Facial hair

Fathom? Jamie is the standard for ignorance. For yuck's, just go back thru old posts to see the garbage he claims. ...Jim Thompson

I remember a guy once famous at Seagate Technologies who rose to V.P while looking very much like a typical Santa Cruz hippy in the 80's while he was the primary interface to IBM in charge of technical issues. IBM loved him because of his brilliance and attention to remembering every detail. IBM ( aka big blue) seemed to overlook the long hair, jean jacket, ear rings and other stuff.

I think it only hurts if your brilliance does not shine through the obvious 1st impressions.

Post some good stuff, and we'll see.

You and Fields are such clucking old hens. You rarely mention electronics any more. How do you spend your time, sitting on a rocker on the porch, gossiping about the neighbors?

looking very much like a typical Santa Cruz hippy in the 80's while he was the primary interface to IBM in charge of technical issues. IBM loved him because of his brilliance and attention to remembering every detail. IBM (aka big blue) seemed to overlook the long hair, jean jacket, ear rings and other stuff.

impressions.

These days we'd call that kind of deliberate quirkiness part of your "personal branding".

looking very much like a typical Santa Cruz hippy in the 80's while he was the primary interface to IBM in charge of technical issues. IBM loved him because of his brilliance and attention to remembering every detail. IBM (aka big blue) seemed to overlook the long hair, jean jacket, ear rings and other stuff.

By the '80s, IBM had plenty of long-hairs of their own.They knew what they were all about and weren't scared of them. I knew dozens, in the '70s. OTOH, they weren't allowed in sales (another reason for the hair ;-).

impressions.

That's the problem. In an interview 1st impressions may be all you have. There usually isn't time for much else.

I live in Santa Cruz county. Most of the talent in the area looked rather non-mainstream. Weird was normal, while looking like an IBM sales person would have been considered rather unusual. Very few people wore a tie or suit. Long hair (when I had plenty of hair) was the norm. Incidentally, on a man, one earring is considered acceptable, but two means that he's gay.

I vaguely recall that Seagate also had some difficulties filtering prospective employees in the early 1980's. One person was hired directly by sales because he claimed to know important people, rubbed elbows with royalty, and claimed an impressive track record of past sales wins. By the time it came time for him to deliver, he had burned through a rather large expense account. Oddly, nobody bothered to verify his resume and claims. Sorry, but I couldn't find any links to the incident.

Most engineers clean up their appearance during the interview process. After they're hired is when the beards, earrings, strange attire, and oddities appear.

"Left is right, right is wrong, and two it's a girl".

A beard is an oddity? I didn't do anything special, other than wearing a suit (I always wear slacks and long-sleeved shirts, usually Oxfords).

More fantasies of murdering people that you don't like. I bet you're a scairdey-cat wuss in real life.

You seem to have given up electronics, too.

You notice how the Larkin fairy stayed out of the recent REAL circuit discussion fray ?:-)

Larkin is so lame... what an excuse for an engineer. ...Jim Thompson

Such as your and Fields unending whining?

I did this, design and layout, one weekend a couple months back, when I didn't have much better to do.

People are buying them.

Show us something that you've done lately... not some 8-transistor thing from 40 years ago.

I see what's coming as I age.

Jamie

But at least you acknowledge him as an engineer, you must be getting soft in your old age!

Jamie

JT has always been a redneck creep. Now he's just an old redneck creep.

e looking very much like a typical Santa Cruz hippy in the 80's while he wa s the primary interface to IBM in charge of technical issues. IBM loved hi m because of his brilliance and attention to remembering every detail. IBM (aka big blue) seemed to overlook the long hair, jean jacket, ear rings an d other stuff.

us 1st impressions.

Plan-B Get an ugly (or better yet - offensive) tattoo on your face or other highly noticeable body part and the facial hair will take back seat.

The problem is that bearded long hairs don't get along well with the stuffed shirts in suits. Fortunately, there's a solution. You need a UniSuit:

At one employer, the VP of engineering announce that from this day hence, all engineers shall "wear a tie to work". I took him literally. I put on a tie in the morning, drove to work, and immediately removed the tie. It was then that I discovered that his sense of humor did not extend to jokes at his expense. So, I switched to my fathers collection of clip on bow ties, all of which were terminally out of fashion. Since my father owned a lingerie factory, I made a few bow ties designed for maximum impact. It took a few months, but the company dress code was quietly dropped.

If anything, it's the reverse.

A few decades ago, a new manager closed down a lighting chess game that went on daily from about 11:30 to 1:00. Few people ever spent much more than their eight minutes at a game and maybe watched one or two games but the newbie manager thought it was unseemly. He then berated us for not working a "normal" schedule. That was easily fixed. It left weekends for my family, too. "I didn't mean you!" I hate breaking in new managers. They all think they know how to manage people. The worst ones are the ones who really think they do.