the opportunity.

Australia should screw China - Donald Trump

Posted to Herald Sun (22/9/2011) on 22/9/2011 at 3:31 AM
Commenting on “Australia should screw China - Donald Trump”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/australia-should-screw-china-says-donald-trump/story-fn7j19iv-1226142979625

Time must be tough even for Trump. "He arrived on a commercial flight on early yesterday, leaving his own $100 million Boeing 757 back at home."

He advised Australia to "screw" China by raising its commodity prices, which in short, he is saying to the audience that he is screwing them to line his pocket.

I don't quite get the statement that "... you're selling them all sorts of s***." Who are the "them" - the Americans or the Chinese? If it implies Americans, then he is one of them we Australians have been selling s*** to. If it implies Chinese, then he should be paying us, the Australians, to teach him a trick or two in negotiation.

Trump’s mouth is as big as the pothole in the street after a heavy downpour! I can’t tolerate his sense of humour!

Contractors at state's IT agency bringing home a Premier salary

Posted to The Age (7/9/2011) on 7/9/2011 at 11:00 AM
Commenting on "Contractors at state's IT agency bringing home a Premier salary"
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/contractors-at-states-it-agency-bringing-home-a-premier-salary-20110906-1jvx9.html

It is usually about whom you know, not what you know, and also about the best crap one can tell in their CV and at interview that gets the job.

Charging on hourly basis is a joke; if a bug is detected in a system, a contractor can say they have spent 100 hours to fix it but in fact only taken 10 minutes. To be more pedantic, if the software bug was "coded" in the system due to carelessness by a contractor, present or past, who pays for fixing it? Obviously, present contractor can do no wrong, can they? Even Sherlock Holmes can't help in finding the culprit.

By the way, where are these contractors from and where are they graduated? Do they have proper, formal training and qualification? An ox in a Chinese rice field has years of leg-on experience in ploughing land, but an efficient machine can turn the soil in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

Who normal ripped off the organisation? The ones that can play politics in the IT department, who do not necessarily know much about IT, do. Like what Parkinson's Law say, "they have been promoted to their incompetence".

Often Western countries (including Australia) point fingers at the Asian countries about existence of prevalent corruption. It is about time Australia needs a few more "Clean Up Australia" days.