Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Interviewing people is generally challenging

If you haven’t interviewed potential candidates before, you should try it. I think that it’s a lot harder than people think. How do you tell that this person can do the job? It’s hard without a trial run. I have changed my interviewing strategy a few times, asking a series of fundamental programming questions, brains teasers, and pseudo-coding questions. I say that anything that is listed on a resume is fair game to be asked about. Mainly because I don’t believe anything that is on a resume. I like to re-validate the skills again as best that I can. Also, have multiple people interview the person to see if they have similar opinions.

Although I am not up to date with reading “Joel On Software”, this website is pretty good for topics in managing software folks. Look at this article about interviewing.

Tupperware parties but for clothing, I like it!

I heard from an out of town woman about an at-home CAbi party for clothing items. I think that it’s a pretty interesting concept. Imagine a group of women and a pseudo stylist / sales person who helps you pick out clothes. I like it. Bring the shopping to you. The only drawback is that the clothing items are usually from one clothing brand. I wonder if there are any trendy clothing parties in my area. Hmm…

Startupers.com has graphics of a vc-starved startup, but still cool

I ran across this website the other day, Startupers.com.  In an earlier post, I talked about websites delivering very simple features to users.  This is one of those websites.  All you do is post your resume with a tag line.  The website lists all resumes and jobs in chronological order and that’s pretty much it.  I like that the website mainly focuses on the Bay Area for now.  If it did expand to other areas, it will need to figure out how to present resumes/jobs from other geographical locations.  You can even follow the twitters of new job openings.  Excellent!  For those already at startups, check out nominate your startup employee of the month.  I don’t know what the employee gets, but at least there’s some free advertising for your company.   The folks at Startupers.com are very friendly and I wish them the best of luck.  Check it out!

Safari West could use some lean consumption

Last weekend, I booked a three hour safari tour at Safari West in Santa Rosa. The tour was part walking and part vehicle ride. We saw giraffes, cheetahs, birds, and a bunch of antelopes. It was nice to try it once, but I probably won’t go back.

From an operational standpoint, I suggest a few lean consumption improvements for Safari West. When we arrived at the office the check-in was fast. They did a good job there. Then we walked over to the vehicle area. There was a guy going down the list of people and assigning the vehicles manually, scanning the list up and down, up and down. After four to five tour group assignments, I started to notice the trend. He was assigning large groups first. Fifteen minutes passed and there were only adult couples left over to be assigned. How sad I know. Imagine if there was a single mom with a child.

In this particular case, Safari West probably should have pre-assigned tour groups ahead of time. During the vehicle tour, it would have been nice to have automatic gates instead of manual gates. The tour guide had to completely stop the car at least six times to open the gate, drive through, then close the gate. Lastly, in one open field, the tour guide had trouble finding the animals. I don’t want to outrage the animal community, but how about using RFID or GPS chips. Each vehicle should be equipped with screen that has an aerial view of the land, so that it’s easier to identify the animals. Anyhow, just a few suggestions to optimize customers’ times.

From Wikipedia:

Principles of Lean Consumption
* Solve the customer’s problem completely by insuring that all the goods and services work, and work together.
* Don’t waste the customer’s time.
* Provide exactly what the customer wants.
* Provide what’s wanted exactly where it’s wanted.
* Provide what’s wanted where it’s wanted exactly when it’s wanted.
* Continually aggregate solutions to reduce the customer’s time and hassle.

Methodology
* Identify and improve activities that create and add value for the customer.
* Determine what processes are necessary to deliver that value.
* Cut down on activities that do not add value.
* Deliver products precisely when the customer requires them.
* Improve and streamline these processes continuously.

Zappos.com pays new hires to leave

An article on BNET talked about Zappos.com (online shoe website) and its onboarding (of new hires) process.  After a week of training, a new hire can opt to leave the company and receive a $1,000 peace-out lump sum plus one week’s worth of paid time.  How’s that for company loyalty.  I like really like the idea.  Don’t beat around the bush.  Get the employees who want to stay.  Boo-yah!  Read the article.

Resume TLC

When’s the last time that you updated your resume? Don’t tell me months! It’s about time to dust off that sheet of paper and see if it still resembles you. I suggest that you review your annual company accomplishments to see where it fits into your resume, include non-work accomplishments (e.g., webmaster for little league team or BLOGGING hahaha), try to keep it to a page although some say with over eight years of experience that you can creep into the two page range, and get feedback from your buddies. If you’re like me, you know that you’re doing good work, but don’t stop to think about what you’ve done.  Ask others around you to help point out your strengths and then see if your resume matches with what they say. Checks and balances with veto rights, yes!

Here are some websites that can help you get that resume back into shape:

• - 2500 Keywords to Get You Hired
  
• - Refresh your resume in 6 steps
• - Declutter your resume in 5 steps