alexbowman

Install 9 screens with at least 3 non interfacing systems on your desk which spans 2m one way and 3m the other or more, L shaped. Ensure your job, several times per day, involves having to stand up and walk to stakeholders 10s or 100s of meters away then verbally face-off rather than passively email. That should be healthy...

>Given that you pay for the server in advance, a VPS is essentially zero risk for them.

It is not zero risk, the risk is quite high. A credit card company may reverse a transaction reported as fraudulent unless they perceived the fraud report was incorrect / steps had not been taken to prevent fraudulent card use. Web servers are good resources for uses which are often funded by fraud.

Something this article doesn't mention, is identifying the success of an individual in the culture of the organisation they've applying for. Roles and job descriptions change, in startups and MNCs alike. Sure, do technical evaluations, but explicitly, do not assume:

1. An analysis of factors which make someone in your organisation successful, and be critical, an example in being critical may be 'manage explicitly conflicting goals' 2. Map candidates both to the 'now' of what is needed, and the factors of success needed in your organisation short medium and long term.

It is quite easy to find great people through technical questions. It is bad for all when great people don't fit. This is not behavioural interviewing stuff or psychological surveys, simply match proven success and/or evidenced motivation.

CVs are usually emailed and then printed on the office printer, so thicker paper may be redundant.

What is incredibly useful is understanding how those in a hiring organization read CVs, what they expect, and what they assume.

In terms of format: A lot of organisations, especially larger organisations for roles at more senior levels, output their internal candidate profiles, generated from internal systems, in landscape format. They will print a sent-in portrait document in portrait, but what is internally generated is often in landscape, with one left pane and one right pane. This spreads to computer-based viewing: Widescreen monitors are also becoming common place in offices, while laptop screens also tend towards a widescreen format. Why waste 2 large borders on each side of the page in default Word setup, Word being the default in large organisations.

I've never seen an externally sourced CV in landscape. Food for thought. Creative, or practical?

Also remember that eyesight tends to deteriorate with age. As an applicant, if the interviewer may be older, keep things legible.

On the China point, while wages are lower, there are five factors related to total cost not often discussed.

Average 'fringe' in China, defined as social insurance paid to government, state pension, etc, averages 40% of salary for most employers like factories and BPOs. Total cost of employment per employee in China is more expensive than most of Asia.

Overtime of more than 36 hours per month for each employee is illegal in China, and the court always sides with the employee even on the scrappiest amount of evidence.

China makes up for this with awesome infrastructure reducing logistics costs a lot. Wage costs are only around 15% of total cost of production for a factory like Foxconn.

Some factories do not provide great conditions, but these are mainly small factories with no gloves when handling pollutants, etc. When I mention small factories, I mean a warehouse with wooden tables, anything with plant and scale is monitored closely. Monitored by the public with mobile phone cameras as much as by officials. There is a strong public backlash movement on the Chinese language internet and it is effective.

On glass vs. plastic... China can be incredibly agile especially when dealing with partners that are privately owned properly licensed companies which lack global levels of bureaucracy. Today, in my global multinational, I was requested for 3 directors' 'approvals' for the acquisition of 3 new IP phone sets, while another request which goes through another route which, for 50 desktop units and 100 screens, did not require any 'approval'. Do not discount baggage slowing things down.

I agree completely. And a suggestion on Marcelo's style - to identify someone listening is important. This is a general point applicable here and other situations: listen.

Asd open ended questions without framing them or signalling one's own intentions. Let an individual express themselves, do not focus on technical details which can be learnt quickly but success factors in the hiring organisation, and let the candidate express their own experiences and motivations, then after the interview / informal chat match them against one's own organisation's characteristics.

This is something that can and should be done across all organisation types. De-focus on immediate need - that's a contractor, or specialist in an unchanging position - focus on the longer term fit of the individual and the hiring organisation.

Could a flow chart me made, from payment request / initialisation through receipt of funds? The verbal part creates a lot of question marks.

Hello economist. Jack of all trades here. I agree it seems like a one-sided piece. But. Apple can very clearly know what happens in its vendors, it simply has to look in a very clever way. It has to run a very black black ops. Most multinationals don't do this, they take the word of these vendors literally.

A simple metric: ask the senior management questions that have clear quantified answers. If they, or if anyone reading this that has an outsourced operation, cannot answer that, then outsourcing is being done either badly or astoundingly badly.

Imperial College Joint Maths Computing first year was Haskell, Turing, Fortran, Mathematica. And was undocumented - no books, had to turn up to the lecture and scribble.

That was 1997, I have no idea what's done there now.

I do think its admirable to push your boundaries. The article and some comments here recognize that greater interest is more valuable to employers than specific experience, less of a China thing, more that you've done it. But, if you're interested in China:

I've lived and worked in China for 5 years and wanted to make a few more points:

* It is hard to get in touch with the key company person for intern opportunities;

* Even if you do, it might be the first such approach they've ever had;

* Outside the largest companies with formal intern programs there may be intern programs (and may not), but in partnership with local schools or other feeder companies;

* Global companies tend to have global intern programs with limited local admission.

That is by no means not a reason not to have a go applying. If anything, if you can break through those barriers you're already a long way there.

Bear in mind the following:

* Companies are going to ask themselves "What's in it for me?"

* They might panic about visas, especially the headache of applying for a short term working visa;

* They'll need some very strong persuasion you're committed, will avoid significant culture shock, will not simply run away, and as sponsor of your visa will not damage their reputation;

* Cowboy language schools mascaraed as intern opportunities, beware.

An additional: The article doesn't state explicitly, but the consultant company, CRCC Asia, mentioned as internship intermediator, organizes internships for a fee. That does mitigate much of the above - both effort and reward in my view. Link to their fee page: http://www.crccasia.com/internships/prices-dates

Edit: Lines initially did not break

>> I have family who are on 2GB plans for $50/mo, and they regard that as fairly good.

> Eg, I get 30Gb/month on Internode for $40. (I live in Australia)

Is one of you talking about bandwidth (and types 2GB instead of 2Gb) and the other talking about data quota?

This is wonderfully hilarious. I seem to keep getting 1 Crore, which is around USD 220,000. Not a bad deal - much more than expected. Off to India for impoverished graduates worldwide!

It is not quite the same as the old Motley Fool as it focuses on Global Macro only, but there is Macro Man. Now written by Team Macro Man, a group of macro people that work in London (perhaps elsewhere for a variety of investment banks, former investment banks and/or hedge funds. I highly recommend it; not quite the same but of the same gist.

http://macro-man.blogspot.com is their URL.

Main page stated there was a comment, but that comment is now not here. Spam, deleted, or other?

There is also no one, single China. Thinking about my time here and what I've observed, let me share what I've found a Firefox user in China is probably like.

Firefox users have much in common with GMail users. They're often involved in IT related industries, or at least higher technology industries. They choose Firefox as they value a higher quality browser, like they choose GMail for a more trusted email solution with a greater feature set. They often speak English at work. They don't run Linux, that's far more niche. They're probably post-25 - not that Firefox/GMail is an older thing, but it is a self-discovered/word-of-mouth thing. They're technology influencers and are probably interesting in owning an iPhone for the feature set rather than the fashion statement. Many would probably also be interested in Android opposed to the bulk of China which may not have not heard of it (yet - wait for the Baidu edition). They're white-collar professionals. They might wear dockers and shirts to work, maybe a jersey in colder weather, maybe jeans. They probably don't primarily consume English/Western media but they might not be wholesale consumers of mainstream Chinese media; a critical eye would be thrown on some discussions, especially post-Sichuan earthquake and revelations, and Sanlu and other food crises. They might not use QQ (a popular MSN/ICQ like IM program), which really is saying something in China. They might have once used Twitter, but don't seek to 'jump the wall'.

In short, they're savvy, sophisticated consumers. But as mentioned in the article, the 'Internet experience' in China is quite different from the West, and convergence shouldn't be assumed. I look forward to the next post.

Bloomberg have somewhat offered this service.

One lucky enough to have a Bloomberg terminal (providing financial news and information services) have access to a helpdesk built into the software via the messaging system (to query data, news, etc). This helpdesk has had huge appeal in other areas - booking restaurants, book recommendations, ideas for things to do on holiday - for many many years.

When paying at least $15k/year for such a terminal (often much more), and a client often having hundreds installed, if not thousands, it is a beautiful example of going a little extra for a lot of goodwill.

AliPay is one to maybe watch. The leader in China they have announced plans to expand internationally.