As for your other point, certain companies are not looking for technology or language specific individuals. They’re looking for individuals that can adapt, and not those who have all the theoretical knowledge in the world but have trouble writing simple algos or pseudo codes. The reason companies ask mathematical and IQ related questions is to gauge how quickly an individual can solve simple but not straightforward questions and then judge as to whether that person will be suitable for their company. Our belief is that strong mathematical skills are very important to become a good programmer with solid logic building skills. It is a practice that has worked well for us. For us, hiring a programmer isn’t just about how much in-depth knowledge that person has of a particular tool, we look for individuals who can be given a problem at that very moment, and they can work their way around it, as there are no guarantees of which tool that person will be assigned to work in. Any expertise that individual brings beyond that is a bonus and is kept in mind when formulating teams.

So as fun project we just created a small site http://www.PingMyCompany.com for people to share their opinion about firms. Its more like a fun version of theFunded.com for companies.

we do not write for profit, fame or recognition (okay, a little fame is always nice but still!). and we’re not journalists. while we will always try to uphold the ethics of professional journalism even while on this blog, and present both sides of a story as well as other stories of interest, this is not our career and we cannot be held accountable for ‘missing out’ a certain story.

lastly, please do mail in your comments, new story suggestions of even guest posts if you feel like it and i’m sure we would give it due consideration.

Boss! I am really impressed and appreciate your so professional but kind approach, hope other organizations must be reading it and learn something from it.

“Ah and what do you know – Mansoor just published a story just like you were looking for.”

It looks better if you write
“Ah and you know what!” just kidding (but good to be intimate)

“The constructive way of doing these things is to email us with a “Can you please cover this topic?” or with news from the ground so that we can cover it. ”

I will certainly do that from now on Inshallah!

“Remember – you all need to be my field reporter so that it can benefit everyone here.”

You got me, no doubt about that and will be there when come up with something new.

Usually what we should be hearing isnt what we WANT to hear to feel good – thats why learning, growing, moving ahead, evolving, maturing is hard – it often goes against what we want.

We’ll cover objective stories whenever they are reported from the front-lines.

The constructive way of doing these things is to email us with a “Can you please cover this topic?” or with news from the ground so that we can cover it.

Remember – you all need to be my field reporter so that it can benefit everyone here.

Thanks for this better worded comment.

We have covered the types of things you are talking about in the past, please read these:

http://greenwhite.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/why-people-are-afraid-of-becoming-coders-and-what-companies-need-to-do-about-it/

http://greenwhite.org/2007/08/10/rumor-dps-lays-off-130-people-at-1-hour-notice/

Our role is to raise awareness wherever it may make a difference.

However, in addition our role is also to help EVERYONE prepare for the modern world. E.g. take a look at all these posts Mansoor is doing about process improvement… this is meant for companies to grow up, not for startups or employees.

But we also need to talk about how layoffs are a natural part of business and it doesnt make a firm “evil” – this is meant for employees to grow up, not startups or companies.

This is just 50 people even large companies like Yahoo and AOL and others have had times when they had to lay off 3000+ employees, close down departments, reshift focus in order to keep competitive in a ever-growing competitive playing field.

The truth is that while in the short term this unfairly affects the employees, in the long term it gives those employees a chance to use their skills and experience at those firms to start companies with unique advantages for success.

Yeh, you are rite that I sounded harsh and its not a norm to ask this way. But let me get back to you how I found this blog and added it to my feeds. It was so many times here that Osama and Qazi always inspired how an employee should be more professional etc etc. Even in one post they suggested that Organizations should have a network so that they get previous employeer’s views about new hirings. I always waited for a post here that would say…
“IT startups and entrepreneurs if you want this business to be running and stabilizing, respect and reward your IT talent in this way, that way etc ”
So what do you think, how should I point them to such events, considering that I am not a startup or an entrepreneure but a software engineer? So let me ask it again, is this blog about startups and organizations only or we too are welcome here? Or should I just remove it from my feed readers, coz it got nothing for me?