Mainframer's Oath: "I Will Eliminate More Code Than I Create"

This applies to C# development too, but it's an artifact of a previous life as a mainframe assembly programmer: good coders eliminate more code than they create. 

We mainframers used to get paid a lot of money to add features to a complex system.  Like once I got a big contract to make an airline fare calculation system do something called "add-ons".  Add-ons were additional fares that you could sell to a customer that was already purchasing a ticket.  For example, if you fly from Chicago to London, the client wanted us to make available a special set of fares exclusively for extending that itinerary to Toulouse.  

I merrily started coding this only to realize how much old, bad code surrounded and interacted with my module.   Benefiting from a generous hourly rate and an understanding client, I got permission to go through and clean up the surrounding code which mostly involved deleting a lot of code that previous programmers had created when they were trying to quickly add features or fix bugs without looking at the overall code structure.

Executive Search Firm Finds the Pearls with Matching Engine

This has been the summer of search and candidate matching for me.  We went out visiting clients and studied how they used our software.  One thing that came up quickly and repeatedly was that any incremental improvement in search translated quickly into increased direct hire revenue and margins.  We went back to the developers and fast-tracked improvements in our candidate matching engine.  This press release - you see it here first - tells some of the story.

 

ST. PAUL, MINN. (August 28, 2008)– For Houston-based executive search firm, The Daniel Group, priority number one is finding the absolute best match for its clients and candidates. Earlier this summer when TempWorks Software introduced its next-generation candidate matching search engine, the Daniel Group was quick to jump on board.

TempWork’s unique matching engine culls through thousands of candidate records, simultaneously finding and ranking candidates using a Microsoft® certified profiling system.  Unlike most job board systems that force recruiters to sift through thousands of matches based on crude keyword based search engines, TempWorks uses a more contextual matching system which probes the candidate profiles and finds the best fit without relying solely on keywords.

When the TempWorks system is in place a recruiter can easily go to the top three, instead of spending hours sifting through candidates. “The TempWorks matching engine stands out by making location and profile search criteria work together tightly to make the absolute best possible match for our client,” says Stephanie Garcia, a Recruitment Specialist for The Daniel Group.

It’s not just the contextual matching that gives The Daniel Group the edge.  TempWorks CEO Gregg Dourgarian points out that in the bigger metro areas like Houston, it’s critical to simultaneously combine profile matching with location and availability.  “There is no point in returning thousands of keyword matches,” says Dourgarian.  “There’s no time for that.  Our client needs the top three to five people who not only have the profile but also the availability and location necessary to do the job.”

"Honey, You Have Boyfriend?"

Just south of downtown Minneapolis a neighborhood of Mexican and Vietnamese shops bring a diversity you just don't expect of the Twin Cities.  I love the mix of sounds you can hear, and the restaurants offer great food and service.  Quangs restaurant stands out as a great family owned restaurant.   In this clip Anjelah Johnson, a native of Mexico, brings some comic relief to this interesting mix of English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

 

Hat tip to William Tincup www.jpie.com.

Human Capital Website of the Week

J. William Tincup keeps a ping-pong table in his HR marketing offices and speaks his mind about how much money gets wasted on garbage marketing:

 

We just got tired of producing crap. You know the stuff I’m talking about–the countless ads in trade pubs featuring dudes in suits standing on chairs artfully poised on beaches, hands shading their eyes as they scan the horizon, pregnant with wisdom and acuity. The postcard with chess pieces. The multi-colored-puzzle-piece logo. The sexy-business-girl-wearing-glasses-because-she’s-smart chatting it up with VIPs on her cell phone. Seriously–you do that stuff long enough and a little piece of you dies. One day you just wake up naked in your front yard, beer cans scattered like shrapnel, dog licking your face–a sharp sense of regret and a dull memory of the last gig you played with your crappy college rock band. Is it hot in here? As an industry, marketers are like Ryan Seacrest–we’ll do anything for a buck. If the client says, “Make it green with some smart people,” we say, “How high?” Get my drift? We made a mistake because we dropped out of the rat race.  We made a pledge to ourselves and to our clients that we would no longer settle for status quo. We made it our mission to innovate marketing in this space.  We carefully constructed a model for helping our clients create the right marketing strategies, and then for helping them implement and execute. We went through a very painful process of trying to get to the bottom of the biggest constraints for marketing in this space, and then we methodically set about creating a sustainable solution for each constraint.

The Necessary Disposition of a Staffing Sales Star

Social Networks Waste Massive Amounts of Time at Work

 

Don't Trust Anyone During the Credit Crunch

 

Yes, even your bank is susceptible as the current credit crunch enters its second year.  Staffing companies especially need to stay on guard.  It's not just from the remote possibility of a bank failure - a loan cancellation or just plain deterioration of service happen when a provider cuts back.